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Ethanol helps a Wisconsin farmer make up for low corn prices

A Wisconsin farmer says the low prices paid for corn are less painful thanks to ethanol production.

Cal Dalton farms near Endeavor, Wisconsin, and tells Brownfield he’s one of more than 800 owners of United Wisconsin Grain Producers, which makes fuel alcohol in nearby Friesland.  “If you’ve got ownership in an ethanol plant, lower price corn is not the worst thing, especially with ethanol prices over two dollars a gallon now.”

Dalton says getting involved in the UWGP plant was a good financial move for his farm. “You can sell when corn is below cost if it looks like you’re going to make some money because the ethanol plant kind of makes up the difference between four-dollar corn and five-dollar corn.”

Dalton says investing in the ethanol plant has helped his bottom line.

The United Wisconsin Grain Producers facility annually produces 62 million gallons of ethanol, 2.3 million gallons of crude corn oil, 31,000 tons of A+ProYeast, and 110,000 tons of distillers’ grain.