Colorado’s new gold rush

Corn is becoming the new cash cow for farmers.

Statewide and nationwide, farmers plan to plant more corn this year than ever to meet demand for the gasoline additive ethanol.

Corn planted in Colorado this spring will increase by 25 percent over last year, to 1.5 million acres, estimates Bernie Lange, spokesman for the Colorado Corn Growers Association.

“That’s probably the largest planting season since 1930,” he said.

Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects a record 90.5 million acres of corn to be planted, a 15 percent increase over 2006.

Ethanol, a clear liquid alcohol, can be made from feed corn, sugar beets, sugar cane and brewing waste, but in the United States it most often is produced from corn. After corn kernel is mashed and fermented, the distilled product gets mixed with gasoline to create a cleaner-burning fuel.

State and federal government initiatives to reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil and increase use of alternative fuels are fueling demand for ethanol. Demand jumped 33 percent last year to 5.4 billion gallons, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. But the nation’s 114 ethanol refineries produced only 4.86 billion gallons last year.

Eighty more plants are being built, including a 105-million-gallon capacity refinery in Yuma. Colorado has two large-scale refineries on line, in Windsor and Sterling, that both produce about 82 million gallons of ethanol a year. Smaller refineries are in Eads and at Coors brewery in Golden.

Colorado is one of several states that requires all gasoline to contain 10 percent ethanol to reduce carbon monoxide emissions. Across the nation, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline is sold as E85 for vehicles that can use the flexible fuel.

“It’s exciting we’re producing a product that’s homegrown, renewable, cleaner burning and that promotes energy independence,” Lange said.

Colorado’s northeast and southeast counties are the state’s biggest corn producers, according to the USDA. El Paso County has few commercial corn growers.

Heavy spring moisture delayed this year’s planting season in southeastern Colorado, so farmers are just getting their crop in the ground.

“We traditionally would have started planting a few weeks ago, but we’ve been experiencing the wettest winter and spring in our history in Prowers County, so the soil has been too wet to get the corn into the fields,” said Holly farmer Doug Melcher.

Many Colorado farmers are moving away from wheat, sugar beets or alfalfa because corn is becoming a more lucrative crop, Lange said.

“We’ve seen prices as high as $4.50 a bushel, which is 100 percent higher than it’s been for the last 30 to 40 years,” Lange said, “but it won’t sustain that level as more growers plant corn.”

Farmers like Melcher say they appreciate the higher prices, even if they are predicted to flatten as more corn is pumped into the market, and as new sources for making ethanol, such as wood chips and switch grass, become available.

“Farmers have been losing money over the past five years from the decrease in prices. This will make them less dependent on government subsidy programs to make a living,” said Melcher, vice president of the board of the Colorado Corn Growers Association.

The Energy Department expects corn prices to remain slightly below $4 a bushel — well above the 1995-2005 average of $2.47 a bushel.

Colorado’s dry and sometimes harsh weather makes it difficult to grow corn here, Lange said. Even so, corn ranks as the state’s secondleading crop behind hay.

“Colorado is considered a corn deficit state because we don’t produce enough for the demand,” he said. “It takes more water than other crops.”

Ethanol production is not affecting livestock food supply because only one-third of the corn kernel is used to make ethanol; the remaining cob is shipped to feed yards for cattle, pigs and chicken, Lange said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.com