The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it did not totally reflect the damage from Midwest flooding yet.
Corn planted area is reported to be 1.31 million acres more than was estimated in the March intentions report at 87.3 million acres, down just 7 percent from last year. That is the second highest since 1946, behind last year’s total of 93.6 million acres. If it were all to make it, growers would harvest 78.9 million acres for grain, down 9 percent from 2007 and the second highest since 1944.
NASS collected most of the data for the report before the majority of the flooding occurred but they did re-interview about 1,200 farmers at the end of the month in the flood-affected areas. Through that it was determined that farmers intend to harvest about two percent less, or 90.4 percent, of their planted acres of corn for grain.
I had the opportunity to chat with a few corn growers Friday night at a benefit concert for Farm Foundation held at the Lake Ozark home of Sara Wyant (Agri-Pulse) and husband Allan Johnson (USDA Rural Development). Garry Niemeyer of Illinois and and Ken McCauley of Kansas were two of the growers at the event. Ken, who is the chairman of the National Corn Growers, says his corn in Northeast Kansas looks good. “If you’re sitting there with flood water, you don’t want to go to northeast Kansas, because it looks really good,” Ken told me. “We have had some hail, we have had some wind, but overall I think we can make it through because we do need a big corn crop.”
“I tell you what, everybody is going to produce some corn,” Ken says. “Iowa will produce a lot of corn and when you get down to it we’re gonna have a good corn crop and it could even be one of the better one or two or three.”
“I really think we’re gonna get through this and farmers are going to look back and say ‘what a year!’”
Missouri and Kansas may be rivals on the football field but they are on the same team when it comes to the “food versus fuel” issue.
The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council teamed up with the Kansas Corn Commission and the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition for a targeted radio campaign in the Kansas City region. The 30-second spots have been airing on KCFX, KCMO, WHB and KMBZ feature a radio host called “The Food Dude” answering callers’ questions about higher food prices. This air-time was paid for with corn grower checkoff funds and is operating under the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition banner. The educational radio efforts will run through July 1.
These radio spots include a space at the end for local taglines and are available for use by request from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) in Omaha. Listen to the “Food Dude” spot here:
A great man once said “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Unfortunately, the general public is faced with conflicting “truths” on a daily basis so its hard for them to tell just “what is truth.”
A group called the 2020 Project is sponsoring a campaign called FoodPriceTruth.org in an attempt to break through the clutter and be heard on the food versus fuel issue that is being distorted by the media, Big Food and Big Oil.
According to the 2020 Project blog, “We are sponsoring the project because the debate about “food versus fuel” has been skewed by corporate interests running aggressive PR campaigns. The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) — who are underwriting the campaign — want the world to believe that biofuels are increasing the price of food while its largest members spike food prices and sharply increase their profits during the crisis. General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft are all reporting much higher profits this quarter — some of their quarterly reports acknowledge that their profits stem from higher prices –while their lobbying arm pretends to be sympathetic to the consumer.”
Food Price Truth is supported by donations from several biofuels stakeholders, including advanced biofuels companies. Their mission is to “provide a clearinghouse of information designed to set the record straight on the domestic and worldwide food crisis.”
The challenge is for the public to decide whose truth they are going to believe.
Iowa corn growers are helping communities in the state recover from flooding.
The Iowa Corn Growers Association and Iowa Corn Promotion Board have donated $2,500 worth of ethanol gift certificates to the Red Cross to help with the transportation costs associated with flood relief efforts.
“Thousands of Iowa growers and their communities have been hit by these floods,” said Tim Recker, ICGA president. “We already know ethanol helps consumers control their every day fuel costs, so it seems only right for ethanol to help with fuel costs during the recovery.”
The groups announced the gift at the Iowa Corn Indy 250 race last weekend. The donation, in the form of 250 $10 gift certificates, will give the Red Cross flexibility since the certificates can be easily distributed and used anywhere ethanol-blended fuel is sold in Iowa.
The Farm Foundation just concluded a conference in their series titled, “Transition To A Bio Economy.” This one was on risk, infrastructure and industry evolution and all the presentations were on biofuels. I conducted a series of interviews with the presenters which you can find with this link.
One of them has done some interesting research on the link between the volatility of ethanol production and corn prices. He is Michael Wetzstein, University of Georgia. His talk dealt with two issues. One is on price volatility and the other is on food and fuel. Michael says that gas price volatility can be avoided with fuel diversification by blending renewable fuels with fossil fuels.
Another part of his research is on food and fuel and to answer the question of “Is there a direct link between the volatility of ethanol production and the volatility of corn prices. His research has found that there is a link but not a persistent or long lasting one. In fact, in the long run he says there is no direct link.
The bottom line he says is that we just need to produce more food. After talking to Iowa corn growers last weekend, I can say that American farmers are certainly doing their best.
Sunday was “Proud to be a Midwestern Corn Grower Day” during the telecast of the Iowa Corn Indy 250. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been the Team Ethanol car in the winner’s circle. But Ryan Hunter Reay certainly gave it a good go.
Just about every other commercial during the race broadcast was one from the corn growers and they were excellent spots. I also loved the opening “start your corn ethanol-fueled engines” heralded by Iowa Corn Promotion Board chairman Julius Schaaf.
The spot below is my personal favorite from the race, featuring corn growers proclaiming they are proud to be America’s feed, food and fuel providers. GO Corn!!!
At the Iowa Speedway yesterday, the Iowa Corn Growers Association held an outdoor press conference. They used it to help educate media about corn usage by placing banners on the side of a grain trailer showing the relative percentages of corn used for different purposes like livestock feed and ethanol.
I did a short interview with Gary Edwards, ICGA board member. Ken Root, WHO, also participated. Gary farms in Animosa, IA which is in one of the most flood impacted areas of the state. He says that although corn growth is behind schedule and there is a lot of land impacted, he expects that the state will still have a good crop. He wants people to keep in mind that last year they had a record corn crop and this year still has the potential to be one of the biggest. He says the water levels have gone down significantly already and he expects that a lot of those fields will dry out and be re-planted. He has no doubt that they’ll be able to provide all the corn needed for both food and fuel again this year.
The corn ethanol industry is on a national stage this weekend in Newton, IA with the 2nd Annual Iowa Corn Indy 250. To help journalists covering the event get an inside look at ethanol several groups participated in a press conference including (l-r), Toni Nuernberg, EPIC, Craig Floss, Iowa Corn Growers Association, Mike Sobetski, LifeLine Foods and Troy Hobbs, Monsanto.
They spoke about food and fuel, corn prices and the future of ethanol. Afterward the journalists were provided with a pace car ride out on the track.
The word “enzymes” was a key one at the CUTC this year and in fact, one whole session was devoted to it titled, “New developments and efficiencies in the world of enzymes.”
One of the speakers on that program was Elizabeth Hood, Arkansas State University. I spoke to her about her presentation. She’s a plant biotechnologist with a small start up company. They produce enzymes for biomass conversion. Her talk was about the work their doing that uses the corn kernel as the bio-factory for making enzymes. She’s hoping that this will be a co-product for ethanol production.
Elizabeth says it will be about 12 to 16 months until they have commercial products and that they’ve been working on the project for about 7 years.
You can listen to my interview with Elizabeth here:
For many people, ethanol seems like a new product, although it’s anything but. What is new is how researchers are finding new products that can be made from ethanol itself.
At the recent CUTC, one of the presentations was “Reactive Distillations for Chemical Products from Ethanol” by Carl Lira, Michigan State University. I spoke with him about the work he’s doing in this area.
Carl says he’s looking at methods to diversify the ethanol production platform. For example, he’s looking at new products that can be made from ethanol so that producers can diversify and react to the market in different ways. He’s trying to get them to think with more of a bio refinery philosophy. From a product standpoint, he’s using ethanol as a reagent to produce high quality chemicals.
He says they’ve done some economic analysis which is available from NCGA and that it looks very attractive.
The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it did not totally reflect the damage from Midwest flooding yet.
I had the opportunity to chat with a few corn growers Friday night at a benefit concert for Farm Foundation held at the Lake Ozark home of Sara Wyant (Agri-Pulse) and husband Allan Johnson (USDA Rural Development). Garry Niemeyer of Illinois and and Ken McCauley of Kansas were two of the growers at the event. Ken, who is the chairman of the National Corn Growers, says his corn in Northeast Kansas looks good. “If you’re sitting there with flood water, you don’t want to go to northeast Kansas, because it looks really good,” Ken told me. “We have had some hail, we have had some wind, but overall I think we can make it through because we do need a big corn crop.”
Missouri and Kansas may be rivals on the football field but they are on the same team when it comes to the “food versus fuel” issue.
A group called the 2020 Project is sponsoring a campaign called 
The Iowa Corn Growers Association and Iowa Corn Promotion Board have donated $2,500 worth of ethanol gift certificates to the Red Cross to help with the transportation costs associated with flood relief efforts.
“Thousands of Iowa growers and their communities have been hit by these floods,” said Tim Recker, ICGA president. “We already know ethanol helps consumers control their every day fuel costs, so it seems only right for ethanol to help with fuel costs during the recovery.”
The 
Sunday was “Proud to be a Midwestern Corn Grower Day” during the telecast of the Iowa Corn Indy 250. The only thing that would have made the day better would have been the Team Ethanol car in the winner’s circle. But Ryan Hunter Reay certainly gave it a good go. 
At the Iowa Speedway yesterday, the 
The corn ethanol industry is on a national stage this weekend in Newton, IA with the 2nd Annual Iowa Corn Indy 250. To help journalists covering the event get an inside look at ethanol several groups participated in a press conference including (l-r), Toni Nuernberg, 
The word “enzymes” was a key one at the CUTC this year and in fact, one whole session was devoted to it titled, “New developments and efficiencies in the world of enzymes.”
For many people, ethanol seems like a new product, although it’s anything but. What is new is how researchers are finding new products that can be made from ethanol itself.