Aug 15, 2007 12:06 am US/Central
Life On The Farm: Eye On The Sky
by Bill Hudson
(WCCO)
As it turns out summer on the Schwarz farm is not so different from summer in the city.
Sure, their garden is bigger but their daily routine is pretty familiar.
"We go to daycare, and we play with kids at daycare," explains 8-year-old Allison Schwarz. "Then when we come home, and Mom makes supper."
There is one big difference. This family from Le Sueur, Minn. pays close attention to weather.
"You wish you had a little more rain than you had," said Joan Schwarz. "Although you like to have the nice weather, so there's tradeoffs, but I think things are going well."
In June, hail destroyed nearby crops.
"It was close," recalls 11-year-old Tom Schwarz. "But we didn't get any. We were lucky."
"Just probably two miles north and east of here, it's a complete loss," Greg Schwarz said. "So sometimes you're better to be lucky than good."
Greg Schwarz can't control the weather. That's why he focuses on what he can control.
"There is your income for the year, so it's up to you to take care of it," he said.
In 1995, Greg Schwarz was one of the founding members of Heartland Corn Products, a farmer-owned ethanol co-op in Winthrop, Minn.
When the plant began, it produced about 10 million gallons of ethanol each year. Now Heartland makes 10 times that amount now.
"When we take corn and make ethanol out of it, we don't take all of the food value out of it," said Ben Brown, the co-op's CEO. "Much of that goes back into the livestock. We simply take the starch out. The proteins, the minerals are still there and still go back into the livestock production business."
Farmers are required to deliver corn three times a year. How much corn depends on the number of co-op shares the farmer owns.
"Well, they bring corn into the ethanol plant, and we dump it here," said Greg Schwarz, as he points to a grate in the floor. "It's taken into the holding silos which are right outside the door here."
The sound of corn falling into storage bins may as well be the sound of money. Turning corn into fuel has proven profitable for Heartland's 850 members.
"Ever since our inception," said Brown. "We've been able to pay more to producers for their corn by marketing it as ethanol rather than as feed, yes."
The finished product looks like water.
"This is 200-proof alcohol," said Greg Schwarz. "It is un-denatured, so it's right out of the still."
There's one step left because authorities don't want anyone drinking ethanol.
"We add the gasoline so people can't drink it," Greg Schwarz explains.
Back on the farm, the wind whips stalk against stalk. In a year where others' corn has been beat up by hail and deprived of rain, Greg Schwarz can't believe his is growing so well.
"I don't know what more I could ask for in this crop. It's looking as good as it could be," he said.
The crop
was looking as good as it could be. Last Saturday's storm flattened a third of the Schwarz' corn crop. It's still in good shape, but it will take twice as long to harvest.
Greg Schwarz reacts to this setback in his usual even manner.
"We can't lose something we never had," he said. "We don't have this crop harvested yet."
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