E-15......

[wiredgeorge]

In our part of the country at the line just south of the Hill Country, field corn, sorghum, cotton are rotated. Some folks plant sunflowers.

[Falcon67]

Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog

I guess if I was too concerned about gas mileage, I would have kept my F150 with the Ecoboost V6 which gave me 10 mpg towing and 22 mpg unloaded on the highway. Instead, I have a brand new 7.3L (445 cubic inch) big block V8 that gets 16 mpg on the highway and as yet unknown towing mileage……

501 mile round trip from west Texas to Ardmore OK and back, 21,460 total lbs, average 7.6 MPG. F-350 DRW 7.3L. I get around 12 normally unloaded. The 2021 F-150 3.5 EcoBoost gets 19, around 6.5 towing the 220RD. Truck+race trailer+truck+RV = right at $390 fuel for the trip.

And a PS - as said before, I have no issues with 87 pump fuel +10% in anything. Lately I tend to treat every 5 gallons with Sta-Bil because it may sit a bit, depending. Every small engine here - weed eater, zero turn, quads, generators, etc - use the same pump fuel. For years. No problems. I see no need to pay any premium for ethanol free fuel.

Alcohol is for drinkin' and racin', gasoline is for washin' parts LOL

[vampress_me]

Danny and George - I’m with you. Grew up farming and many times dad and I would go out in the field and pick ears for supper when mom didn’t have enough sweet corn that was bought in town. I obviously do not have a sophisticated palate because I could not tell the difference between the true sweet corn and our own field corn at the time. Still can’t. Last summer our neighbor gave us some of his sweet corn and field corn to eat. He did tell us some of the ears were field corn as a warning in case we didn’t want it, but told him I’ve always eaten it so no worries. But, I’m also the kid that loved to eat wheat straight out of the ear when it was not quite ripe yet and still just a tiny bit juicy. Yummy!

To keep this comment somewhat on track. As far as I’m concerned, ethanol and biodiesel are 2 evil things that should never have been invented. Or, if they had to be invented, they should never have been used in any vehicle. They are only good for political grandstanding.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by vampress_me

Danny and George - I’m with you. Grew up farming and many times dad and I would go out in the field and pick ears for supper when mom didn’t have enough sweet corn that was bought in town. I obviously do not have a sophisticated palate because I could not tell the difference between the true sweet corn and our own field corn at the time. Still can’t. Last summer our neighbor gave us some of his sweet corn and field corn to eat. He did tell us some of the ears were field corn as a warning in case we didn’t want it, but told him I’ve always eaten it so no worries. But, I’m also the kid that loved to eat wheat straight out of the ear when it was not quite ripe yet and still just a tiny bit juicy. Yummy!

To keep this comment somewhat on track. As far as I’m concerned, ethanol and biodiesel are 2 evil things that should never have been invented. Or, if they had to be invented, they should never have been used in any vehicle. They are only good for political grandstanding.

^^^^There, that's right on the money!

[Falcon67]

I just used the tiller. Sitting with fuel since last March. Added a bit to the tank to make sure I had enough. Started on 3rd pull. 87 + 10%. Just used it and put it away. 4th year on that machine. I use methanol race fuel do I know what alcohol does - have not seen anything similar from pump fuel. E15 - that may change the whole deal. For sure it'll reduce fuel mileage in most vehicles.

[jfk69]

Originally Posted by sourdough

I'm not a "corn grower" and don't know the ins and outs of growing "good" corn from "bad" corn. I do know that all the years that we picked "field" corn it was planted in rows in large fields. In our part of the country that has now stopped pretty much as far as I can tell. The fields nowadays look like it is just mass planted without rows or any kind of order. When they come in to harvest they just combine it and carry it off. I've not been in those fields to get corn as they are a newer kind of thing (last 10-15 years) so figure there is probably a difference maybe between what used to be field corn and feed corn these days...??

Could be any number of things. Planting densities that I considered insane in my youth are literally 50%+ higher now, so I believe it can look like no rows. Add in that the 30” rows of my youth have gone to much narrower row spacing or double rows and, yeah, it’s a different ballgame. Corn is mostly the same, but now there’s “stacked” seed (gmo) that brings with it specific traits, yield potentials, disease/drought resistance and much more. People don’t realize that some of the most advanced technologies are deployed in agriculture first.

We could really dive down a rabbit hole if we start talking about sexed semen, embryo transplants and cloning in livestock. If you like field corn then go for it. It is, in the end, mostly what it’s always been. And though I’m not a fan of eating wheat like Vampress stated above, keep me out of a field of barley if you value your yield lol.

I’m also not a fan of ethanol and biodiesel, and would prefer our agriculture to be geared more toward food production than fuel production, but that seems to be a losing argument on my part. I also am in a position that I don’t want to rock that boat with certain stakeholders that my organization works with.