Kill Bill

In today's movie, Bill is played by a Wisconsin dairy
farmer, while the role of Uma Thurman (Beatrix Kiddo)
is depicted by an Iowa cornstalk.

Remember that graphically violent sequence in "Kill Bill"
in which Beatrix uses her Samurai sword much the way that
the rest of us might use a Cuisinart food processor to slice,
dice, and chop up a brigade of modern-day Japanese Ninja
warriors?

After her exhausting battle against mere men, Beatrix must
then summon the energy to fight the most skilled of Samurai
swordswomen, and she does so with precision.

The dairy industry is suffering badly, and just when it
seemed as if nothing could get worse, a nightmare of epic
proportions has emerged for milk producers.

On average, cows are often milked two or three times daily,
and in order for each hormone-injected Holstein to produce
50 or more pounds of milk each day, they must also eat...
A LOT! Traditionally, feed costs have been quite low, but
the dairyman's party is over. The price of corn is about
to soar higher than an elephant's eye, "an' it looks
like its climbin' clear up to the sky."

Why will the price of corn soar?

Because competition for America's corn crop will fuel
such a rise.

Got Ethanol?

In an attempt to have Americans forget about the most offensive
foreign policy since the Tet Offensive, George Bush and his
advisors have devised a plan that will solve global warming and
America's energy crisis in one small step. It all boils down to
corn.

Corn growers have struck oil with this new methanol fad, but
dairy farmers will never again be able to purchase feed corn
for their cows at traditionally low prices.

This past year, more than five bushels of corn per American
were processed to manufacture ethanol fuel. That represents
approximately fifteen percent of the national corn crop.
In 2007, America's appetite for ethanol will require some
2 billion bushels of corn, and the numbers should double
every year for the next score of years. More than 100
factories have been constructed to convert corn into fuel,
and many more on the way. The cows may still eat corn,
but at a much greater price to dairymen.

In the recent past, dairy farmers were paying $2.00 per
bushel for corn. This year, 2007 March corn futures
represent a near doubling of that price at $3.70.

As more fuel-efficient cars drive on America's roads, so
too will the price of cow feed be driven to record prices
which threaten to bankrupt many a dairy operation.

This is good news for many small family farms which grow
their own corn and do not rely upon the open market for
feed, but keep an eye on America's weather. One bad
season will spell disaster for those tiny family farms.

Corn is now being converted into ethanol, and ethanol
production is being subsidized by a nation that needs
to produce good news in one form or another to consumers.
Ethanol is George Bush's political answer. The market is
so complicated, and one economist's theory becomes another's
political expediency. Will ethanol represent the Bush
administration's Domino Theory?

All that corn coupled with all that ethanol and all
of those impossible-to-support dairy cows? As dairy farms
go out of business, unable to support their operations
as a factor of increased feed costs, more and more dairy
cows will be sold to meat processors.

Sounds as if America is due for one very giant bar-b-cue.

What will be the fuel of choice? Why, ethanol, of course!

In last evening's State of the Union address, President
Bush said, "...{W}e must increase the supply of alternative
fuels, by setting a mandatory Fuels Standard to require 35
billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 â€"
this is nearly five times the current target."

Whether or not you believe that this represents a whole
lot of corn or a whole lot of bull, one thing remains
clear. Either the cows eat, or the people drive.

"The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree,
And an ol' Weepin' Willer is laughin' at me."

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...