Brazil Is Coming For American Corn

About this episode

You can't out-yield your way to profit anymore, so Will Cannon is chasing margin with 2 or 3 bucks an acre of homemade compost instead of $40 an acre of bugs in a jug. Two Iowa corn farmers came to the barn this week: Will, an Iowa Corn Growers director from near Prairie City, and Paul Gieselman, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, from near Morning Sun. Will has run cover crops on 100 percent of his acres for about 18 years. He has seen 0 to 10 bushels back from his compost, and 50 on one tough spot. Paul got out of hogs in 1998, farmed on his dad's money for 10 years, and went out on his own in 2008. Today he runs just under 1,000 acres and 25 British White Park cows. And Japan is now the number 2 buyer of American corn, behind only Mexico. Then Paul said the hard part out loud. He has watched a lot of his equity drain away, and if either of his boys came home today there would not be room for them. He doesn't figure he'll be the one doing the consolidating. He figures he's the one getting consolidated. Will sees the other side: the biggest handoff of farm assets in peacetime history, and real opportunity 5 to 7 years out for young guys who stay patient. Also in this o