Corn & Soybean Commodity Distribution

A G R I C U L T U R E

University of Illinois

Todd E. Gleason, Farm Broadcaster
1301 W Gregory Dr, Rm75 MC710

College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences
Urbana, Illinois 61801

tgleason@illinois.edu
work (217) 333-9697

POPULATION NOTES

* 0001 - 200 million people on the planet

* 1800 - 1 billion people on the planet
- 300 man hours to produce 100 bushels wheat from
5 acres
- 1830 John Deere invented the STEEL PLOW

* 1850 - 1.2 billion people on the planet
- 90 man hours to produce 100 bushels corn from 2.5 acres
- McCormick Reaper
- first grain elevator

* 1927 - 2 billion people on the planet
- 20 man hours to produce 100 bushels corn from 2.5 acres
- Henry Wallace founded Pioneer Hi-Bred corn seed company in 1926
- barbed wire had fenced the west (cattle) thanks to Joseph Glidden - DeKalb, Illinois
' see Red Brand
- the Landrace hog breed was imported to the U.S. in 1934 from Denmark

* 1960 - 3 billion people on the planet
- electricity widely available across rural America
- Asia on the brink of starvation
- Dr. Norman Borlaug developed high yielding dwarf wheat & Green Revolution began
1970 Nobel Prize for Peace
- anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen plant food) & herbicides introduced

* 1975 - 4 billion people on the planet

- 3 man hours to produce 100 bushels of corn from 1 acre
- Soviet Union began importing grain
- gasoline lines in the United States
- land prices spikes, commodity prices doubled

* 1987 - 5 billion people on the planet
- land prices bottomed in the United States
- mid 1980's farm crisis (farmer suicide hotlines set up)
- 1985 first Farm Aid Concert at Memorial Stadium

* 1999 - 6 billion people on the planet
- the gene gun is created at Purdue
- GMO crops introduced in the mid-1990's
- Round Up Ready soybeans quickly adopted
- Bt Corn for European Corn Borer introduced

* 2011 - 7 billion people on the planet
- 2003 Bt Corn for Western Corn Rootworm
- Brazil over 10 years builds soybean production from very little to compete with U.S. effectively doubling available soybean supply
- 2014 record crop year with Illinois corn production expected to hit 200 bushels to the acre
- approximately 140,000 - 180,000 traditional (commercial) farmers in the United States
- 2014 - ~320 million people in the United States ~7.2 billion on the planet (population clock)

WHO IS THE AMERICAN FARMER

RICE | WHEAT | CORN | + SOYBEAN

* Staple Crops are produced regularly and in large quantities
* These are traded at the CME Group CBOT Exchange in Chicago
* Food, but it might be easier to think of each in terms of energy (protein as fuel)