Tag Archives: green
Farm Ground Prices Increasing
By Brandon Redmond Story Created: May 15, 2013 at 3:39 PM MDT Story Updated: May 15, 2013 at 11:15 PM MDT Twin Falls, Idaho ( KMVT-TV / KTWT-TV ) The price of farm land and farm real estate began increasing in 2011 but it increased even more in 2012. “Back in 2011 when the market was down, things started picking up a little bit and was has happened since now is commodity prices have actually increased which actually increases the farm prices,” said Mark Jones with Robert Jones Realty. The cost for farm real estate has risen twenty to twenty five percent over the past two years. But what does the future hold? “The only thing that I can do is predict what happened in the history. In 2007 the market was on another top of the bubble we would say and that time the commodity prices dropped out and in 2008 we hit, we started going down from farm prices from that point. At this point with our commodity prices still looking fairly good in 2013, we see the prices staying fairly strong for the good quality farm ground,” said Mark Jones. But if commodity prices drop, then the potential is there for farm ground prices to decrease. If you are looking to buy farm real estate, you should contact an agent and get on their list. “The ground that we have. We are low on inventory and they get sold very quickly if they are priced correctly,” said Mark Jones. Jones also told us that now is a great time to sell farm ground. Continue reading
Prices for Farmland Show Moderation
By MARK PETERS The rise in prices for agricultural land slowed somewhat to start the year in parts of the U.S. Farm Belt, new reports showed, signaling a boom in land values might be moderating as commodity prices cool and incomes for farmers are expected to weaken. The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank said in a report Wednesday that prices for nonirrigated farmland in its region rose 3.4% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2012. That was much slower than the 7.7% quarter-to-quarter increase recorded for the same region a year earlier. A separate report from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank also released Wednesday showed that land values in parts of the Midwest and Southeast regions fell by an average of 2.3% in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter. Analysts cautioned against making too much of a single quarter. And even with those slower rates, values for nonirrigated farmland in the Kansas City district, which stretches from western Missouri to Wyoming, have soared a total of 19.3% over the past year to record levels, the bank said. More information will come on Thursday in a report expected from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, whose region includes several of the biggest corn-growing states in the upper Midwest. Economists have been watching farmland values closely, with some voicing concern about a possible bubble, as farmers have plowed the money from a record run-up in commodity prices back into the land. A low interest-rate environment has exacerbated the situation, making the rising farmland more attractive for farmers seeking better returns on their money. But signs of a slowdown are emerging. The benchmark corn contract has fallen more than 20% from records set last summer as federal forecasters predict a record corn crop this autumn. Farmers’ costs also are increasing, especially for key goods such as seed and fertilizer, the Kansas City Fed said. On Wednesday, tractor maker Deere DE -4.40% & Co. forecast net cash income for U.S. farmers will fall 9.5% to $122.7 billion in 2013. But executives added that farmers should be able to withstand lower incomes because debt levels aren’t rising, even after big investments in land and equipment in recent years. “You see in the U.S. very strong farmer balance sheets, despite what’s been happening with land prices,” said Deputy Financial Officer Marie Ziegler. Nathan Kauffman, an economist with Kansas City Fed, said it will take a few quarters to determine whether the first quarter’s “modest” slowdown marks a fundamental shift in the farmland market or a short-term ebb. Bill Davis, chief credit officer at Farm Credit Services of America, said the agricultural lender saw a flurry of sales at the end of 2012 as farmers sold land ahead of tax increases that took effect this year. And while sales continue in farm states such as Iowa and Nebraska, the surge in prices hasn’t. “We have seen things level off in the first quarter,” he said. Bankers surveyed by for the Kansas City Fed’s latest report said debt levels for farmers generally remain manageable. But they noted that young farmers and those who are expanding operations face rising debt levels. The Fed bank has warned that farmers historically have increasingly turned to debt to continue capital investments even as incomes decline, which can magnify problems in a downturn. —Bob Tita contributed to this article. Write to Mark Peters at mark.peters@dowjones.com A version of this article appeared May 15, 2013, on page A2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Prices for Farmland Show Moderation. Continue reading
Scientists Develop ‘Green’ Pretreatment Of Miscanthus For Biofuels
Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating Miscanthus in the biofuel production process. “We pretreat the biomass with switchable butadiene sulfone in the presence of water to break down the plant cell wall, which consists of cellulose, hemicellulose , and lignin, the source of biofuels and value-added products,” said Hao Feng, a U of I professor of food science and human nutrition who also has extensive research experience with biofuels. The new technique is a green alternative to current industry practices because butadiene sulfone can be recovered at potentially high yields since the solvent’s decomposition gases are also the raw materials for its production. This means that butadiene sulfone can be re-used after pretreatment, he added. The commercial availability for both production and recovery of this chemical should allow for a transfer of these operations into a biorefinery , Feng said. “It’s a big advantage in terms of both economy and environmental impact,” he added. The current chemical pretreatment process uses relatively harsh conditions to break down the tough structure of grass and other biomass. Enzymes are then used to release the sugars that are converted to fuels through a fermentation process , Feng explained. “These chemicals not only produce compounds that are toxic to fermenting microorganisms, they often result in by-products that have negative environmental impact,” he said. Why is this new solvent so important? “Pretreatment is the most expensive step in the production of biofuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass,” said J. Atilio de Frias, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in the Feng laboratory. According to de Frias, butadiene sulfone has the unique ability to “switch” in equilibrium to 1,3-butadiene and sulfur dioxide at relatively low temperatures, forming sulfurous acid in the presence of water. Using this relatively inexpensive and recoverable chemical to pretreat biomass in one step under mild conditions is definitely a step in the right direction, he said. “At temperatures ranging from 90ºC to 110ºC, the sulfurous acid hydrolyzes hemicellulose. Then butadiene sulfone helps to solubilize lignin with most of the cellulose preserved for downstream enzymatic hydrolysis,” he explained. The scientists said their data shows promise for the separation of hemicellulose and lignin and for the preservation of cellulose. They were able to remove up to 58 percent of lignin and 91 percent of hemicellulose and preserved 90 to 99 percent of cellulose. Feng said that this is the first time that this solvent has been successfully used as a pretreatment in biofuel production. “We look forward to its testing and adoption by biofuel manufacturers that are working with Miscanthus and other biomass crops,” he said. Read more at: http://phys.org/news…ofuels.html#jCp Continue reading
