As Mark noted in the previous post, last week was the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk. There is probably no event like this in any industry where representatives from over 150 companies and organizations get to interact with about the same number of farm broadcast reporters walking around doing interviews in a six hour period. Most broadcasters come away with between 15 and 30 interviews that come in especially handy over the holiday season! Pictured here at the National Corn Growers Association booth are Mark on the left, and Joel Heitkamp with KFGO in Fargo, ND preparing to interview NCGA First Vice President Bart Schott of North Dakota.
One of the major topics of interest at Trade Talk was the late harvest, and even though North Dakota’s corn harvest was still in the single digits last week, Bart expressed optimism about the crop. “If we get a few more weeks of really nice weather, we’ll get this corn crop off in good shape,” he said. Despite the problems this year, he says the crop continues to look good and is still expected to be the second largest on record, “If there’s ever been a debate about whether we can produce enough corn feed our exports, livestock industry and ethanol industry, this will be the second year in a row that we’ve proved them wrong.”
Listen to my interview with Bart here – one of the dozens NCGA reps did last week with farm broadcasters – and podcasters!
President Obama announced his National Rural Tour yesterday during an interview with National Association of Farm Broadcasting past president Michelle Rook with WNAX Radio in Yankton, SD. “Over the next few weeks and months, top officials from my administration will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how we can strengthen rural America,” Obama said.
Vice President Joe Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genakowski kicked off the “rural road trip” today in Pennsylvania, announcing $4 billion in loans and grants to bring broadband internet service to rural communities. Other stops are planned in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
During her interview, Michelle asked the president about renewable fuels. “Obviously, I come from a farm state – Illinois – and ethanol has been a big boon for a lot of rural communities,” he said. “But we also are recognizing the key for us is to move into the next generation of biofuels, how can we use wood chips and refuse and switchgrass and how can we improve the efficiency of first generation biofuels. Farmers are going to be critical to that entire process.”
Michelle also asked President Obama about a number of other issues, including the climate change bill, whether farmers should be concerned about increasing regulations, and how the government might be able to help the livestock industry.
Listen to Michelle’s entire interview with the president here:
Issues affecting corn growers were major topics of discussion at the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting Washington Watch Issues Forum this week in the nation’s capitol.
Among those on hand to be interviewed by more than 30 farm broadcast journalists were (pictured left to right) National Corn Growers Association Directors of Public Policy Rod Snyder and Jessica Bennett, Ohio Corn Growers Executive Director Dwayne Siekman and NCGA Vice President of Public Policy Jon Doggett. They discussed a number of important issues, including the new ACRE program, higher ethanol blends, the Clean Water Act, and the impact of climate change legislation on agriculture.
The issues forum was held on Monday, the first day of sign up for the 2008 farm bill’s Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program, and Jon answered lots of questions about that new program.
Listen to an interview with Jon by Chuck Zimmerman of Agwired.com:
Also at the event was Mark Lambert with the Illinois Corn Growers, who serves as director of the new Corn Farmers Coalition, an alliance which includes the National Corn Growers Association and 10 state corn associations. He is pictured here being interviewed by Bob Bosold of WAXX/WAYY Radio in Altoona, WI.
Mark says the goal of the coalition is to bring a very clearly defined message to Washington DC, injecting facts into the debate about issues that impact agriculture. “What we found out is that there are a lot of decisions being made affecting our industry right now and they don’t even understand that family farmers still exist,” Mark says.
One of the buzz words for agriculture in 2008 has been sustainability and that was one topic being discussed by National Corn Growers Association officials at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting last week.
CEO Rick Tolman says NCGA is part of a group called the “Field to Market” Keystone initiative to look at sustainable agriculture. “Basically what we decided is that to be sustainable is to be doing more, being more productive, with the same amount of resources,” Rick said. The Keystone group, which includes agriculture, environmental and food companies and organizations, just released a draft Environmental Resource Indicator Report in September.
Sustainability is also a major issue in the ethanol industry, especially when it comes to land use, but Rick says the reality is that corn farmers continue to be more productive.
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting each year in Kansas City includes an intense six hour “Trade Talk” where over 100 farm broadcasters have the opportunity to meet and interview representatives from over 100 ag organizations and companies. With all the issues surrounding corn this year, the National Corn Growers Association booth was busy the entire time fielding questions from reporters.
NCGA president Bob Dickey of Laurel, Nebraska and first vice president Darrin Ihnen of Hurley, SD are seen here being interviewed at the NCGA booth. Among the topics they were discussing – corn price volatility, ethanol, sustainability, food versus fuel, the economy, and the upcoming new administration. The NCGA officials were interviewed by 30-40 reporters during the event – just about as many as you can do in a six hour period!
I have personally participated in NAFB’s Trade Talk since it’s inception some 15 years or so ago (getting too old to remember!) and I can tell you that it is probably the single best event of the year for both the interviewers and the interviewees. The members of NAFB represent both individual stations and radio networks across the country and reach an untold audience of farmers and ranchers, as well as rural lifestyle and even urban consumers in some cases. It is a great way for organizations like NCGA to get information out to a wide audience in a relatively short time.
While we’re on the subject of video clips from the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting here’s my final one with NCGA Chairman Ken McCauley. With the Senate back in session and expected to consider new energy legislation I thought it was timely to provide his perspective on where things stand.
Ken says he’s really optimistic about getting new energy legislation, especially a new Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). He thinks that the price of oil is sending a strong message that we need a renewable fuel source. That’s creating a sense of urgency on Capitol Hill that may move things forward quickly. He says that corn growers want to do their part in helping America become energy independent.
Here’s another installment of our Corn Commentary videos that were recorded at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting Convention. In this one I interview NCGA CEO Rick Tolman and University of Missouri ag economist Dr. Ron Plain. They point out that our corn growers have produced to meet demand for both needs of our corn. It’s also interesting to note that higher corn prices haven’t really impacted food prices much. In fact, it’s really things like transportation costs that have driven food prices up.
As they point out, no one is starving anywhere because of biofuel production. The fact is our corn production has a lot of opportunity to grow due to demand and new technologies and that’s good for our farmers, our economy and our country. So that’s the word on this “renewable fuel” issue!
A subject that is very misunderstood when it comes to growing corn is fertilizer. Here’s another installment of our Corn Commentary video series that was produced at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention. In it NCGA CEO Rick Tolman helps you better understand what’s going on in corn production as it relates to fertilizer. For example, Rick says that people hear that corn uses more fertilizer than any other crop. He says that’s because corn is planted on more acres than any other crop. That’s why the totality of fertilizer usage is higher. However, if you look at fertilizer use on a per unit basis corn is really middle of the road compared to other crops.
Rick also points to a white paper on corn production sustainability that you can download from their website. Here’s an excerpt relating to this topic:
The latest advances in agriculture technology enable farmers to apply fertilizers with pinpoint accuracy, minimizing their impact to soil, water and air. For example, the use of enhanced efficiency fertilizers, such as slow- and controlled-release fertilizers and stabilized nitrogen fertilizers, are helping to protect the environment by reducing nutrient losses and improving nutrient efficiency while improving crop yields.
One of the clearest measures of sustainable agriculture production is increasing efficiency, with the ability to swell output while decreasing inputs. According to USDA, growers use less nitrogen to produce over 50 percent more corn than in 1980. Furthermore, over the past 15 years, farmers experienced a 17 percent increase in nitrogen efficiency as measured by bushels of corn produced per pound of nitrogen applied which in turn means less nutrients lost to runoff.
At the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention NCGA’s Rick Tolman took time to dispell some myths about the use of water by the corn industry. He’s got some great facts and figures to explain why the numbers being bantered about as doomsday speak are really meaningless when put in perspective with the information those same people don’t say or want you to know.
* More than 85% of all corn produced in the United States is non-irrigated. So, that 4,000 gallons per bushel is mostly rainfall. That rain is going to fall on the land whether it has corn on it or asphalt or marijuana. According to the USGS (U.S. National Geological Survey), if that same land was instead in wheat, it would take 11,000 gallons per bushel. If it were in alfalfa, it would take 15,000 gallons for a similar amount. If it is a paved parking lot, the same amount of rain still falls. So, one perhaps important point left out by the good bug doctor and the headline writers is that most of the water corn needs is not being sucked from the ground or from rivers, but it actually falls from the sky.
* And, looking even deeper, according to the same USGS, an acre of corn actually gives off 4,000 gallons a day in “evapotranspiration,” the combined result of transpiration and evaporation. Over the course of a growing season that would equate to turning that acre of corn into a lake approximately 11 inches deep. Corn is a very remarkable plant. It gives back much of that water it takes up. That water goes up into atmosphere to start the precipitation cycle all over again. In aggregate, the corn crop actually returns more water to the atmosphere than is withdrawn from ground or surface for irrigation.
* Some other USGS statistics that might be of interest and add perspective:
It takes 1,500 gallons of water to produce a barrel of beer
It takes 1,851 gallons of water to refine a barrel of crude oil
It takes 62,600 gallons of water to process a ton of cane sugar to make processed sugar
It takes 62,600 gallons to make a ton of steel
It takes 2,075 gallons of water to make four tires
At last week’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention, NCGA President Ron Litterer did a number of interviews including one with me about the farm bill.
In the picture Ron’s being interviewed by one of the many farm broadcasters that came by the NCGA booth.
I asked Ron where things stand from a corn grower perspective. It was really dark in the room so I apologize for the quality of the video but it works. I’m also posting the audio of the interview separately for you.
Listen to Ron Litterer Interview here:
Ron says he feels good that the Senate ag committee has put forward a revenue based proposal but that it would have been nice to see crop insurance integration included. Ron mentions the cloture vote that failed last week so it looks like it’s time for some more debate after the holiday.
As Mark noted in the previous post, last week was the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk. There is probably no event like this in any industry where representatives from over 150 companies and organizations get to interact with about the same number of farm broadcast reporters walking around doing interviews in a six hour period. Most broadcasters come away with between 15 and 30 interviews that come in especially handy over the holiday season! Pictured here at the National Corn Growers Association booth are Mark on the left, and Joel Heitkamp with KFGO in Fargo, ND preparing to interview NCGA First Vice President Bart Schott of North Dakota.
President Obama announced his 
Issues affecting corn growers were major topics of discussion at the annual 
Also at the event was Mark Lambert with the Illinois Corn Growers, who serves as director of the new 
One of the buzz words for agriculture in 2008 has been sustainability and that was one topic being discussed by National Corn Growers Association officials at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting last week.
The 
NCGA president Bob Dickey of Laurel, Nebraska and first vice president Darrin Ihnen of Hurley, SD are seen here being interviewed at the NCGA booth. Among the topics they were discussing – corn price volatility, ethanol, sustainability, food versus fuel, the economy, and the upcoming new administration. The NCGA officials were interviewed by 30-40 reporters during the event – just about as many as you can do in a six hour period!
At last week’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention, NCGA President Ron Litterer did a