Discussing the issues surrounding crop production with Logan Lyon, District Director for the Iowa Corn Growers Association, including ethanol demand and carbon pipelines. There are always a lot of outside influences in regard to crop production far beyond what happens on the farm which is why our commodity groups like the Iowa Corn Growers Association provide great value. District Director Logan Lyon says there were some unexpected things that popped up this year.
“Some of the hot topics this year that we weren’t expecting as far as policy with some of the Grain Indemnity Fund conversations,” Lyon said. “I know Farm Bureau just had some conversations on what they think the Grain Indemnity Fund should look like and how it should operate, and the Corn Growers have been working pretty hard on that one this year. Pipeline conversations as well, which seems to be a dirty four-letter word to come so it’ll be interesting to see how some of those progress. On the Corn Growers side we just want to grind more corn and do the best we can for our producers here in Iowa and across the country.”
He also says that ethanol demand continues to be a nice surprise, including the biggest domestic ethanol market.
“On the ethanol side we continue to ring that bell and here in Iowa we’ve pushed that E-15 sales all year around as much as we can,” Lyon said. “One of our greatest purchasers of E-85 right now is actually California. In that area you get into some of those higher expensive for filling up cars, people look at that ethanol option and they just use it. Domestically, California is one of the best purchasers of ethanol right now and we certainly appreciate it.”
It’s certainly great news to see a large population center embrace, clean, homegrown renewable fuels.
