The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is looking ahead after a challenging growing season for many. NCGA President Jed Bower was at the Illinois Corn Growers annual meeting in Bloomington to discuss the push for higher ethanol blends and what farmers need from Washington, D.C. Bower talked about the potential year-round use of E15.

“Here domestically, working on hopefully getting this E15 over the hump here at the end of the year, the first quarter. As that comes full circle and gets fully implemented, there’s potential for two to two-and-a-half billion bushels more grind. That’ll drastically help these piles of corn around the country. And then, hopefully from there, we can move on to higher blends to continue to support the internal combustion engine, liquid fuels moving down the road. There’s a lot of potential there for long-term growth, and then obviously into SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] and potential bunker fuel uses in the marine industry.”

 Looking at the livestock industry, he said it’s pretty flat in the country, but he’s confident there is some potential moving ahead.

“We have to support our friends in the animal industry. I think there is going to be huge growth around the world, in customers that are wanting our protein products. And yes, we’ve had some issues with the avian bird flu. We’ve had issues, obviously, with building our beef herds because prices are so high, and if I were still raising cattle, I would be in that situation where I would struggle with that. Do I bring heifers back into the operation, or do we sell and try to cash in now? But I think we support those industries. We continue to support them in their export efforts of corn in all forms around the world. I think, you know, we can complement each other in that aspect and help them move their products where they’re needed.”

He said the NCGA is always looking for more opportunities to move products into international markets.

“Moving down into India, into Southeast Asia, I think there are huge opportunities there again, both with the protein side, with the ethanol side, and then moving some of our dried distillers’ grains down there to some of their aquaculture. Any place we can see an opportunity to move corn domestically, internationally, then I think that’s going to be key to supporting our growers around the country.”