John Phipps: The Holy Grail of the Midwest Lies in the Unknown 3rd Crop
USFR-Customer Support 4/29/23
U.S. Farm Report viewer Ron Gernhardt in Creswell, Oregon asks a question many of us have spent our lives pondering:
“I really enjoy the show even though the farms, practices, and crops talked about on your show are very different from that of western Oregon. I have seen a shift from grass seed to filbert trees and oil seed crops here. Are there other crops that could be grown to reduce the number of acres of corn and soybeans? We know supply and demand affect prices and recently have seen proof of that. Lower corn and soybean acres would also raise prices during normal times which is a constant topic on the show.”
Ron, the legendary "Third Crop" has been the Holy Grail for the huge number of corn and soy growers for my entire career. I was born just at the twilight of diversified farms in my part of the Midwest. Along with cattle and hogs we grew wheat, oats, and hay crops.
Like most other farms around us, economics, specialization, and labor gradually transformed our production into a corn-soybean rotation. Both agronomic and especially financial factors make virtually all other crops noncompetitive. The Midwest is just a great place to grow these crops and the profits have been sufficient along with significant government subsidies to keep alternatives limited to small acreages of specialty contract crops.
Remember too, there are some 180 million acres of corn and beans. If there were another economically viable choice, it would need a vast market to consume the output from all the acres that could shift. Even a few percent of acres switching to wheat, for example, could swamp that market.
Our infrastructure is now narrowly dedicated to the Big Two crops as well. Machinery and grain handling systems have been refined for peak efficiency for them. A new crop might not have any system to produce, receive, store or ship the output. This does not mean we aren’t trying for new choices, but to date, it has proven frustrating. We tried canola for few years, for example.
Changes in heat and precipitation might tweak the system, but so far it just seems to add more acres available for corn and soybeans. Maybe we’ll stumble onto an alternative, but don’t hold your breath.
