MORRO BAY,
Calif. -- Central coast cattlemen say
there's not enough corn to feed their livestock and your gas tank
too!
The price of
beef is going up and they say its trickling down to you at the supermarket.
Cattleman Dick Knock
has a kernel to pick with the ethanol industry.
"We got these ethanol
companies out there, outbidding," says Knock. "They ran the price of corn up
from $3 a bushel up to $8!"
He says the ethanol
companies are buying up all the corn leaving very little for everyone else.
"A lot of poultry went
out of business," says Knock. "A lot of feed lots are out of business. Packers
are suffering because they don't have enough cattle to kill and this is what
created it!"
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture predicts, the U.S. corn crop for 2013 to be 10.8 billion bushels
which is the lowest it's been for the past six years, causing fuel distributors
to feel the finch as well.
Distributors are
mandated to put at least 10% of ethanol in all their fuel further driving up the
costs.
"We don't need to be
putting corn in our gas tank!" says Knock.
And Knock says you'll
feel those costs the next time you shop at a grocery store.
"Meat is as high as
it's ever been in the grocery store because it costs so much to feed the animal
because corn costs so much!" says Knock.
Fuel distributors and
cattlemen say it doesn't help that the country is experiencing record drought
causing a deeper drop in corn production.
