Ag Industry News and Events - Page 21

We have reached the middle of April which means farmers will soon head to the fields to plant this year's corn crop. Just as farmers will work hard to plant their crop, we know that you as media will work just as hard to cover Iowa’s planting season from many angles. Below are a few resources and facts we would like to provide for your #Plant17 coverage.  

More than 75 Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) members filled the State Capitol rotunda for “Iowa Corn Day on the Hill” lobbying event. This delegation included ICGA Board of Directors, county leaders and student FFA members from across the state.

Iowa Corn announced today the sixteen students who will be the recipients of the Iowa Corn Future of Agriculture Scholarship program for the 2017-2018 school year. This program awards eight $500 first-year scholarships and eight $500 upperclassman scholarships to individuals who are pursuing degrees that will equip them to contribute to the agriculture industry in Iowa. The program is sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB).

As our nation celebrates National Ag Week, let’s recognize the roots of “The Corn State” we call home. Iowa’s world-class corn production system didn’t occur overnight. It happened because of our rich natural resource base and several determined corn farmer-visionaries who put Iowa on the map. Iowa’s corn industry got a huge boost in 1967 when Walter Goeppinger of Boone had a vision of creating a state farmer-driven group and founded the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) after starting the National Corn Growers Association ten years earlier. This year marks the 50^th Anniversary of ICGA which serves as the collective voice for our Iowa corn farmer-members, lobbying on ag issues at the state and federal level.

STATEMENT FROM ICGA PRESIDENT KURT HORA
 

A federal district judge has dismissed in its entirety the Des Moines Water Works’ lawsuit against the Sac, Calhoun and Buena Vista drainage districts in northwest Iowa. The federal Clean Water Act claim was dismissed for lack of standing considering the drainage districts’ limited status under Iowa law. The Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) and our farmer-members will continue to use cooperation and collaboration in proactively improving our water quality.

There is a popular myth out there that today’s modern food production system is being run by corporations or industrialized agriculture. But, the truth is that much of our food is grown and raised on farms by families. Iowa has roughly 88,000 farms and 129,000 farm operators. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2012 Census of Agriculture, more than 97 percent of Iowa farms are owned by families.

A new non-fiction book by children’s author Katie Olthoff is now available and tells the story of raising corn on a modern Iowa farm. My Family’s Corn Farm is available by request free for students and teachers from the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation.  The story follows Presley, a young farm girl in Iowa. She lives with her family on a corn and swine farm. Presley a takes the readers on a tour of the family farm and discusses how corn is grown for livestock feed, human food and industrial uses, and to produce fuel like ethanol. The book is written at a 3^rd grade reading level and has supplemental text that gives additional background information for more advanced readers.

Through the Iowa Corn Promotion Board’s (ICPB) investment in research, Iowa corn farmers continue making strides in sustainably increasing corn plant efficiency while reducing the environmental impact of corn production.The initiative, called Genomes To Fields (G2F), is funded with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, National Corn Growers Association and now includes 21 states plus Ontario. This program leverages the mapping of the corn genome to identify key corn genetic traits that impact yield and the plant’s ability to respond to environmental stressors to design a better corn plant in the future.

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) recognized four Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) members as winners of the 2016 National Corn Yield Contest (NCYC) during the 2017 Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas last week.

Iowa Corn farmer-leaders were in San Antonio, Texas this past week to take part in the 2017 Commodity Classic. A main task for ICGA at Classic is debating the policies that the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) should promote to benefit Iowa’s farmers. During NCGA’s Corn Congress, ICGA delegate farmer-leaders discussed many key priority issues and three Iowa resolutions were passed by the voting body.