I don't think corn will keep getting cheaper. It may have been a good year for corn, but I'm sure that people will find out that it's cheaper to burn when they can't get pellets for their stoves. There may even be demand to eat it. Corn syrup is a sweetener. Sugar prices are up. That may drag corn up too.

Wood is one thing that isn't in short supply locally. The number of people burning it is still very low, while pellet stoves have really climbed in use. I can't wait until i'm able to burn wood.

Wood is getting more expensive. Even here in the most forested state in the nation a cord of dry hardwood is going for over $200, cut split, stacked and dumped in your yard. It's still worth over 200 gallons of heating oil which goes for a lot more. Wood is the way to go. It puts out such a nice heat too.

what are peoples opinions on the long term price of corn ( next 2-5 years ) and the availibility ? . Im looking into a corn stove .

IMO corn stoves only make any sense at all for farmers with a lot of acerage in corn, it gives them the flexibility to use corn as a heat sorce if the price is low. For anyone else corn is a horrible option, it is a feed supply for livestock, an exportible food item, even a source of corn bread ond tortia chips, but it has a low BTU content and if even a small percentage of the population buys a corn stove they will loose their fuel supply because there is not that much excess corn in the market.

i heard there was plenty of excess on the market . true, if there was a massive conversion it would be a problem, but that is unlikely to happen. i hear you can run a corn stove for 2.00 per day, and heat about 1500 sq feet.

My opinion is that corn heat will be economical and available for a long time. My corn stove is costing me about 20% of what I would be spending on propane. I would therefore continue to burn corn even if the cost of corn was 5 times higher.

Last year's US corn crop was 11.8 billion bushels. Use of corn for food and seed will only consume 2.7 billion bushels. I really doubt that the livestock producers and ethanol producers can afford to pay 5 times as much for corn so I'm first in line for the remaining 9.1 billion bushels.

9.1 billion bushels will heat 61 million homes at 150 bushels each so I don't see any near term shortages even being possible even given a massive conversion to corn heat.

http://www.msu.edu/user/hilker/outlook.htm

thanks pip, good info.

By the way, there's a little-known source of cordwood -- the National Forests and BLM land. You get a permit which allows you to cut a maximum of four cords and you pay only $5 per cord. You aren't allowed to cut for resale. I live next to the Mendocino National Forest and I rarely see people cutting firewood. Nobody seems to know about this source. People are paying $250 a cord for oak from private dealers here these days. Ridiculous!

People are also paying for the labor of Felling, cutting, and splitting the wood into useable size pieces.

Depends on your recources (not everyone has a real Truck), value of your time, and distance to legal/prime hardwood fuel source.

I would sugggest those with land pland hardwoods, you will be rewarded handsomly in the future for a small investment.

Do the environment a favor and clear out those pine Barrens.

in re: corn. there is so much excess of the stuff, that around here there are enormous dump piles of it in several parking lots just in our town alone. Low prices and no way to move it around (port of orleans) it has made it a frustrating year for corn famers around these parts anyway.

This year that may be the case, but world population is still growing and all those hungry mouths would be thrilled to get the corn currently going to waste because of infrastructure problems.

possibly, however I am in a rather heated discussion with another about the growing population and the feeding of those hungry mouths....otherwise known as third world food dumping. If push comes to shove, I think this country will allow itself to heat itself with corn while those hungry mouths are left to find their own way, or die trying.

But that is a topic for another day and another thread.

I think the biggest question is how peak oil will change agriculture. Assuming that we'll continue to produce anywhere near the amount we are currently may be a mistake. In the end, burning corn is biofuel. It took petroleum to make that corn, but the cost of corn doesn't reflect the cost of the petroleum that went into it. Yet.

At the very least, I'd choose one of those stoves that can burn more than one kind of fuel.

im pretty sure the corn stoves can burn other things. funny story, i was looking into being a distributor for corn stoves, and did some research, and called a few companies to find out the details. As it turns out, they are so far backlogged, they cant keep up with demand, and are not offering any more distributorships for the near future. Wow, looks like my 'great' idea is about a year too late. I had a feeling corn stoves would be a great seller , especially knowing about PO , and also what we all know what natural gas prices are going to continue to do. I was looking to capitalize on PO while the economy was still going. Oh well.