National Corn Growers Association

USDA Delivers Thousands of Bridge Payments In a Matter of Days

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:04:22 GMT

In an afternoon general session, adjusted to fit USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ schedule, the agency leader welcomed a record crowd of 12,000 to her home state of Texas as she stares down one of the most challenging moments in farming history. Farmers are facing high input costs, trade uncertainty and surging grain production.

“Between 2020 and last year when I spoke at this incredible event, fuel costs had increased 33%, seed costs had increased 19%, fertilizer prices had gone up 48%, labor up 44% and interest expenses up 71%,” said Rollins.

The frustration in the room was palpable following a year in 2025 where strong production was again unable to overcome swelling costs and expenses. Farmers here are now looking harder to Washington for answers as another season of negative margins stares them in the face.

“We’re seven years out from this last farm bill and all of this information that we’re trying to work with is so outdated, our costs are so different, we have to get something done,” said Jed Bower, the current president of the National Corn Growers Association and an Ohio farmer. “They have forgotten about rural America.”

Help is on the way

USDA did roll out an $11 billion rescue program called the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program as a way to help tide farmers over until safety net pricing adjustments kick in this fall. Those weren’t passed in a new Farm Bill but instead included in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed last year. Sign-ups for Bridge payments are currently underway with FSA even allowing Commodity Classic attendees to finalize their applications on the tradeshow floor. Some of those payments are already in farmers’ hands as Rollins told farmers help is on the way.

“I will not declare victory, we still have so much work to do, but I will declare that we have made great progress on the promises that were made,” said Rollins. “Since [the last time I was here] we have had 15 new trade deals and/or frameworks for US agriculture in key markets like the European Union, UK, Japan, Mexico and Southeast Asia.”

The secretary also pointing China’s return to the market and pending presidential meeting scheduled for later this month. Economists are forecasting the agricultural trade deficit to fall from $41.5 billion in 2025 to $35 billion this year. That shift is happening around a strong export year in 2025 for things like ethanol where exports were up 11%, dairy exports were up 15% and corn exports ending the year 29% higher.

Separately from trade, Rollins noting a litany of deregulation happening across agencies. In a post on X.com, the secretary listed a number of changes already underway. Rollins writing that to date the administration has cut 129 regulations for every new one, resulting in $211.8 billion in net cost savings. She says accomplishments in USDA deregulation agenda include:

Reversing the EPA endangerment finding impacting vehicle emissions standards
Raising poultry line speeds → ~16% lower chicken prices
Rescinding the Roadless Rule → opens 59M acres for timber
Cutting USDA NEPA regs by 66% (streamlining 7 rules into 1)
Reforming H-2A AEWR → saves farmers >$2B/year in labor costs
Clarifying WOTUS per recent Supreme Court ruling
Modernizing Forest Service oil/gas & minerals leasing rules

I’m in Floresville, TX today launching @USDA’s new Deregulatory Agenda for American Agriculture & Consumers! Thank you to the amazing Boening Family for welcoming us to your beautiful farm!!! The Trump Admin is cutting red tape to unleash innovation on farms & ranches while… pic.twitter.com/5NOdTT2dpX
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 26, 2026

USDA systems get an upgrade

While the world focuses on precision agriculture and technology adoption, the systems helping support American farmers has been embarrassingly slow to evolve.

“A GAO audit found that barely 15% of previous upgrades were delivered,” said Rollins. “We have been left with ancient technical architecture with 500 different custom-built systems and databases managed by over 1,000 different contractors that cost the taxpayer over $1 billion.”

The secretary announcing the ‘One Farmer, One File’ initiative as a way to streamline the data collection and services from USDA.

“This creates a single, streamlined record that follows you, the farmer, no matter where you go in USDA system,” explained Rollins. “When this initiative concludes, producers will be able to access their USDA data in a single, modern, secure system built to today’s cybersecurity standards.”

USDA Secretary Rollins watches as a producers enrolls at Commodity Classic

(USDA (X.com))

Rollins says it’s part of the administration’s broader vision of revamping how Americans interact with the government’s digital front door. She also made it clear that these new tools are optional.

“What does this mean? Do I have to do everything on a computer? No, these FSA offices will stay open. You will always have someone to walk into and sit down with to help with paper applications and traditional acreage reporting,” said Rollins. “This is not a mandate to digitize. We are not telling you we’re moving everything to your phone or your computer at home, but instead it is an expansion of options for our farmers.”

This is the first phase of a multi-year initiative. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is the very first program running fully on this new platform.

“After 72 hours we had over 30,000 applications go through the application process at login.gov” said Richard Fordyce, USDA undersecretary for farm production and conservation. “When the producer sees the form on their virtual device and hit sign here, that immediately goes to the county office. It’s then signed and certified and sent for payment, immediately.”

“The results have been stunning,” said Rollins. “In just the past few days, we have seen 50 times more producers sign up online than ECAP did over its entire five-month sign-up period last year. Adoption is up over 5,000% and several billion dollars have already been obligated. Many of you told me you’ve already had the check hit your bank account faster than any program ever before in the history of USDA.”

Rollins called it a new standard for the delivery of services. She says the IT and system upgrades are scheduled to be completed within the next 2 years.

Focus on 2026

Rollins laid out her priorities for the new year as farmers at Commodity Classic look for answers to the difficult balance sheet decisions awaiting their return to the farm. The top 5 boiled down to this:

Continue to deregulate
Strike new trade deals
Lower the cost of inputs
Expand markets at home with biofuels
Strengthen the farm safety net by passing a new Farm Bill

That will be easier said than done as each step comes with its own set of challenges. Rollins will be navigating closing Washington D.C. offices and moving staff to new regional hubs which she hopes to have done by the start of school next fall. Throw in global political uncertainty, stubborn inflation and stiff competition from Brazil, and the challenges are big.

“I want every American to understand that if we are not able to reverse the trend, the farm economy, the increase in inputs, the fewer markets around the world, protection from lawfare, if we’re not able to reverse that trend, then we not only will lose the greatest industry in American history, but we will also lose our country,” said Rollins. “There is no freedom unless we are able to feed and fuel ourselves.”

What Are We Going to Do With 17 Billion Bu. of Corn: Will it Push Congress to Pass E15?

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 21:41:53 GMT

USDA’s projection of a record 17-billion-bushel corn crop is turning up the heat on lawmakers to get nationwide, year-round E15 legislation passed in Congress.

Analysis from the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) indicates that would boost corn use by approximately 2.4 billion bushels annually and be one of the quickest ways to increase demand and chew through the record pile of corn in the U.S.

Is the Time Finally Right?

The political climate might finally be right to pass year-round E15 legislation. Biofuels leaders, including Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, are optimistic about attaching a bill to the mini-omnibus appropriations bill or the Continuing Resolution (CR) at the end of January.

“We know there’s going to be another CR bill at the end of January to hopefully avoid another shutdown, but the bottom line is we have to get it done,” Cooper says. “I don’t want to say it’s now or never, but the period between now and early 2026 is really our best shot at getting this legislation done.”

Bipartisan Support for E15

Cooper says there’s growing bipartisan support for E15 in Congress and even from the oil industry.

“We had 70 ag and biofuel groups at the state level, at the federal level, that sent a letter on that last week,” Cooper says. “It’s gotten a very good response. We’re hearing a lot more chatter on the Hill today about this being a priority. Senator Grassley’s been talking about this every chance he gets, but we also have Whip Emmer talking about E15.”

He adds that a year ago the biofuels industry was close to having that legislation done and across the goal line.

“We think we’re pretty close again this year,” Cooper says.

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member and Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., is leading efforts in the House co-sponsoring the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act with Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb. She reiterated her support at the American Farm Bureau convention in Anaheim, Calif., this week.

“We need more domestic markets in this nation, and so I’m going to be looking for year-round E15, higher blends of ethanol, sustainable aviation fuel,” Craig says. “We have to be thinking about that.”

Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, with bipartisan support including Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

“I actually would love to see year-round E15 and some of the work that we could do on that front that, because of the procedural rules, they couldn’t get done in some of the other bills or we couldn’t get done,” Klobuchar says. “I think that would be a really good thing.”

Trump Administration Calls on Congress to Get It Done

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, also speaking at AFBF convention, said the administration supports E15 and last summer used temporary waivers to allow gas retailers to sell E15, but a nationwide fix is needed.

“While the Trump Administration has gone as far as providing E15 waivers, Congress must now do its job to pass year-round nationwide E15 legislation to continue to drive domestic crop demand,” Rollins says.

She adds that ethanol and other biofuels will also get a boost from new, higher RVO blending levels in 2026 and 2027 offered in the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“EPA has also proposed the highest and most aggressive volume obligations RVO proposal in history,” Rollins says.

E15 in California Provides a Boost

Meanwhile, Cooper says the California legislature approved E15 in 2025, and the bill was signed into law last October so that corn demand will show up soon.

“You know, if that state moves entirely to E15, it’s a big, big demand boost for our industry,” Cooper says. “That would be another 500 or 600 million gallons of ethanol; that’s another 200 million bushels of corn grind.”

This and year round E15 would be a critical change and its needed with many farmers looking at cash corn prices under $4 and NCGA projecting $180 per acre net loss for 2026.

High Yields, Poor Profits: Corn Farmers Search for New Demand to Drive Prices

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:19:58 GMT

USDA’s record 16.7 billion bushel corn crop estimate in the August WASDE is raising concern among farmers and farm groups — including the National Corn Growers Association.

They’re questioning the accuracy of USDA’s yield and acreage projections and asking for demand solutions to blunt the threat to the livelihood of farmers already facing record-low prices.

Corn Acreage a Double Whammy
Corn profitability was already in the red before the August WASDE.

But the record 16.7 billion bushel corn crop and 2 million additional acres just added insult to injury for Tom Haag, who farms near Eden Valley, Minn.

“When they first had their intentions earlier in June, I thought we were pretty close to where we were. I don’t know where they come up with these extra acres or where they found them,” Haag says.

Illinois and Iowa acreage was unchanged, but between the June Acreage Report and August Farm Service Agency (FSA) certified acreage, states including Kansas, North and South Dakota had 1.2 million more acres.

Some could be silage, but these are fringe states.

Krista Swanson, chief economist with NCGA, says even with record yields, those states can’t lift the national yield average.

“The higher acres are, the less likely we have an extremely high yield because of those fringe acres. I think that certainly comes into play, as maybe challenging ‘Can a yield of this level be hit?’”

Validity in Question
The yield methodology for the August report is also in question since it doesn’t use field data.

Swanson says, “So, what happens when we start to getting into harvest is left to be seen. You could analyze, ‘Well, if a state like Iowa has exceedingly high yields, then you wouldn’t necessarily need that record’. But you come out around 190 if every state achieves their maximum yield of the past five years.”

And the record yield projected for the No. 2 corn producer, Illinois, is debatable with crop ratings at only 63% good-to-excellent — well below last year.

Kent Beadle, Paradigm Futures, says that’s well below last year’s rating, and it has dropped 8% in the last few weeks.

“Right now, the good-to-excellent rating is suggesting an average Illinois crop, and of course USDA gave it a record at 221,” Beadle says.

USDA Lowers Average Corn Price
Swanson says as a result of the record supply, USDA lowered the national average corn price.

“USDA also reduced its projected market year average price for the 2025 crop from $4.20 down to $3.90. That would be the lowest market year average we’ve had since 2019.”

But cash prices are much lower in the country — pushing profitability further in the red for farmers like Haag.

Dec. Corn Profitability

(USDA)

Losing Money at This Price
“Our break-even at the farm is right around $4.25, and cash corn to where we haul today is $3.59,” Haag explains.

And with USDA’s cost of production on corn at $897 an acre, he isn’t the only farmer below break even.

Beadle says, “You know, at the 181-bushel level, we were going to need $4.95 on average for the average farmer to break even. If you add this 7.8 bushels an acre, you still need $4.75 to break even.”

Call to Action on Demand
The bleak outlook has NCGA issuing a call to action from Congress and the Trump administration, including year-round E15 — which could use an estimated 457 million bushels of corn.

“If we could get E15 — and also California to use E15 — that would burn up a lot more bushels,” Haag says. “A lot of states don’t have the infrastructure to burn E15, as their pumps are not set up. We need some adjustments there also from EPA to allow E15 to be used in your normal conditions like unleaded 87 is.”

Swanson says they’re also looking for demand in the export market.

"[We’re] also stressing the importance of continuing to work on some of these new trade frameworks and build international market access as well.”

Unfortunately, if help comes, it may not be in time to stop the bleeding at harvest time.

New Study Shows Corn Farming Delivers Economic Benefits Across All 50 States

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:44:58 GMT

Corn farming is an important economic contributor in the U.S., not only to growers and rural communities but across 506 industry sectors in all 50 states.

That’s according to the new “ Study of the Economic Value of Corn Farming in the United States for 2024 ,” a report released by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) on Monday.

Corn farming for grain generated an estimated $123 billion in total economic output in 2024, with an estimated contribution of $50 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), notes author, Krista Swanson , chief economist for the NCGA.

She writes that corn farming supported over 440,000 jobs and provided $29 billion in wages, strengthening communities in rural America and across the entire nation last year alone.

The report comes as corn prices have dropped and corn growers face many challenges, including higher input costs, tariffs and some trade barriers. NCGA leaders say the report should serve as a reminder to policymakers that corn grower contributions are important.

Here’s a look at the economic benefits corn makes in every U.S. state:

Corn farming benefits communities and individuals across the country.

(NCGA)

The total benefits of corn farming is a sum of the direct, indirect and induced effects, Swanson says.

“Direct effects are valued based on activities happening at the corn farm level. Indirect effects are valued based on activities up the corn farming supply chain, such as input providers,” she says. “Induced effects are valued based on activities filtered back into the economy by household spending of corn farmers and employees up the corn supply chain.”

Direct Effects
In 2024, corn farmers in the United States grew 14.9 billion bushels of corn for grain valued at $64.7 billion, representing the direct output or industry production value. Corn farming provides direct labor wage and benefit equivalents of $9.9 billion.

Corn farming directly contributes an estimated $15.6 billion in value added output, a measure of contribution to the nation’s GDP. To put that into perspective, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the output of all of America’s farms contributed a total $199.1 billion, or about 0.7% of U.S. GDP, in 2024.5 Corn farming alone directly made up 8% of the total farm-level contribution to GDP.

Indirect Effects
Swanson writes that there are firms in 489 different industry sectors across all 50 states with indirect linkages to corn farming. These firms generated an estimated $36.1 billion in output production value and contributed an estimated $20.7 billion to GDP in 2024. Indirect labor and wage benefits totaled $11.4 billion.

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New Administration Resets Priorities for Nation's Leading Commodity Groups

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:48:44 GMT

A new administration has reset some of the priorities for the coming year for the nation’s leading commodity associations.

American Soybean Association CEO Steve Censky says they have concerns about the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) program under new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and are playing offense to protect seed oils, which he has labeled as unhealthy.

“Because seed oils, of course, half of the soybean oil use is used for human consumption, the other half for biofuels, and we need to maintain that domestic market,” Censky says.

They also don’t want to lose the use of GMO’s or glyphosate which Kennedy has wanted to eliminate.

Censky says, “Our hope is is that Secretary Kennedy will be taking a look at the science and be guided by the science, but we also want to make sure that Secretary Rollins and Administrator Zeldin have all of the support and information they need so that to ensure that whatever decisions are coming out of the MAHA commission and recommendations that they are science -based.”

Trade is also high on their list as tariff uncertainty continues, especially focused on top customers Canada, Mexico and China.

He says, “We export half of the crop that we grow here in the United States. The soybeans that are grown are exported overseas. Number one market is China. Number two, individual country market is Mexico. And Canada is our fourth largest meal market, and so those are all important markets for us.”

The last trade war put soybeans at the tip of the spear.So they’re hoping tariffs are a tool for negotiating trade deals including with China.

“You know, U .S. agriculture lost, according to the ERS, about $27 billion from the last trade war 71% of that was born by soybean farmers in the soybean industry. And we don’t want to go through that again. And it would be far better to reach a phase two trade agreement.”

Biofuels policy is key for soybean and corn farmers as uncertainty with 45Z has many biodiesel plants shuttered and guidance is needed on Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

But Neil Caskey, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association says year round E15 is their top priority for 2025.

“We’re looking at year-round, nationwide, E -15 as a driver of that demand creation in the short term. And so, for every 1% increase in the blend rate, equates to almost 500 million bushels of demand. And so E15 is not a mandate, so that’s not going to happen.”

He thinks odds of passage an E15 bill are highs as they have support, even from the American Petroleum Institute.

“The stars are aligning once more to get that completed in the next CR that expires in a couple of weeks and we are grateful for a lot of strong bipartisan support out in Washington, D .C.”

Trade takes the second spot for NCGA, both striking new deals and avoiding a trade war with Mexico as their top corn customer and Canada a leading ethanol importer.

Caskey says their analysis documents the damage from tariffs.

“Not good for corn farmers, farmers in general. We did that in conjunction with the American Soybean Association and it concluded that a trade war is really only good for Brazil and we hope to avoid that.”

For the nation’s sorghum producers, their top ask, just like last year, is getting a new farm bill passed.

Tim Lust, CEO, National Sorghum Producers Association says, “There’s obviously challenges in the country. We need the certainty that farm policy provides and that underpinning for growers and their financing institutions and so certainly that continues to be a huge lift but something that is very important to our growers.”

Trade is also high on their list but instead of playing defense, they want to play offense, growing marketing in Southeast Asia, China and India.

Lust says, “Our industry has, you know, there’s many countries around the world we still don’t have access to. And so, just excited about the opportunity to talk about what we can do to get into other markets.”

And they too are awaiting details on 45Z biofuels policy.

Passing a modernized farm bill also tops the agenda for wheat growers says National Association of Wheat Growers CEO Chandler Goule.

“You know, making sure we adjust our PLC prices, make sure we maintain our voluntary conservation programs, but most importantly that we keep crop insurance, if not expand it so that it is more affordable and can cover more more growers across the country.”

He says they’ll know how much money Congress has to write a bill after budget reconciliation is completed.

“So far we’ve not heard of any cuts out of title one or title two or the crop insurance title so hopefully we can maintain that amount so that we can at least write a farm bill that will be reflective again of the current cost of production.”

And they’re also hopeful for tax policy extensions including the 1031 like kind land exchanges.

Goule says,"Making sure that we keep a lot of those tax cuts that President Trump put in that first time, making sure that we maintain stepped up bases, which is critical for our growers as land values continue to go up.”

Export expansion is also key for NAWG and they’re watching how DOGE impacts programs like USAID.

“All those programs where we send our U .S. wheat to developing countries is critical to help us maintain a good domestic market price,” he adds.

And its key because half of the U.S. wheat crop is sold internationally.

Leadership and Legacy: Empowering Stories from the First Female Corn Growers President

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT

It’s a fine line Pam Johnson walks gracefully—actively contributing to the family farm, giving her time and talent to farm organizations while building her legacy and now, in her words, letting go.

For 25 years, she’s used her farm roots, passions and gift of leadership in multiple advocacy organizations. And since 1972, she’s built up the family farm with her husband, Maurice, who died in 2024.

For her achievements in agricultural advocacy, farm business innovation and industry leadership, Johnson was recognized as the 2024 Top Producer Women in Ag award winner, which was sponsored by the Farm Journal Foundation.

Bigger and Better
From their 1,150-acre corn and soybean farm in Iowa, Johnson has springboarded her on-farm experience into advocacy and leadership.

In 2013, she became the first female president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)and collaborated with trade associations as well as members of Congress to work on the farm bill.

She also went on to help found MAIZALL, the International Maize Alliance of Corn Growers Associations, which included Brazil, Argentina and the U.S.

“Not many people can go from the farm to the halls of Congress and do that hard work, and fewer remember they are still from the farm and representing their friends, neighbors and fellow farmers,” says John Doggett, former NCGA CEO. “Pam never forgot that the efforts she made were not for her, but those who placed their trust in her to advocate for them.”

(Lilac Design and Photography)

“I love the big picture stuff — especially when I started meeting with farmers in Iowa, around the country and around the world — it was energizing to work on the next big thing,” Johnson says.

Finding how she can use her voice and engage in the industry beyond the farm gate was something Johnson found inspiration from within at first, and then was able to quickly see how it paid off.

“When we were young and working to make a buck, a local elevator failed, and they had a bankruptcy hearing in Des Moines. Some of us went to that, and I told Maurice I was going to get up and say something because I was angry and didn’t think there would be accountability by the owner or restitution for the farmers who were devastated. I thought it was important to be an advocate for people and for my community,” she says. “And people noticed. I got up and found my voice. When you join with other people, you can make a difference.”

That experience led to Johnson being asked to help a local economic development group.

One of her champions was Helen Inman, who served on the Iowa Corn Promotion board preceding her.

“She encouraged me, even though I said I was busy,” Johnson says. “But she set the hook — she said, ‘It’s the best work I’ve ever done with the best people I’ve ever worked with,” so I said, ‘Yes, I will do it.’”

Through Johnson’s leadership on the promotion board, farmer investment in value-added agriculture and specifically ethanol grew. There are now six ethanol plants within 50 miles of her farm providing diversified markets and ownership dividends.

The role was life changing and the true springboard for her further leadership.

“There have been times when I’ve thought I was too busy, but working on things that mattered, doing meaningful work with people you like — that makes a difference,” she says. “It was said when I worked with the U.S. Grains Council that demand creation isn’t a spectator sport, and it’s the truth. You can wish and hope, but if you don’t do anything about it, it’s not going to happen.”

Her time away from the farm fostered new ideas and new opportunities.

“These experiences and getting to be friends with other farmers, we’d go to their farm, and they’d come to ours. It just made us bigger and better people,” Johnson says. “I had the luck to be exposed to the ideas and bring them to the farm.”

Transitioning for growth mode to a new stage of retirement, Pam Johnson farms with her sons Ben and Andy in north central Iowa.

(Lilac Design and Photography)

Seeds Planted At Home
Johnson says the greatest achievement has been building the farm business with her husband, Maurice, and now successfully transferring it to their sons, Ben and Andy.

Being around agriculture all her life, she says a focus on the future has always been at the forefront.

“My mom and dad were farmers, times were tough, and dad started working as a mechanic and ended up being the owner of the John Deere store,” she says. “And every week he had an ad in the paper and included his philosophy: the greatest crop we are going to raise is our children.”

She says farming chose her, but her first career was as a nurse. After the birth of their sons, she left nursing and worked full time on the farm.

“Everyday, Maurice and I went out the door shoulder to shoulder,” she says. “The women in this family have always been treated with equality. We sink or swim together.”

The farm had farrow to finish hogs for 38 years — exiting the hog business in 2010 and since then solely focusing on row crops.

“We survived the farm crisis of the 80s and the collapse of the hog market in 1998,” she says. “In ’98 we saw so many people go out of business, and it was survivor’s guilt, because other people were working just as hard as we were. From that we learned resilience, perseverance and keep your nose to the grindstone.”

(Lilac Design and Photography)

A business focus on farm finance has been paramount, which was aided with digital recordkeeping and benchmarking with other farmers.

“Maurice was the driving force behind the farm accounting going digital, and frankly, I don’t have that in my skillset,” she explains. “It’s another lesson in life, to surround yourself with smart people and then do what you are each good at.”

She and Maurice took on senior leadership roles in the farm management, and they set the expectation both sons would go to college before returning to the farm—if that’s the future they chose.

“The beauty in having kids go away to college is beyond just the degree and education — it’s the ideas, their network and their bigger thought process they bring home,” she says.

Through a series of fortuitous events, both sons married and returned to the farm — offering additional labor resources and stepping into more management decisions with their wives. They were able to purchase nearby farms, share resources and work together.

“Each of our kids have their own land, but we tried to move forward together and work together,” she says. “We let skills, talents and passions unfold over the years. You can’t be good at everything — it helps when everyone is different, and you aren’t all clones.”

She says the goals for the farm have been continual improvement and growth of the business.

“The aim is to keep moving forward, be successful, and enjoy life and family along the way,” she says.

(Lilac Design and Photography)

Pinch Me Moments
From economic development to scientific research, Johnson says, “Sometimes I sit back and smile that I had a part in making big things happen.”

One area she particularly enjoyed was the scientific research work funded by the grower associations, including genetic mapping.

“Science made my brain sparkle, so I got hooked into the research committee,” she says. “These were visionary people at the table, and while the human genome was getting mapped and the rice genome was getting mapped, we knew we had to get the corn genome mapped — to tap into the potential of what corn could be.”

Seeing the opportunity to be a champion for the project, Johnson raised her hand to go to Capitol Hill.

“We got the funding, and it was industry changing,” she says. “And now it’s moved from genomics to phenomics, and there’s still so much potential.”

A coalition builder, Johnson sought out common ground to bring groups together.

“On a trip to Argentina with officers of the U.S. Grains Council and the National Corn Growers Association, we saw common issues — trade barriers, acceptance of biotechnology and more,” Johnson says. “So, we brought together the Argentinians, the Brazilians and the American groups. We had collaboration with the three huge corn competitors on one front, but we built trust, traveled together to China, the WTO in Geneva and the FAO in Rome and worked together.”

In the moment, the work was rewarding, and upon reflection, Johnson found it empowering to think what was started.

“You’re never sure sometimes if what you did made a difference, but we planted seeds anyway,” she says. “And I think back about what we did and say, ‘Pinch me, right?’”

Johnson notes her visibility as a female farmer and woman in association leadership is and should be encouraging to others.

“If you can see it, you can be it — it’s true,” she says. “If I was going to a meeting or to an event, I wanted to be encouraging and inspiring to try to make it easier for the next person behind me.”

Johnson has been active with other advocacy groups including Common Ground, which focuses on consumer outreach, and FarmHer, which provides mentorship among female ag producers.

“There’s not much more gratifying than when I meet someone who wants to do something I am doing or have done, and they say, ‘Tell me how I can get involved.’”

Pam Johnson and her husband, Maurice, navigated industry changes and the effects and opportunities for their Iowa farm all while Johnson pursued local, national and international advocacy leadership roles.

(Lilac Design and Photography)

Time of Transition
This year has brought a new chapter for Pam Johnson.

In 2021, her husband, Maurice, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Since his diagnosis, she returned to her skills as a nurse and was his caregiver. He died on Sept. 7, 2024.

Now the matriarch of the farm, Johnson says her role continues to change. She wants to intentionally retire and fully transition to the next generation.

“At the end of this year’s harvest, I thought, I’m so lucky,” she says. “After Maurice’s funeral, we went into harvest together. And we had long hours day after day without a rain break.”

In the middle of harvest, Johnson got the sign of encouragement she needed.

“I asked Maurice to send me signs. And in the midst of harvest, we got to experience the best northern lights show I’ve ever seen. My daughter-in-law said, ‘Grandpa is with us,’” Johnson says.

She and Maurice spent their farming career in growth mode, and now is a time for change.

“Now my identity is flying solo, and I’m going to retire. I do not want to grow any older and wait to fully turn over the farm,” she says. “There are checklists, and we know what to do.”

She says she’s staying on the farm in the house she and Maurice built in 1975 from boards reused from an old corn crib, and she’ll contribute as she’s asked to.

“Now is the time to try to make things better for the seventh and eighth generation and at the same time let go,” she says.

She’s continuing to live by the words she and Maurice built the farm with: courage, resilience, perseverance, excellence and doing the right thing.

EPA’s Year-Round E15 Proposed Rule Pushes Sales into 2024

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:09:20 GMT

EPA on Wednesday issued a proposed rule by eight Midwest governors, including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, to allow the sale of E15 fuel blends all year, starting in 2024.

Historically, E15 sales were banned in the summer months due to claim that the blend increased smog. However, year-round sales have been on the table for many Midwest states since President Biden suspended the summer ban on E15 in 2022 as a means to mitigate rising fuel costs.

Related article: 8 State Requests for Year-Round E15 Reviewed by US Budget Office

“EPA’s research has shown no significant impact on evaporative emissions when… the waiver is extended to E15,” the agency wrote at the time of the suspension. “With no significant impacts on emissions from cars and trucks, we expect consumers can continue to use E15 without concern that its use in the summer will impact air quality.”

Troubled Waters

While the ethanol industry has been pushing for the legislation since 2022, some stakeholders, including the Renewable Fuel Association (RFA) , are dissatisfied with the proposed rule timeline.

“There is simply no justification for further delaying this action, which is already months overdue,” said Geoff Cooper, RFA president and CEO. “By law, EPA should have finalized approval of the governors’ petition more than seven months ago, which would have given the marketplace more than enough time to adjust and prepare for implementation this summer.”

According to Cooper, the Biden administration was pressured by the oil industry to “ignore” each states’ proposal. In pushing the year-round E15 implementation in 2024, Cooper is concerned the agency would put the oil industry above consumers needs for affordable fuel at the pump.

“We urge EPA to reconsider its proposal to delay implementation. There is still time for the agency to finalize the regulation—or to use other regulatory authority—to allow E15 sales to continue this summer,” Cooper said.

RFA and other groups will be offered an opportunity to share their thoughts on EPA’s proposed rule at a public hearing date to be announced in coming weeks. All listeners must register for by sending an email to RFS-Hearing@epa.gov.

Related article: United Airlines Taps Corn to Bring Ethanol-Based Jet Fuel to Market

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) echoed RFA’s disdain for the proposed rule in a press release .

“This proposal, while well-intended, still leaves the country with a patchwork of regulations that prevents the nation’s driving public from enjoying the full benefits of biofuels. It also fails to address this upcoming summer driving season,” said Fischer.

According to Fischer, the “best” solution to EPA’s rule is congressional action. Others agree, but in a different form of legislation.

Where to Next for Ethanol?

But E15 regulations aren’t the only ethanol news to keep an eye out for in 2023, according to Neil Caskey, National Corn Grower’s Association CEO.

Caskey says the next ethanol push will be rooted in the Next Generation Fuels Act —a bill that would seek to establish a minimum Research Octane Number (RON) of 98 for gasoline. This research level would be higher than the standard of 91 set today.

The act would also require sources of the added octane value to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40%.

Related article: DOE Cuts $118 Million Check to Biofuels Projects

Caskey says since ethanol has a higher-octane number compared to gasoline, estimates find the act would add 1.8 billion bushels of new corn demand. Beyond crops, Caskey says the bill would offer a lower-cost, cleaner option at the pump.

The Next Generation Fuels Act will likely hit both the House and Senate floor soon, according to Caskey. He says to expect the legislative process to be put into motion later this year.

The Cost of a Farm Bill: 2023 Row Crop Priorities

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 15:35:54 GMT

The 2018 farm bill was stamped with a $428 billon price tag when the bill was passed. Nutrition, crop insurance, commodities, trade and conservation programs were among the programs to receive the most funds.

With the 2018 bill set to expire on Sept. 30, the Congressional Research Service last May released baseline spending for the same programs starting in the 2023 farm bill. The baseline shows a decrease in commodities and conservation, while nutrition, trade and crop insurance increased.

As the debate heats up, here’s a breakdown of what ag groups look to push on the 2023 farm bill negotiating table:

1. Crop Insurance

Industry leaders sounded the crop insurance alarm on the The Hill in Jan. when some 60 groups signed a letter to Senate and House Ag Committee members, pushing for protections from “harmful” insurance cuts.

“Farmers spend as much as $4 billion per year of their own money to purchase insurance from the private sector. On average, farmers also must incur losses of almost 30 percent before their insurance coverage pays an indemnity,” the groups wrote in the letter. “Given the challenges faced by rural America and the critical nature of crop insurance, cuts to the program should be avoided.”

Crop insurance is permanently authorized in a farm bill. However, amendments are often posed to the crop insurance title, adding an element of concern for producers.

Leaders at the American Soybean Association (ASA) are looking to play defense in the title, says Christy Seyfert, ASA executive director of government affairs.

“In the past, amendments have been proposed to use crop insurance as a funding resource for priorities outside of crop insurance,” Seyfert says. “We’re looking to protect against harmful amendments that make crop insurance more expensive for farmers.”

Read more: Stepped-Up Basis Leaning in Favor of Rural America on House Ways and Means Panel

National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) is aiming to take a different approach.

“We’re looking to maintain and enhance the crop insurance reach for producers by expanding current authority and programs,” says Chandler Goule, NAWG CEO. “To help with continued market fluctuations and erratic weather patterns, we’re leaning more into the revenue side.”

2. Farm Safety Net

Most farmers who grow row crops will soon be making their decision between Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) .

The 2014 Farm Bill first introduced ARC and PLC with a reference price, while the 2018 Farm Bill allowed the reference price to increase by up to 15%, which is why it is now called the effective reference price.

This reference price should be a focus in 2023, according to Wayne Stoskopf, director for public policy for risk management and tax at National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) .

“The effective reference price is definitely something we want to maintain,” he says. “We’re looking at how much it would cost, as well as some of the potential benefits, if it or the statutory reference price we’re to be increased.”

Read more: ARC or PLC - Which Do I Choose for 2023

Goule echoed Stoskopf, saying with the increase in the cost of goods, services and inputs since 2018, a $5.50 reference price for wheat is “simply not a realistic backstop” of what it costs to produce a bushel of wheat in the U.S.

“We’re encouraging Congress to increase budget authority so we can raise the reference price to something that’s reflective of our current circumstances and potential costs in coming years,” Goule says.

3. Trade

U.S. ag exports reached a record high of $196.4 billion in fiscal year 2022, according to USDA. With $237 million in funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) for 2023, Seyfert foresees another export record. However, her team thinks more funding could be impactful.

“We’re looking to double funding for MAP and FMD in the next farm bill,” she says. “A jump to $400 million and $69 million, respectively, will help us continue to build relationships internationally.”

Read more: SHIP IT Act Could Save Truck Drivers Up to $10,000 and Cover CDL Costs

According to Seyfert, ASA and other associations feel increased investments will open new doors to untapped markets overseas.

A Major Misconception About the Field Corn You See Right Now

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:32:31 GMT

Three years ago, an aerial view of Carroll County, Mo., looked more like a lake. The Missouri River flood of 2019 robbed area farmers of crops and vital infrastructure.

“We had six to seven foot of water where we’re standing right now,” says Carroll County farmer Adam Casner. “It’s been quite a rebuilding process – actually still involved in it.”

The flood changed the landscape forever, as Casner’s family relocated their family home that had been planted in the river bottoms for decades. Farther from the river, and on higher ground, they also built a new shop to house equipment.

Crops Off to a Strong Start

The Casners aren’t finished fixing the damage left behind, but the loss of crops is something the young farmers won’t ever forget, even if they’ve come a long way in the three years since.

“We’ve got a very good-looking prospect of crop here,” says Casner while looking out at this year’s corn crop. “We had really good stands, emergence was good. We had some timely rains early.”

Casner says the ground they farm along the Missouri River missed some of the recent rains that traveled across Missouri. While concerned about dryness, he’s thankful for the crop he has.

Planting started about a month behind this year for Casner, but with strong stands and minimal replant in his fields that are a few miles from the Missouri River, the crop is off to a solid start.

The Truth About Field Corn

The lush fields look promising, even if these fields are also ones that can be tangled in misconceptions from those driving by on Highway 65 that runs adjacent to their original home farm.

“A small fraction of the field corn we grow goes to actual food products such as cornflakes or sweeteners or such,” explains Casner. “It’s actually less than 10% that goes towards those products.”

Casner says the majority of the field corn rooted in his fields and other farms across the U.S. goes to other products outside of food.

“When you drive down the highway and see the field corn out here, 90% of that goes to the ethanol, exports and livestock,” he adds.

USDA’s June acreage report showed U.S. farmers planted 89.9 million acres of corn this year, and one out of every four bushels of added corn demand in the U.S. comes from cattle and hog producers.

Livestock, Ethanol and Exports

While some farms may not know exactly where the corn they grow goes after its taken to the local grain elevator, all of Casner’s corn is sent to two local ethanol plants.

“Where we’re standing now, we can hit U.S. Highway 65 and go 10 miles north or south and hit an ethanol plant,” says Casner. “So, that’s where 100% of our grain produced goes.”

One of those local ethanol plants is Mid-Missouri Energy (MME), a farmer-owned ethanol plant that took root 17 years ago.

“By design, our facility has about 10 days of ethanol storage and 10 days of DDG storage behind us here,” says Chris Wilson, the general manager of MME.

Processing 55,000 Bushels of Corn/Day

Today, the rural Missouri plant is in constant motion with an average of 100 trucks entering and exiting the facility each day. In total, MME processes around 55,000 bushels of corn a day.

“One of the nice things about our facility is we can speed up to 60,000 bushels a day or we can slow down if margins dictate to 30,000 or 40,000 bushels per day,” says Wilson.

Out of the 55,000 bushels of corn processed on average, the plant produces:

160,000 gallons of ethanol
415 tons of dried distillers grains (DDGs)
45,000 pounds of corn oil
450 tons of CO2

After local farms unload the corn from their trucks, it’s then processed into ethanol, DDGs and corn oil. The facility stores the product on site before shipped out to end users across the U.S.

“Most of our DDG products ship to the south, so southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas,” says Wilson.

Providing Livestock Feed

By being located farther south in the Corn Belt, MME has prime placement for end users farther south, especially Arkansas’ poultry industry. The majority of their grain travels a couple hundred miles to feed the livestock industry there, but a portion of the DDGs stays local and is used by livestock producers like Brent Sandidge, a pork producer in Saline County, Mo.

“We use DDGs a lot in our gestation rations,” says Sandidge of Ham Hill Farms. “We use it in late nursery quite a bit and then all the way through finishing to the last few diets.”

Sandidge’s operations are located just 16.8 miles from MME, and today, Ham Hill Farms is still a family farm – one that’s been in business for more than a century.

“It’s kind of neat to be able to say you’ve been here that long and are still producing food for people,” he says.

Battling PRRS

Sandidge continues to find ways to become even more efficient as a pork producer, but this past year has been riddled with challenges.

“PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) virus has been a huge problem for us for a number of years. We get healthy and then we have a break again. And we’re dealing with the 1-4-4 L1c variant right now,” says Sandidge.

The most recent variant is not only aggressive and hard to control, but costly. PRRS has been a disease pork producers continue to battle, and it’s been devastating to hog operations across the U.S.

“We had a couple months where we didn’t wean very many pigs, so our sales were basically nothing,” says Sandidge.

The situation is finally improving on his Saline County farms, but he says it’s taken nearly a year to recover.

“We sell about eight loads a week, and we’re just about back to where we’re doing that pretty consistently now,” he adds.

The Inflation Factor

As Sandidge rebuilds, he’s also battling inflation with rising prices on nearly everything they purchase for their farm. As the industry faces higher costs, Sandidge says he continues to focus on managing risk, as well as hedging what they can while also wading through the uncertainty.

“One of the things that happens is we do get a recession, normally commodity prices go down, and so you don’t want to have too much bought ahead at the same time. It’s just a difficult time to be in business,” says Sandidge.

One Team

The Missouri pork producer admits those challenges mean he may only break even this year, but he hopes the strong start to the crops in area farm fields means producers will harvest a large crop this fall, since that crop will help feed his recovering hog herd.

“There’s so few of us actually involved in production agriculture today. If we don’t stick together, we’re not going to have much of a voice,” he says.

AgriTalk Special: A Day of Ethanol

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 21:53:17 GMT

On Thursday, AgriTalk celebrated “A Day of Ethanol” in partnership with the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). AgriTalk host Chip Flory welcomed Jim Wiesemeyer, Pro Farmer policy analyst, and Mark Recker, northeast Iowa farmer and ethanol action team chair at NCGA, on the morning broadcast to help facilitate the conversation with the following guests:

Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy —

Year-round availability of E15
Climate goals and how ethanol fits into those targets

Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of Renewable Fuels Association —

California’s policies, such as the low-carbon fuel standard, and how they impact the direction of the ethanol industry
E10 and E15 demand
How electric vehicle mandates and the Next Generation Fuels Act might impact ethanol demand

Mark Palmer, director of renewable fuels at NCGA —

Core issues that drive NCGA efforts in regard to renewable fuels
Outreach and education with the Biden administration and on Capitol Hill

In the afternoon broadcast, Chris Edgington, NCGA president, joined Flory and Wiesemeyer along with the following guests:

Dr. Andy Randolph, technical director at ECR Engines —

Why ethanol blends are the right choice for your fuel tank
Higher ethanol blends and what that means for today’s motors and performance

Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), co-chair of the House Biofuels Caucus —

Explanation of the Biofuel Caucus, including goals and missions
Disconnect between consumers and the benefits of ethanol
Biden administration’s energy focus

New NCGA President, Iowa Farmer Chris Edgington, Assesses Goals and Priorities

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 19:09:28 GMT

Nearly every gallon of gasoline in the U.S. contains a minimum of 10% ethanol derived from corn, according to the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). Each year, about 30% of field corn goes into fuel ethanol. That makes it the second-largest customer of U.S. corn and a topic that is front and center for incoming NCGA President, Chris Edgington.

“I’ve got probably a half-dozen ethanol plants within a 50-mile radius of my house; it’s in big demand,” says Edgington, who farms near St. Ansgar, Iowa.

NCGA reports corn ethanol is positioned to play an even larger role in the future of transportation fuels, as the U.S. addresses the need for more sustainable fuels.

So, Who Is No. 1?

Edgington is quick to add that the No. 1 customer for U.S. corn by far is livestock – millions and millions of hogs and cattle on farms throughout the country – a fact that he encourages corn growers to appreciate and keep in mind.

“They are our largest market; they all utilize corn in one form or another,” he told AgriTalk host, Chip Flory, on Tuesday.

In recent years, he notes that the cattle industry has embraced dried distillers grains (DDGs) coming out of the ethanol plants.

“Trucks are hauling (DDGs) out every single day to the cattle feedlots,” he says. “It’s really become a feed of choice that feeders want every day in their cattle ration.”

Whether it’s working to expand the marketplace with higher blends of ethanol, like E15, or working to increase the amount of corn livestock producers use, these are just a couple of the key priorities for Edgington as he assumes his new role.

As he evaluates goals and objectives for NCGA and its farmer members, he notes that at the heart of them all for most growers is their desire to strengthen the family farm for the family and build a legacy.

“We’re all thinking about the next generation,” he says. “We’re looking at how do we grow our operation and make it more efficient for the next generation.”

A Long History Of Service
Edgington also serves as president of the NCGA Foundation, an executive committee member of NCGA’s Allied Industry Council, and as the association’s delegate to the U.S. Grains Council. He also serves as the liaison to the Agriculture Markets Advisory Council and the Renewable Fuels Association.

Previously, he served as the board liaison to the Freedom to Operate Action Team, the Food, Feed and Industrial Action Team, and the Market Access Action Team. He has also served on the CornPAC, the Finance Committee and the Governance Committee. He represented the Corn Board on the Syngenta Advisory Council for Enogen and the National Pork Producers Council.

A past chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and co-chair of Corn Vision 2020, he was a member of NCGA’s Trade Policy and Biotechnology Action Team prior to his election to the Corn Board. Currently, he also serves as chairman of Rural Development Partners.

Commodity Classic Groups Say Agriculture is the Answer to Addressing Climate

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:40:00 GMT

Commodity Classic may be virtual this year, but the groups still have major topics to tackle with the Biden Administration now in the White House. As the core commodity groups iron out their legislative priorities for the new year, the headline is moving from trade to climate.

“This is a big change,” says Tim Lust, CEO of National Sorghum Producers (NSP) . “And when we start talking about how we’re going to make significant changes in agriculture policy, and how farmers are involved in that. It’s been 25 years since agriculture policy has seen a shift this significant from a policy standpoint. So, it ought to get that amount of respect, it ought to get that amount of review, to make sure that we get it right.”

Corn, sorghum, soybean and wheat growers are all focused on driving climate conversations this year, a key topic during Commodity Classic legislative sessions.

“We need to make sure that we have policy that is a guidepost rather than hitching post,” says Jon Doggett, CEO of National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) . Doggett calls the surging interest in climate initiatives corn farmers’ biggest challenge and opportunity.

“Climate change is definitely going to be the conversation that’s going to be occurring in Washington, and we’re going to be at the table – active participants – to make sure that whatever deal is reached is good for the American corn farmer,” adds Doggett. “The biggest challenge is going to be just that: we are going to make sure corn farmers are getting to the table.”

Securing a Seat at the Table

Securing a seat at the climate conversation table is on the minds of every ag commodity group right now, as agriculture wants to help craft such policies.

“I think that’s probably the biggest fear is that policies will try to be crafted by those who don’t know agriculture,” says American Soybean Association (ASA) CEO Stephen Censky. “I think that’s really the importance of the American Soybean Association, engaging, front and center, and having a seat at the table.

Censky also wants to see climate policy reward those who are already sowing seeds of good stewardship, not just thenew adopters.

“If not, you could end up with some real perverse incentives there. For folks that have been doing good conservation for a lot of years, if they’re left out, there’s the possibility that people could be tempted to pull tillage equipment out of the grove or out of the shed that they haven’t used for years, just to qualify for those payments that might be available,” says Censky.

Different Approach for Different Regions

ASA also wants to see the programs be voluntary, incentive-based, and the programs need to cater to the different challenges growers face in the different geographies across the country.

“A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, because we have very different climates, geographies, soil structures. And so what is working in one part of the country may not work in another part of the country,” Censky adds.

Voluntary and incentive-based programs are also a priority of NSP, but it’s the geography piece that Lust says will be key for sorghum.

“Certainly, cover crops are a great discussion for some areas. But for my hometown that has had less than 10 inches of rain in the last year, I’m not sure that that fit is the same,” says Lust. “I think we just have to understand that regional differences are important there.”

Agriculture is the Answer

As the discussions continue to take shape during virtual Commodity Classic this year, and then the commodity associations take those desires to Washington, Censky says agriculture has to remembers its part of the answer when it comes to addressing climate.

“Our soybean farmers believe that agriculture – and soybean farmers themselves – are part of the solution,” says Censky. “Many times in agriculture, agriculture gets blamed. But we really see the good work that soybean farmers have been doing for decades, the continued good work that will be there.”

Returning to ASA from his most recent time at USDA as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under the Trump Administration, Censky was able to get a firsthand look at all the tools USDA has at its disposal to craft programs within agriculture. Censky says Secretary Tom Vilsack is returning to USDA with eight years of experience, time he thinks will pay off for farmers as the climate conversations continue.

“He knows the kinds of programs that are available, the levers that you can pull, he knows the structure of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and those voluntary incentive-based programs,” says Censky. “I took it as a very good sign that we have Secretary Vilsack andwe have the Biden administration, that have said one of the first things they want to start is the dialogue with farmers. I think that dialogue is key to making sure they understand that they need to talk to agriculture, and they need to come up with solutions that actually work on the ground.”

Related Stories:

The Carbon Contract Conundrum

NCGA CEO Says Climate Policy Needs to be Guidepost Rather Than Hitching Post

EPA Grants RFS Waivers on Eve of Inauguration

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:16:48 GMT

In the Trump Administration’s final hours, the EPA granted two small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) and appears to have reversed a previous denial.

EPA does not release information on who has received the waivers, but the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) notes the two waivers granted for 2019 amount to a loss of 150 million gallons of biofuel demand.

The RFA also notes that the EPA website indicates a previously denied 2018 waiver request was reversed, resulting in an additional loss of 110 million gallons of biofuel demand.

The RFA immediately threatened to challenge the waivers in court.

“This midnight-hour attempt by the Trump administration to damage the Renewable Fuel Standard and sabotage the ethanol industry’s recovery from the COVID pandemic simply cannot be allowed to prevail,” RFA CEO Geoff Cooper said in a statement. “With just hours remaining in his shameful term as EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler couldn’t stop himself from doling out a few more Clean Air Act compliance exemptions to his well-connected friends. But the fact remains that today’s action by EPA is completely without legal merit. It flouts both the statute and recent court decisions that clearly limit EPA’s authority and ability to grant these exemptions. And while this action comes as one last sucker punch from the Trump administration, we are confident it will be a hollow victory for the politically connected oil companies receiving today’s waivers, as the new Biden Administration will most certainly act quickly to restore the volumes erased by these waivers.”

Related:

Biofuel Groups Hopeful Biden Administration Will Restore the RFS

Biofuel organization Growth Energy notes these latest waivers bring the total number of Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) granted by the Trump Administration to 88, representing 4.3 billion gallons of biofuel demand.

“Farm families and biofuel workers across the country have worked tirelessly to make a living over the past few months despite a global pandemic. And yet, the Trump Administration’s SRE abuse has piled on to the uncertainty and difficulty that rural Americans are facing every day,” added Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor in a press release. “Given President-elect Biden’s commitments on the campaign trail, we‘re confident his incoming team will swiftly work to reverse the damage these oil handouts have done to rural America by this midnight maneuvering.”

Outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler had earlier indicated he would wait until the Supreme Court had reviewed a suit over the waivers before making a determination on the outstanding 2019 and 2020 waiver requests. The court is set to review a 10th Circuit ruling that the waivers were meant to be extension, so refiners could not be granted a waiver to the blending requirements of the RFS if they had not been granted a waiver every year since it was implemented in 2010.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to those who have been paying attention for the last four years that this EPA would undermine corn farmers and the ethanol market on its way out the door. There is no reason for the EPA to take this action now, especially with the Supreme Court set to consider the Tenth Circuit ruling in the new term,” said National Corn Growers Association President John Linder. “Corn farmers need an EPA that will follow the law as written and intended by Congress. NCGA looks forward to working with the Biden Administration to rectify the harm caused by this EPA’s abuse of small refinery exemptions and restore the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

The EPA website indicates there are still 30 outstanding SRE applications for 2019 and 15 pending applications for 2020.

Signal to Noise: Biden Team Outreach to Ag Unprecedented

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:27:34 GMT

The outreach from the Biden transition team to ag organizations is unprecedented, according to National Corn Growers Association CEO Jon Doggett. It started with an out of the blue call from the designee for EPA Administrator and has continued with calls to a number of groups and at varying staff levels. Doggett details those interactions in a special edition of the DC Signal to Noise Podcast.

Also in this episode:

Reaction to the invasion of the U.S. Capitol
Glimmers of bipartisanship
How Tom Vilsack’s return to USDA will smooth some transition problems
Will ag seek anything in the next coronavirus aid package?

Biden EPA Designee Reaches Out to Corn Growers

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 19:08:37 GMT

President-Elect Joe Biden officially announced his climate cabinet on Saturday, including the nomination of Michael Regan of North Carolina to be EPA Administrator. On the eve of that announcement, Regan was on the phone with the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

“Friday night, I got a call from Michael. He called me on my cell phone, he called me at night. It was not set up, and I was completely surprised,” NCGA CEO Jon Doggett told Chip Flory on the AgriTalk Radio Show. “He just wanted to introduce himself and said, ‘You know, we’ve got a lot of work to do together if I get confirmed, and I’m looking forward to working with you.’”

Doggett said much of the conversation focused on working with corn growers to reverse climate change.

Doggett quoted Regan as saying, “I know the RFS (Renewable Fuels Standard) is important to the corn industry, and climate change is important to Joe Biden and the rest of the country. And we are really looking forward to helping farmers find opportunities to help us address climate change.”

“That was really good to hear,” Doggett noted.

Doggett said he highlighted some of the needs of corn farmers that intersect with EPA regulation.

“We have to have our tools, we have to have GMOs, we have to have glyphosate. We have to have those tools that allow us to be sustainable, not only environmentally, but economically. And he gets that,” Doggett said. “And again, the outreach was truly, truly amazing.”

Regan is currently the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in North Carolina.

Related content:

Signal to Noise: Biden Sets His Climate Cabinet

Biden Plans to Tap Top NC Environmental Regulator to Lead EPA

Major Agricultural Issues to Watch During Upcoming Biden Administration

What Vilsack’s Return to USDA Would Mean for U.S. Farmers and Ranchers

What Ag Retail Can Expect From A Biden Administration

Delaware Ag Secretary Sees Biden USDA Focus on Trade, Climate

Policy Journal - Early Spring 2019

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:21:33 GMT

NASS Eliminates An Objective Yield Survey

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will no longer release its August Objective Yield Survey. It will continue to conduct the farmer-based survey in August as well as release the Objective Yield Survey results in September, October and November.

“NASS conducted their survey for the August reports the last week of July into the first week of August, and it was just too early for them to get real data in the field,” said Pro Farmer’s Brian Grete in an “AgriTalk” interview.

From a marketing perspective, eliminating the August Objective Yield Survey might not have a big impact, Grete said. The Pro Farmer Crop Tour, which pulls 1,400 corn and soybean samples, will now be the first to report yield estimates the third week of August.

Year-Round E15 Closer to Reality

Finally, the announcement the ethanol industry and farmers have been waiting for: President Donald Trump advanced a plan to lift the ban on E15 sales from June 1 to Sept. 15. The proposal also places trading restrictions on credits refiners use to prove they’re using biofuels.

“The proposed rule is great progress to getting the rule-making completed by the start of the summer driving season, June 1,” says National Corn Growers Association President Lynn Chrisp in a statement. “Allowing year-round sales of higher blends of ethanol not only grows a domestic market for farmers, but E15 gives consumers more choice at the pump, a lower price option and greater environmental benefits from a cleaner fuel. It’s time to remove the barrier to all of these benefits.”

Similarly, Geoff Cooper, the president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), says the announcement is one step closer to making good on Trump’s promise to allow E15 sales all year. However, Cooper says getting the rule finalized and implemented in time for the driving season is a tall order. RFA is urging EPA to separate the E15 provisions from the Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) reform provisions to avoid a holdup.

In light of the progress for E15, there are concerns about the RIN language and its impact on farmers. Small refinery exemptions also need to be addressed.

The Trade War Takes A Heavy Toll

The trade battle between the U.S. and China continues to weigh on agriculture. New data from USDA puts it into perspective, showing some states saw exports decrease more than 80% to China in 2018.

The U.S. lost $10.4 billion worth of ag exports to China from 2017 to 2018, a 53% drop in one year, says Veronica Nigh, an economist with American Farm Bureau Federation.

Soybean exports to China eroded by $9 billion in 2018, she adds. Wheat, dairy products, and hides and skins saw total losses more than $100 million from 2017 to 2018.

For more analysis on the impact of the tense trade environment, visit bit.ly/missing-China.

USMCA Passage Encouraged by 960+ Ag, Food Associations and Companies

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:20:54 GMT

A collation of U.S. food and agriculture associations and companies addressed a letter to Congress seeking quick ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The letter was sent on June 11 by more than 960 groups representing the U.S. food and agriculture value chain at the national, state and local.

An excerpt of the letter says:

“Over the last 25 years, U.S. food and agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have more than quadrupled under NAFTA – growing from $9 billion in 1993 to nearly $40 billion in 2018. NAFTA has significantly helped create a reliable, high-quality supply of food products for U.S. consumers, while supporting more than 900,000 American jobs in food and agriculture and related sectors of the economy. USMCA builds on the success of the NAFTA agreement, and will ultimately lead to freer markets and fairer trade. This modernized trade agreement makes improvements to further enhance U.S. food and agricultural exports to our neighbors and would deliver an additional $2.2 billion in U.S. economic activity.”

The letter was signed by a number of national groups representing farmers and ranchers, including:

American Farm Bureau Federation
American Soybean Association
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
National Cotton Council
National Corn Growers Association
National Milk Producers Federation
National Pork Producers Council
National Sorghum Producers

Also signing the letter were food processing companies, along with state and local agriculture associations.

Discussions in Congress

A hearing was held by the House Agriculture Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee the same day the letter was sent. The subcommittee was reviewing the state of U.S. agricultural products in international markets and following the hearing Subcommittee Ranking Member David Rouzer (R-NC) and Committee Ranking Member K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) both expressed the importance of getting USMCA passed .

“USMCA is a no-brainer for American agriculture. If the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) estimated $2.2 billion increase in ag exports doesn’t convince my colleagues, then all they need to do is talk to a local farmer or rancher. American producers have made it clear: the best thing we can do for our lagging agriculture economy is get this deal done. I urge my colleagues on the committee to join me in calling for Speaker Pelosi to bring USMCA to a vote in the House as soon as possible,” says Rep. Rouzer.

“Rather than spew platitudes about the importance of free trade to American agriculture, it’s time for the House Democratic Leadership to get serious about the clear win that sits before them – the USMCA agreement. Today’s hearing further underscored that ratifying USMCA is critically important to America’s farmers, ranchers, and dairymen. With the ITC report in hand, Speaker Pelosi should bring USMCA up for a vote as quickly as possible,” says Rep. Conaway.

Dairy Voicing Concerns

The dairy industry had already pushed for swift passage of USMCA just a day prior , on June 10, when three national dairy groups, including the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), sent a similar letter to members of the House of Representatives. IDFA released a statement regarding the latest letter expressing the importance of USMCA because of fixes to current trade policies with Canada and Mexico.

“USMCA meets the U.S. dairy industry’s top priorities to ensure a more level playing field, including preserving duty-free market access to Mexico, eliminating the unfair Canadian Class 7 pricing program and increasing market access to the Canadian market,” says Michael Dykes, DVM, president and CEO of IDFA. “The U.S. dairy industry, which supports more than 3 million jobs in the United States and pumps $620 billion into the U.S. economy, is making a strong appeal to Congress to vote to ratify this important trade deal. USMCA will ensure that our dairy industry grows valuable market share and continues to be viewed by our North American customers as a reliable supplier.”

USMCA is currently awaiting ratification from both the House and Senate. Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) tells Farm Journal that ideally Congress will be wrapped up by August with USMCA.

For more on USMCA read the following articles:

On Twitter, Farmers Are Begging Trump Not to Bail on NAFTA

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:19:32 GMT

President Donald J. Trump was largely supported by American farmers during the election, even as he made a campaign promise to exit the North American Free Trade Agreement. But now many of those farmers are worried President Trump will follow through on that promise. And they are taking to Twitter to plead with him not to.

Using the hashtag #Farmers4NAFTA, individual farmers and agricultural groups are tweeting about the benefits of NAFTA.

Field work is over for the fall,but this #Idaho #Farmers4NAFTA is taking a minute to urge the Administration to stay in NAFTA. Thanks @Idahograin
— Joseph Anderson (@beemerjoe) December 6, 2017

Take a moment to make your voice heard today - let @POTUS @realDonaldTrump know how NAFTA has impacted your operation by calling @WhiteHouse at 202-456-1111 between 12 and 1 p.m. or mentioning the President on social media. #FARMERS4NAFTA pic.twitter.com/Drc0kYdAaz
— Texas Wheat (@TexasWheat) December 6, 2017

Since 1993, fruit and vegetable exports from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada have more than tripled. #NAFTA works! @whitehouse #Farmers4NAFTA
— GROWMARK, Inc. (@GROWMARK) December 6, 2017

Beware of the Bacon Tax!! #NAFTA withdrawal would mean a 10% tax hike on pork exports to Mexico. #Farmers4NAFTA #Bacon @NPPC #TeamPork pic.twitter.com/qYI9Q7Xcm5
— Farmers for Free Trade (@FarmersForTrade) December 6, 2017

. @realDonaldTrump I’m a wheat farmer from Montana who relies on #NAFTA, let’s find a win-win in #NAFTA 2.0 to maintain key export markets. #farmers4NAFTA @USTradeRep @CommerceGov pic.twitter.com/shIIosl204
— Michelle Jones (@bigskyfarmher) December 6, 2017

Canada received $20.3 billion worth of American agricultural products in 2016, making it the top destination for such goods, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mexico received $17.7 billion, coming in third place behind China.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tweets add to the voices in Congress calling on the administration to remain in Nafta. Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, published an Op-Ed in The Hill on Wednesday highlighting the benefits of the agreement. Republican Senators Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Joni Ernst of Iowa also made a case for the agreement on Tuesday over lunch with the president and the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Many agricultural groups have been urging the administration to renegotiate—not exit—the trade agreement, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade, which represents a group of over 130 food and agriculture trade associations and companies.

The impacts of a NAFTA withdrawal would reverberate beyond farmers’ incomes. Consumers would likely see higher grocery prices as well, according to a November Congressional Research Service report reviewed by Bloomberg.

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On Twitter, Farmers Are Begging Trump Not to Bail on NAFTA