The annual Farm Progress Show is underway in Boone, Iowa and leaders from the National Corn Growers Association are on the scene helping promote Iowa corn and NCGA. Corn Commentary Editor, Mark Lambert, known as @CornGuy on Twitter, is doing the driving.
I spoke with Bart Schott, NCGA 1st VP, sitting in the back behind Mark. Bart says they’ve been conducting media interviews and all the issues have come up that include the ethanol waiver, foreign trade and transportation. He’s impressed with the show and commented on how things have changed by pointing to a grain cart across the street from the media tent that holds more corn than his Dad’s granaries had when he was growing up.
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) honored corn growers for their efforts in promoting ethanol at the 23rd Annual Ethanol Conference and Trade Show in Kansas City this week.
On Wednesday night, staff members of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association and Corn Utilization Council received the President’s Award from ACE for “principled dedication and support” of the industry. SD corn executive director Lisa Richardson and legislative director Teddi Mueller received that award. Also, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and 11 corn grower states were recognized with the “Paul Dana Marketing Vision Award” for their support in making the BYOethanol campaign possible.
NCGA president Darrin Ihnen of South Dakota addressed the ACE conference yesterday and talked about some of their efforts to promote ethanol, as well as their partnership with the organization to speak with a unified voice in Washington on issues important to the industry. Darrin sported fluorescent pink fingers at the conference, not as a new fashion statement, but proof that he is a working farmer as they came from vaccinating hogs the day before on his South Dakota farm.
Darrin talked about those big issues facing the ethanol industry right now – the expiration of the blenders tax credit at the end of this year and the delays in approval of E15 – as well as the lack of an energy bill in the Senate that includes provisions for renewable fuels. “We’re disappointed that they’re not going to do anything, but at the same time, the bill that Reid had introduced didn’t have anything in it for ethanol, so it gives us a little more time to get some ethanol provisions in that bill,” Darrin told me. “The downside is that they already don’t get a lot done so by pushing it back to September, that’s even less time before the elections.”
Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association took part in the event and chaired one of the technical sessions. Geoff used to work for the National Corn Growers Association, so he has been involved in this conference before, and he says it has definitely changed over the years. “Five or six years ago if you had come to this conference, you would not have heard many mentions of greenhouse gases and carbon footprint and things like that, but those issues are front of mind with the industry today and those themes really permeated a lot of the sessions this year,” he said.
Cooper says there was also some discussion at the conference about an environmental group lawsuit over the Renewable Fuel Standard that claims EPA did not account for the “Global Rebound Effect.” “In essence, what the theory suggests is that by using more biofuels in the United States, we’re driving down oil consumption, which results in oil prices decreasing, and because oil prices are lower then people in other parts of the world start using more oil,” Geoff said. “So they’re suggesting that would occur as a result of the RFS 2 and that those emissions should be attributable to biofuels like ethanol.” Since the goal of the RFS2 is to reduce oil consumption, Geoff says they “find it a little questionable that now they would be suggesting that it’s a bad thing that we’re reducing our oil consumption in the U.S. as a result of that policy.”
The theme of the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was “Corn: America’s Renewable Resource” and Geoff says since this year’s crop is expected to be another big one, increasing markets continues to be important. “Corn is a great crop with a lot of utility, let’s put it to work,” he said.
Listen to an interview Chuck Zimmerman did with Geoff Cooper at CUTC here:
When it comes to efficiently producing corn, water is a very important factor. So water usage was the topic of the concluding session at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. One of the presenters during the session was Derrel Martin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His presentation was titled, “Impact of Irrigation Efficiency & Farming Practices on Ag Hydrology and Economics.”
Derrel says that since Nebraska is the state with the most irrigated land this has been a very important subject for his research and work. He says that farmers are being challenged by water limitations and to meet the bottom line while optimizing the use of ground water resources. He says that contrary to what some people may think about the aquifer going dry, it’s not. There’s plenty of water there. But states are looking at water a lot more critically and that’s putting pressure on farmers to make more efficient use of it. He says they’ve been looking at crop water use efficiency for quite a while.
When it comes to irrigation efficiency he says “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Technology today makes that pretty easy to do though. He says about 80 percent of the irrigated land is done with center pivots which can be very efficient but they need to be managed to make sure they’re working properly. He also cautions farmers to be careful about irrigating too early in spring and too late in the fall. Interestingly, Arkansas is the fourth largest irrigated state. He says irrigation is moving east.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Derrel here:
Bill Holbrook, The ProExporter Network, had an interesting task at the Corn Utilization Technology Conference. He had to explain, “Congressional Language, EPA Interpretation and the Future of American Biofuels.” Now that’s more than a mouthful!
Bill says he sees lots of contradictions in the legislation and rule making for biofuels between states like California and EPA and they need to be better defined, further defined and will lead to a lot of uncertainty in the market until they are resolved. He says there are efforts to move regulation of things like green house gas emissions back into a mechanism, like Congress, where they would be slowed down and allow more people to have input into them.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Bill here:
Corn growers are in Washington, DC taking care of business. It’s the semi-annual Corn Congress.
Corn farmers from across the country will gather in Washington the week of July 12 for a series of team and committee meetings, Capitol Hill visits with lawmakers and the semi-annual Corn Congress, where grower-leaders from 28 states will elect four new members of the National Corn Growers Association Corn Board. You can hear NCGA President Darrin Ihnen talk about it:
One of the activities that took place today was the presentation of the President’s Award.
National Corn Growers Association President Darrin Ihnen today presented the President’s Award to Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) during NCGA’s Corn Congress events in Washington, D.C. The President’s Award is given annually to a leader who has worked to advance issues important to corn growers and agriculture.
The Land Use Conundrum . . . Corn, An Advanced Biofuel? That was the title of one of the sessions at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference that was moderated by Jamey Cline, NCGA. One of his panelists was Adam Liska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His remarks were on “Uncertainty in Indirect Land Use Change Emissions from Biofuels.” Adam has focused his work on the life cycle efficiency of producing ethanol.
Adam says that there has been increased agricultural production worldwide due to increased demand and it seems like attributing some of that to increased biofuels production makes sense. However, he says that quantifying the emissions related to agricultural production due to biofuels use is very uncertain because it’s done “as a projection into the future.” The bottom line is we don’t know what will happen in the future. He says “it’s nearly impossible.” He says that there are estimates for corn ethanol but they get smaller and smaller with more research and information. He says that they’ve started to do some research on the indirect effects of gasoline production and figure they’re roughly equivalent to that of ethanol. He also points to the impact of changes in livestock production as a result of higher grain prices and says it may have more impact than land use changes. Seems like there is a huge amount of variability in how you look at the future when it comes to biofuels production and especially corn ethanol.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Adam here:
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
John caught my attention during his presentation when he said that all the negative information you’ve heard about high fructose corn syrup is completely wrong. Whoa. All of it? Yep. There is a huge amount of factual and scientific information on the subject. He calls it a mythology that has taken hold that wants to portray HFCS in a bad light. It is basically the same as regular sugar. Plain and simple. People just want to find something to blame for weight issues and the reality is that they’re consuming more of everything. You can’t lay the blame on HFCS.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with John White here:
Find good information on HFCS on Twitter: SweetFacts
A University of Chicago economist says banning the herbicide Atrazine would add to the current unemployment level in the United States.
According to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey, a ban on the herbicide would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone. His findings were presented today at a National Press Club briefing sponsored by the Triazine Network in Washington. Coursey estimates atrazine’s annual production value to corn alone to be between $2.3 billion and $5 billion. Atrazine’s additional value to sorghum, sugar cane and other uses increases these totals.
Coursey says his estimate of job losses would be primarily in the agriculture and rural sectors of the economy, where unemployment is currently about 12 percent. A ban on atrazine he says would increase that to about 14.6 percent. Another way of looking at it, says Coursey, is assuming that all the job losses would occur in the corn-growing sector of the nation. “Starting from the current unemployment rate of about 11%, you double that either to 10.9 plus 11, or as much as an increase of 25% more. That is, 11 plus 25 or into the high 30% unemployment rate in the corn sector. That’s why I feel justified in using the word devastating,” he said. Most of that would be felt by small family farmers.
The Triazine Network is made up of groups representing crops as diverse as citrus, grapes, grain sorghum, nuts, corn, nursery crops, fruits, vegetables, Christmas trees, soybeans and sugarcane that have banded together to respond to the special review of triazine herbicides by the EPA. Kansas Corn Growers executive director Jere White serves as chairman of the group. “No one cares more about the safety of agricultural pesticides than farmers who use them on their farms. It’s where we live and where we raise our children,” said White. “If sound scientific research finds that atrazine, or any agricultural pesticide, cannot be used safely we will be the first to agree with increased regulation. But sound scientific research has found repeatedly that atrazine is safe.” White says the current re-review of atrazine has been prompted by activist-fed media reports and shoddy science.
EPA re-registered atrazine in 2006 based on the evidence of nearly 6,000 studies and more than 80,000 public comments. However, the agency began an additional, unscheduled review of atrazine in late 2009. Atrazine is the second most-used herbicide in the United States, controlling a broad range of weeds in corn, sorghum and sugar cane for over 50 years. No suitable replacement for it currently exists in terms of efficacy and affordability.
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.
Monsanto has a goal of helping corn growers double their yield by 2030. Reiter says their biotechnology pipeline is helping make this a reality. His team is working on improving corn water use or as he puts it, “getting more crop per drop.” He says the amount of money being invested in these technologies is unprecedented.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Dr. Reiter here:
The annual Farm Progress Show is underway in Boone, Iowa and leaders from the National Corn Growers Association are on the scene helping promote Iowa corn and NCGA. Corn Commentary Editor, Mark Lambert, known as @CornGuy on Twitter, is doing the driving.
NCGA president Darrin Ihnen of South Dakota addressed the ACE conference yesterday and talked about some of their efforts to promote ethanol, as well as their partnership with the organization to speak with a unified voice in Washington on issues important to the industry. Darrin sported fluorescent pink fingers at the conference, not as a new fashion statement, but proof that he is a working farmer as they came from vaccinating hogs the day before on his South Dakota farm. 
Indirect land use change and DDGs quality were two of the ethanol-related topics that were featured at the recent 
When it comes to efficiently producing corn, water is a very important factor. So water usage was the topic of the concluding session at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. One of the presenters during the session was Derrel Martin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His presentation was titled, “Impact of Irrigation Efficiency & Farming Practices on Ag Hydrology and Economics.”
Bill Holbrook, The ProExporter Network, had an interesting task at the Corn Utilization Technology Conference. He had to explain, “Congressional Language, EPA Interpretation and the Future of American Biofuels.” Now that’s more than a mouthful!
The Land Use Conundrum . . . Corn, An Advanced Biofuel? That was the title of one of the sessions at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference that was moderated by Jamey Cline, NCGA. One of his panelists was Adam Liska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His remarks were on “Uncertainty in Indirect Land Use Change Emissions from Biofuels.” Adam has focused his work on the life cycle efficiency of producing ethanol. 
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the 
According to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey, a ban on the herbicide would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone. His 
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.