The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) will host five district meetings around the state this November. These meetings are free and open to all farmers.
The purpose of the meetings is to provide an opportunity for farmers to become better acquainted with recent activities of MCGA, and learn what lies ahead for Minnesota agriculture. This year’s meetings will be especially important, as they’ll give farmers a chance to meet their local district field manager if they haven’t already.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its outlook for 2017 U.S. corn, with September production and yield estimates up slightly from August. Just after the report was released, corn futures declined.
While demand for corn has struggled to keep up with record-breaking yields, international market share for U.S.-grown corn has decreased with additional countries entering the market. These factors and more have led to struggling corn prices and tight margins for Minnesota farm operations.
As some may have noticed in their mailbox earlier this month, Minnesota Corn’s Research Summary 2017 has been released! We invite you to read this year’s summary and see Minnesota corn check-off dollars at work funding research that improves agricultural practices and creates new opportunities for corn farmers.
Minnesota Corn Growers Association and the Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council directs more than $4 million annually to independent research projects that promote the environmental and economic sustainability of farmers.
Written by Mariah Larson
Last week, 18 members of the MCGA and MCR&PC flew out to Washington D.C., to join delegates from across the U.S. for the National Corn Growers Association’s (NCGA) 2017 Corn Congress. Held every July, NCGA’s two-day annual meeting elects officers to the NCGA board, reviews resolutions, hosts discussions related to U.S. agriculture, and meets with political leaders and government officials within agencies and departments in Washington.
A big topic of interest with the upcoming renewal next year,
In the early days of fuel consulting company MEG Corp, founder Hoon Ge would walk into car dealerships offering ethanol education sessions to the dealer’s technicians. Thinking they would be interested in learning more about the clean, green biofuel, the reception was certainly a surprise to Ge.
“We would really get the cold shoulder,” said Ge, who is a chemical engineer and 25-year veteran of the petroleum industry. “So we had the idea of instead going to the mechanics who are still learning and dispel the myths around ethanol,
As part of the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released proposed 2018 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) yesterday, calling for maintaining the same level of conventional biofuels as 2017.
The minimum amount of renewable fuels that must be supplied to the market in 2018 was 19.24 billion gallons. Conventional biofuels will remain at 15 billion gallons of that total next year. Advanced and cellulosic biofuels, often made from dried distillers grains (DDGS) and corn residue,
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
The US grain harvest in 2012, which was smaller than expected, forced loyal customers like Taiwan to look elsewhere for the poultry and hog feed previously provided by U.S. farmers, causing U.S. share of Taiwan’s grain market to drop 40 percent.
Not taking the change passively, the U.S. Grains Council developed the Grain Quality Condition report, which informs markets like Taiwan on the quality of U.S.
For World Trade Month, the Minnesota Corn Growers Association spoke with U.S. Grains Council (USGC) President and CEO Tom Sleight on the latest from our nation’s capital and what to expect in what will be a crucial year for the corn export market.
Shortly before the calendar switched over to May, a report came from the White House that wasn’t necessarily in the spirit of the trade appreciation month, as President Donald Trump publicly considered withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.
Biofuels have long been a focus for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA). Investing nearly $23 million since 2008, here are a few highlights of how MCGA has worked to advance and expand the use of ethanol.
ETHANOL/EMISSIONS RESEARCH:
Over the last three years MCGA has worked with the consulting firm DeFour Group to move mid-level blends, specifically E25, into the marketplace. The multi-faceted approach included engine testing through the National Corn Growers Association,
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
With a few small changes to improve the nutritional profile of distillers grains, also known as DDGS, research scientists at the University of Minnesota hope to deliver a triple win.
A mid-protein, high-phosphorus animal feed, distillers grains are an ethanol co-product made from corn after fermentation. The enriched distillers grain these researchers hope to produce would deliver more nutrition, offer another co-product to increase profits for ethanol makers,