© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Business Beat: February 8, 2012

Iowa farmer Larry Stolte can store about 60 percent of his crop harvest, and is adding another 75,000 bushel grain bin this summer.
Kathleen Masterson
/
Harvest Public Media
Iowa farmer Larry Stolte can store about 60 percent of his crop harvest, and is adding another 75,000 bushel grain bin this summer.

This week: Farmers buying up grain bins to help play the market. Plus, how refineries in Kansas and Iowa could help find another source of bio fuel.

Across the corn belt, more farmers are putting up their own grain bins —giant, metal cylindrical storage silos.  In the past year alone, farmers nationwide have added some 300 million bushels of on-farm storage, up 2 percent from the previous year. 

Corn has been the engine behind the ethanol industry for years, and that food vs. fuel debate doesn't look to end anytime soon.  But as researchers work to unlock the biofuels potential in crop residue and other biomass, a refinery is being built in Kansas may help take the industry to another level.

 

Related Content