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Closest ethanol plant is 15 miles away. About 6-7 are within 75 miles. Got one of the larger ghog feeders located 15 miles from me too, large feed mill, truck over 3-4 states with feed. They are really lobbying govt on the ethanol too, how bad it is for them. Couple things on the livestock feeder folks. Just 5 years ago, if you looked at ag forums like this, the livestock folks were chuckling, saying they would never stoop to raising grains, when they can buy them for less than it costs to produce from the dumb grain farmers. Why worry about grain, when it is so cheap? Well - that is often the best time to worry; either the grain farmers will go out of business, or they will find a way to raise the prices & stay in busness. Duh. Didn't see the hog place (which is well run & a pretty good company, locally owned, nothing bad to say about them) ever care when corn was $1.42 a bu and way below the cost of production - they didn't offer to pay more to keep corn farmers in business..... The ethanol plants around me were built with farmer coops - farmers pooling their money & building mostly with their own risk & dollar bills. That one closest to me is one of the first. Now some of the ethanol companies are building around me. But most are still farmer owned coops. I am not a part of any of them, and I raise some cattle myself. But I have nothing but respect for the ethanol business, those folks did it the hard way, when the ones now complaining were sitting on the sidelines chuckling. If they got help from the govt, they worked for it while others sat & laughed.... Grains & corn are not really high priced because of the ethanol plants, tho that is the popular thing said on TV. The rest of the world has a good ecconomy while the USA has a poor dollar value, making our grains a good buy. People in the Pasific Rim feel more wealthy & are willing to spend their money on our grain. South America is having ecconomic problems & not able to keep up with grain demand for the monent. Ethanol is only a very small part of the big picture. More power to the ethanol industry - they deserve their rewards. My soapbox for the day. :) Where are you located? --->Paul
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