Giant, sausage-shaped white bags are turning up on grain farms across the Midwest. With rail delays causing farmers to store crops longer, and prices declining, the football field-sized polyethylene containers "allow farmers to store millions of bushels of
corn and soybeans at a fraction the cost of conventional silos and far
more efficiently than leaving grain in the open air," Karl Plume reports for Reuters. They could also help them delay sales until prices improve.
"With many bins still overflowing with last year's
crop in the world's top grain grower, farmers are snapping up these
systems as a practical necessity ahead of bumper harvests, and as a
safeguard against another winter of railroad delays," Plume writes. "They may also be a sign that farmers will not be
rushed into dumping their harvests quickly. Prices for corn to be
harvested in autumn have tumbled as much as 18 percent so far this year,
leaving growers hoping for a rebound."
"The systems also represent the latest front in an
ongoing power struggle in the rural heartland between farmers, who want
more say in how and when their crops are sold, and merchants such as
Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge Ltd., who control the main arteries of
trade," Plume writes.
The bags are cheaper and keep crops in better condition than tarpaulins, Plume writes. "The white outside
reflects the sun's heat while the inner layer is black, acting as a
barrier to sunlight and helping maintain a lower-than-ambient
temperature inside. The cost of storage in a single-use bag is around 5 to 7 cents per bushel, plus charges for loading and unloading equipment, which together can
come to anywhere between $60,000 and $160,000." (Read more)
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