Stuff has to Come from Somewhere, Even if it's Biorenewable

 Corn - The Swiss Army Knife of the U.S.

Hello everyone! I am back at it for my second blog of the year, and I think I have some very interesting topics for you to hear about! Today, we are going to be talking about anything and everything related to farming! Here in the US, farming is extremely important. However, the ways it is conducted are vastly different. I'm here to show you a couple of different practices for farming in the United States, and I think you'll be surprised by how interesting they actually are!

When you hear the term farming, it is most common to think about corn. Corn is the most grown crop here in the US, so that's what we'll be focusing on today. In order for me to tell you anything about corn, you first must understand how it is produced. Corn is an annual monoculture crop, which means a cornfield is strictly a cornfield, and there is one harvest per year. The first step in growing corn is soil preparation. Here in America, this can be done in a multitude of ways. It usually involves a tractor with some sort of plow behind it. The next step is to actually plant the seeds, which is done almost immediately once the frost is out of the ground. Corn is usually planted no shallower than two inches, which allows for the maximum yield. After the seeds are planted, fertilizing is the farmers' next step. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are essential ingredients for corn to thrive, and depending on what type of soil a farmer has, the farmer can strategize for how much fertilizer they spread. Some farmers spread fertilizer in the fall, whereas this scenario has them doing it in the spring. Lots of farmers spread fertilizer in the spring last year because they feared it would cost much more in the spring, which it did. Weed control takes up the majority of the summer for farmers, as they focus on killing any weeds or pests through the use of pesticides and herbicides. Some farmers may use mechanical tillage to get between rows as well, but it isn't the most common practice. Some farmers may rely on irrigation to water their crops water, but where I am in Minnesota it is very uncommon and expensive. After the long summer months of waiting around, corn is usually ready to be harvested around October 1st. A combine harvester picks the corn from the field, and then it is transported using either wagons or a semi-truck. The corn is then either sold directly to a co-op or elevator or stored in grain bins to wait for a better price. I know this process may seem overwhelming, but many farmers have cultivated their lives around it. The world cannot run without corn, and if this process isn't followed, we may be in for some bad days ahead!

Now that I have your attention in regards to corn, let me tell you what it is used for. First off, corn has a very high starch content, closing in at roughly 62%. This high starch content allows for users to easily convert corn into biofuels and bioproducts, which is a great use of corn. The leaves on the corn plant can also be used as a biofuel feedstock, which means majority of the plant doesn't go to waste. Besides being used for biofuel and bioproducts, the biggest use of corn in America is feed. The graphic below says that nearly 40% of U.S. corn is used for feed, which is over 5,750,000,000 bushels. This feed is then broken down by animals, where you can see cattle are by far the biggest user of corn. Hogs and poultry also consume a copious amount of corn, but being that their appetites are smaller, they cannot compete with the combined force of beef and dairy cows. Now that we have the two main uses of corn in the US out of the way, we begin to see a pretty steep dropoff. Exports are our third main use, which helps bring a lot of money into our economy. A very small portion of it is used as food or something similar, but that is a different type of corn. As you can see, corn has a plethora of uses here in the US. Feeding our animals and ethanol are the two main ones, but they are both extremely important. Did you think this would be the case or did you have a different idea? 

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As the reader, I hope it is clear to you now how important corn not only is to the US, but also for the world. However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows in the corn industry, and farmers have had to deal with many problems over the years. Back in the 1930s, the United States witnessed one of the worst events for farming: The Dust Bowl. Poor farming conditions were a main cause of that, which is why farmers are now much more careful with how they treat their land. Soil quality, water quality, fossil fuel use, and extreme chemicals are just some things that are always in the back of a farmers mind. However, many techniques have now been implemented to make sure this never happens again. Crop rotation, cover crops, and conservation tillage are just a few, but I'm hear to show you how important they truly are! First off, lets look at crop rotation. This is the practice where you do not grow the same crop on the same field back-to-back. Here in Minnesota, many farmers use this technique as corn-soybeans-alfala, which give the soil plenty of time to rejuvinate itself. This partially method helps to reduce erosion, improve soil quality, and even improve the wildlife in the area. Next we can focus on cover crops. This is a practice where a farmer will plant another crop in order to cover the ground through winter. Winter rye, oats, and alfalfa are the most common examples in Minnesota, and they provide a variety of benefits for farmers. Redused eroison, increased nutrients, and an increased soil infilitration are the main reasons a farmer would plant a cover crop, which is why many Minnesota farmers perform this practice. Lastly, we will take a peak into the different types of tillage, as we compare the differences between conventional and conservational tillage. The first picture below is an example of conservational tillage called strip tilling, in which only a small part of the ground is torn up and planted into. The bottom picture is a conventional tillage method called ripping, which is where all the dirt is tore up. The bottom picture is much more common, but the top picture provides a variety of benefits the other one doesn't. Strip tillage leaves a lot of the residue on the surface, which means reduce water loss and reduced soil eroison. With this practice, a variety of nutrients and water stay in the soil that would otherwise leave it. 

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As I hope you can see, I am quite fascinated by how corn fuels the United States. As I outlined before, corn is an essential part of the bioproducts scene here in the US, and it's important to know how it's grown and what we are doing to better improve that growth process. It is capable of being used in so many different ways, and farmers are continuing to improve on how we can get more and more corn. The more corn produced, the better off the American people are. The problem is producing more corn in a way that doesn't hurt our environment, which is something we are working on as well. Thank you for taking the time to read my newest blog post, and I cannot wait to share my next findings with you! 

https://agricultureloan.com/grown-crops-us/

https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/corn-planting-depth.html#:~:text=Key%20Points%201%20Planting%20corn%20around%202%20inches,consistent%20seedbed%20and%20improving%20seed-to-soil%20contact.%20More%20items

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