So much = $0.25-0.50. I’ve heard some quotes as high as $1 an ear.
A bushel of corn is about $3.60, which is 56 pounds.
At some rural farm supply stores, a 50 lb bag of feed corn for livestock is $6-8.
So why is an ear $0.25 or more (usually a bit more, closer to $0.50), when a 50 lb bag of corn is $7? The bag of corn requires extra processing over the ear of corn. Plus with an ear of corn, only a % of the weight of the corn is actual kernels.
Supposedly there are 60 ears of corn in a bushel. That works out to $0.06 an ear straight from the farm.
Are there added costs other than transportation to the market?
I am not a farmer nor a cornologist, BUT my wife is a Nebraska Corn Huskers fan, so that might be worth…nothing.
ANYway, my WAG is that most corn produced is cheap low grade feed. The small percentage of corn meant for human consumption probably has a higher bulk price.
Now I’m sure someone will come in and tell me how wrong I am.
Because an ear of corn on the cob is a fragile perishable fresh vegetable, while field corn is a durable staple.
All the extra cost is due to carefully harvesting and packing and shipping fresh produce. Field corn you run a combine over the field, kernels go into the hopper and waste blows out the other end, and then it’s stored and transported as a bulk material.
Still cost the same to transport and stock and display as any other product. Not sayin’ that accounts for that. Also it’s a low cost high popularity item so good to display, so ‘they’ can make some money while appearing to sell it dirt cheap.
With the known cost of production posted here it sort of makes sense why corn ethanol can make some sense.
Yeah … sweet corn is a different variety and it does require extra care to grow and harvest … animal fodder is bred to allow mechanical processing and who cares what it tastes like … with sweet corn you have to walk your field every few days just picking the ripe ears … it might be done differently at commercial levels but those operations are not all that abundant … Iowa Cornfield National Park is basically all pig food …
I read a funny thing somewhere on the internet long ago–American living in rural France was trying to give his friends a real Thanksgiving feast. He insisted on making corn (don’t remember how prepared) despite the skepticism of the French. Of course it turned out he’d bought feed corn, and it was horrible.
Right. Dent or Field corn is used to make corn meal and corn oil, it’s not sweet corn. Sure we eat it in corn bread and many other foods, but not straight. The yield per acre for Dent corn is about 8-10 times higher than sweet.
Sorry, no cite, but I once read that less than 5% of all corn grown in the U.S. is consumed by humans in any form (corn on the cob, canned corn, corn oil, corn flakes, corndogs, etc). The vast majority is feed corn and ethanol.
Anyway, isnt the answer to any question like “Why is XXX so expensive when it only costs XXX dollars to make” almost always “supply and demand”.?
