Degree Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

1982

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Economics

Abstract

The potential impacts that large-scale alcohol production from corn, grain sorghum, and crop residues may have on U.S. agriculture in the year 2000 are investigated. A one land group interregional linear programming model is used. The objective function is to minimize the cost of production in the agricultural sector, given specified crop demands and constrained resources;The impacts that levels of alcohol production, ranging from zero to 12 billion gallons, have at two projected levels of crop demands, two grain-to-alcohol conversion and two milling methods, wet and dry, rates are considered. At the lower level of crop demands, 1980 crop exports are used and at the higher level of demands, one-half times 1980 crop exports are used. A rate of conversion which reflects current technology, 2.6 gallons of alcohol per bushel of grain, and one which reflects a maximum potential rate of conversion, 3.0 gallons per bushel of grain, are incorporated into the model;The impacts that large-scale fuel alcohol production has on U.S. agriculture are small. The major impacts that occur are the substitution of milling by-products, DDG, gluten feed, and gluten meal, for soybean meal in livestock feed rations. Production of 12 billion gallons of alcohol is estimated to be equivalent to an 18 percent increase in crop exports. Improving the grain-to-alcohol conversion rate from 2.6 to 3.0 gallons per bushels reduces the overall cost of agricultural production by 989 billion when 12 billion gallons of alcohol are produced.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-11095

Publisher

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/

Copyright Owner

Anthony F. Turhollow, Jr.

Language

en

Proquest ID

AAI8307794

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

121 pages

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