Column: Land use

By Scott Walker, M.D.

Dear Neighbors,

“Submitted for your approval:” (who else remembers Rod Serling?  Boy, that was some good writing!)  The reason most farmers go with corn and beans is because it’s the best payday out there.  All agreed?

Submitted for your approval:  Family farms, and even many large farms, are just barely making it. 

Growing corn yields a gross revenue of about $750 an acre, per year.  If you’re doing better than that, wonderful!  But the UW-Extension service estimates the cost of growing an acre of corn this year at $1,017.  You can’t lose $265 an acre too many years in a row and expect to keep farming.  

Farming does not provide a very high standard of living, and it’s only doing that much with the help of government payments and ethanol requirements for gasoline.  Without those two things, corn farming would not be profitable. 

Submitted for your approval:  Corn is not wonderful for the soil.  Its shallow roots and high metabolic and moisture needs result in more soil depletion and contributes less to erosion resistance than many other plants.

Submitted (I’ll stop saying that now.  But if you haven’t already, do go back and watch some Twilight Zone episodes.)   Maybe it’s time to look away from corn.  Fine to say, but the bank still wants its money every month, right?  

Then, there’s taxes, and oh, wouldn’t it be nice to put food on the table?  It’s hard to look away from corn.  Hard, but not impossible. 

Consider the alternatives.  If you want to plant the ground for grazing, count on $400 per acre in seed and soil preparation the first year, and about $40 per acre subsequently.  Grazing might yield $40 per acre if you rent it out.  Even if landowners had a grant for the initial soil preparation and planting, the grazing only covers its own costs.  Not adequate.

What about wind turbines?  A wind turbine doesn’t much care what goes on around it.  Graze, grow alternative crops (you know about Kernza?), or even grow corn if you think the government is going to keep subsidizing corn farmers.  

Best estimates are that the largest of wind turbines require 80 acres, and utilities lease that land for about $16,000 per turbine.  

There are downsides to wind farms, it’s true, but I’m not sure they outweigh $200 per acre lease payment. 

Any farmer receiving a $200 an acre lease fee would likely be ready to consider a soil-building ground cover that may or may not produce revenue, but does build the soil.  Wind turbines provoke strong feelings — both for and against — and we need to have those conversations.  All I’ve heard from either side so far is one-sided (and isn’t that the definition of propaganda?), and I want to hear the issue honestly debated.

The same holds true, only more so for solar power panels.  The downside is more obvious, so I expect the rents would be higher, but I want to hear the debate.  Higher rents (“$300 to $3,000 per acre” in Wisconsin, according to YSG Solar) probably means louder, more passionate debate; nonetheless, let’s get experts out here to explain their views of the pros and cons.  

We have a wonderful Performing Arts Center, let’s use it!