Team Meetings, Corn Congress Draw Corn Growers to Washington
Click here for related audio | 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.
The week starts with action team and committee meetings Monday and Tuesday. NCGA's action teams and committees are small groups of growers who are charged with defining and implementing programs under their jurisdiction to further the mission of NCGA in creating and increasing opportunities for corn growers.
On Wednesday morning, the Corn Congress holds its first session with the ratification of Garry Niemeyer of Illinois as first vice president for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The Congress will also elect four new board members for 2011 and two Congressional guests are expected to address the audience, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson. Time is set aside on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning for Capitol Hill visits to senators, representatives and key staff.
Corn Congress reconvenes after lunch Thursday with reports from the chairs of the action teams and committees, a presentation from the chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, and farewell remarks from outgoing board members Bob Dickey (Neb.), Theresa Schmalshof (Ill.), Jamie Jamison (Md.) and Mark Schwiebert (Ohio).
USDA Still Estimates Crop Record
Corn growers are expected to bring in a record corn crop in 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported today, despite a reduction late last month in the estimate in corn acres planted. The National Corn Growers Association greeted the news with cautious optimism.
"We're pleased to see that USDA expects a record crop," NCGA President Darrin Ihnen said. "Although many parts of the Corn Belt had a successful early planting in April, May was not as kind and we are seeing the results of cooler, wetter weather than we all wanted. We will know a lot more as we enter pollination and see what weather develops in the month ahead."
The condition of the 2010 corn crop has been dropping slightly in the past three weeks, Ihnen noted. On June 13, the weekly USDA Crop Progress report rated 77 percent of the crop as good or excellent; on July 4, that rating stood at 71 percent.
NCGA Says Farewell to Retiring Research VP
 After almost nine years of outstanding service as vice president of research and business development, focusing on helping research and develop new markets for American corn, Dr. Richard Glass is retiring from the National Corn Growers Association's management team.
Dr. Glass's facilitation of the farmer-led Research and Business Development Action Team, Ethanol Committee, Biotech Working Group and Production and Stewardship Action Team put NCGA policy into practice. Under his management, the biennial Corn Utilization and Technology Conference developed into one of the industry's premier forums for researchers, industry and farmers to discuss what's next in corn's commercial pipeline.
Banning Atrazine Comes at High Cost
Banning the agricultural herbicide atrazine would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone, according to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey. Dr. Coursey announced his findings at a briefing today sponsored by the Triazine Network at the National Press Club in Washington. The National Corn Growers Association is part of the Triazine Network.
Dr. 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.
"The economic data on atrazine are very clear," Dr. Coursey said. "As a first-order estimate, banning atrazine will erase between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs related to or dependant on corn production, with additional job losses coming from both sugar cane and sorghum production losses. The range is wide because we have never before banned a product on which so many depend and for which suitable replacements have a wide variety of prices and application regimes."
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