How much does a corn machine cost ... alot!

Kyle, my son-in-law, who I really like and admire had an interested question today from Champaign IL ... where corn is king! How much does a John Deere combine cost.

It must be a lot since I have had trouble tracking down the exact price on the internet.  I checked one of the biggest JD dealer in western KY, Roeder Implement in Hopkinsville.  Their website refers you to the JD website where you have to jump through some hoops to get a price ... so lets go used ...

A slightly used JD combine from Roeder ... a 9670 STS with 500 hours of use is listed 245,000 dollars without a grain table ...

http://www.roederimpl.com/index.cfm?show=10&mid=26


30' grain table for harvesting soybeans ... used ... add 30,000 dollars ... an another 30,000 for a corn head brings our used total to 300,000 dollars.

 http://www.ksgrains.com/kcc/talkingpts.html



I said on the phone at least a quarter of a million dollars, but for a new combine ... I am most certainly too low ... I better estimate would be 350,000 - 500,000 depending on the model and size of the grain table and corn head.  Makes me not want to get back into that kind of farming!  I am not sure where the pict above is from but I use to love combining wheat ... that was a long time ago and not with a 30' grain table.

However, corn is 7 dollars a bushel and around Champaign they are most certainly harvesting 200 bu / Acre corn ... for a gross amount of 1400 dollars an acre ... 1000 acres, a very small hobby farm there ... 1.4 million dollars less expenses ... fertilizer is high, fuel is high, Pioneer corn seed (transgenic - round-up ready and the BT gene ... another post later)  is high ... and equipment ... well,  a just a combine let alone is a lot but, add a couple of tractors, no-till planter, sprayer ... trucks, wagons and tillage equipment ... well, I said 1000 A. would be very small.

What is driving 7 dollar corn and 13 dollar soybeans ... I believe ethanol and alternative fuels mandates with weather problems, but, mostly ethanol ... don't worry about your corn flakes though ... according to the Kansas Corn Commission, the cost of the corn in your box of corn flakes is about 12 cents at $7/bu corn.  You could argue that the real problem is feeding cows, pigs and chicken.  Those farmers are feeling a squeeze even if they are using the bi-product from ethanol production for feed ... oh, I forgot ... we ship a lot of that to China ... figure! (Walmart boycott continues here!)  We could all do with less meat in our diet!  Certainly me!

I know sugar cane is much more efficient ... we study anaerobic respiration in detail! ... but, we don't raise sugar cane.  I am all for alternative fuels ... mandates included ... and you know why!  The sooner we are freed from foreign oil the sooner we get back to being the country I want to live in!

Thanks Kyle for the interesting question today ... I have not bought equipment for over 25 years ... besides my 10' bushhog ... and it cost enough!