Supporting Iowa’s World Class Corn Producers at the Iowa Corn Ethanol 350 this past weekend were our friends at the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Iowa corn farmers are among the most productive in the world and continue to get better, believe it or not, which certainly creates some challenges.
“Our farmers are incredible and just incredibly prolific. We know how to grow corn. Our biggest challenge at the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and the Iowa Corn Growers Association is how do we grind more of it? Well, exposing more people to things like ethanol, talking about all the products it in. It gives us a sort of a freedom to sell – a freedom to operate if you will – in moving our products through the space.”
Iowa Corn CEO Craig Floss says that is exactly what happened this past weekend as Iowa Corn sponsored the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Iowa Speedway, the Iowa Corn Ethanol 350 won by Ryan Blaney in the #12 Ford.
“Not only do we know how to grow corn, we also know how to produce ethanol and those ethanol plants can crank out more ethanol if it is required. That is absolutely our goal. We want them producing more, so we’re shipping more, which means more corn grind. It’s a very nice cyclical thing for us and it all starts with people understanding the potential.”
E-15 or and Unleaded 88 is now available year round in eight states with producers hoping for a nationwide solution soon yet believe it or not, that same product has been powering these NASCAR high performance engines since 2011.
“Millions of miles burn on ethanol and it’s performing exceptionally well. So we think there’s a good translatable message there to consumers to say ‘if it’s good enough for NASCAR, it’s good enough for your car.”
In addition, the price per gallon is lower than other fuels. So that promotion leading directly to an increase in corn demand leading to an increase in corn prices for Iowa Corn Grower Association members. Great stuff promoted to an audience of over 40,000 in person at the track and over 4 million watching on TV.
