EPA Administrator Gets an Earful from Corn Farmers

Cindy Zimmerman

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been on a tour of farm country this week, meeting with corn farmers and ethanol producers in Kansas and South Dakota already and next to Nebraska.

At the East Kansas Agri-Energy ethanol plant in Garnett, Kansas, Pruitt sat down with a roomful of farmers and ethanol supporters who told him they were “mad as hell” about EPA efforts they believe undermine the RFS law.

Kansas Corn Growers Association President Ken McCauley says the group pressed Pruitt on EPA’s granting of small refinery exemptions which Pruitt claims he must do for refineries who claim financial hardship. “We asked him what constituted financial hardship and I can’t say we got an answer,” McCauley said.

The corn farmers also pointed out to the administrator that they were experiencing financial hardship themselves right now and EPA is making it worse for them. “I told him that EPA’s attacks on ethanol don’t just hurt ethanol plants, they hurt farmers, rural communities and American consumers who benefit from ethanol with lower prices and cleaner air,” said McCauley.

Farmers and ethanol producers in South Dakota held a good old fashioned tractor rally in Sioux Falls as Administrator Pruitt met with farmers in Reliance about 200 miles west. “Corn prices right now are at breakeven or below and we’ve lost 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol to exemptions that EPA has granted to refiners,” said South Dakota Corn Growers president Troy Knecht. “That equals about 570 million bushels of corn.”

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings says they just want Administrator Pruitt to do his job. “He needs to uphold the RFS as the law of the land and stop the secret waivers and he needs to make good on the president’s promise to allow E15 use year round,” said Jennings.

Click on the audio files below for interviews with McCauley and Jennings and Knecht’s remarks at the rally:

Interview with Ken McCauley, KS Corn president

Remarks by Troy Knecht, SD Corn president

Interview with American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings
ACE, Audio, Corn, Ethanol

New Market Insights for Crop Biologics

Cindy Zimmerman

Microbial additives or “biologics” are becoming an important approach for farmers looking for ways to manage production challenges and a new study conducted by BioCognito and Farmgate Insights takes a multifaceted look at this expanding field of agriculture.

According to the study, “Plant Microbiome, The Next Wave in Agriculture?,” more than $5 billion has been invested in this space in the past five years. “We have seen multinationals form new alliances, well known crop protection and nutrient companies purchase startups, and an explosion of innovators, all trying to be a part of the action” said Nathan Danielson, one of the report’s authors.

While the use of biologics in specialty crops and the organic industry are ahead of row crops, with over 250 million acres planted annually this is a huge potential market. “One of our study goals was to look at the five primary field crops in the U.S. (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and sorghum) and analyze their unique barriers to entry and potential delivery systems for biologics,” stated co-author Paul Bertels. “We have talked with a number of growers and commodity organizations to get their perspectives on what do want to enhance adoption.”

The authors have created an interactive cost-benefit model for each crop to help assess the value of a new product and those models indicate value creation in excess of $8.5 billion in farm gate revenue for these five crops in the US alone.

Read more here.

For more information, please contact the authors: Nathan.danielson@gmail.com or bertelspaulj@gmail.com

AgWired Precision, Biologicals, Crop Protection, Soil, Sustainability

Making Chemicals From Ethanol

Carrie Muehling

Ron Cascone (right) is wearing a corn hat he won in the trade show door prize drawings, pictured with (also Golden Mic Club member) Kevin Skunes, who conducted the drawing.

Participants in the 2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference in St. Louis were largely interested in expanding the market for ethanol, and not necessarily in conventional ways.

“We’re hoping to provide alternatives to the sale of ethanol into the fuels market,” said Ron Cascone, principal with Nexant, Inc. “The theme of what I’m doing here is to show that there are options for converting ethanol to chemicals and materials that compete with the petroleum based materials.”

Cascone said his company can offer corn growers knowledge of the chemical industry and the energy industry, recognizing that corn has always been food and feed, but now has grown into an important fuel and chemical raw material resource. He said the analysis of operations and markets his company has been able to provide to the petrochemical industry can also be applied to the bio-based industry, which is largely led by ethanol production.

Cascone chaired a panel on making chemicals from ethanol during this year’s conference, discussing early chemicals made including ethylene for polyethylene, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol, and butadiene. Other options discussed included multiple optional routes to butadiene, acetic acid, and various esters.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Ron here: Interview with Ron Cascone, Nexant

Listen to the panel discussion here: 2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference - Industry Panel

2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference Photo Album

Audio, Corn, CUTC, Ethanol

New Processes Create Opportunities in Biochemical Industry

Carrie Muehling

Companies like Dedert Corporation are watching technologies they’ve used in the petrochemical industry for years now being applied to the biochemical industry in exciting ways. The company provides thermal systems to the starch and ethanol industry, with a focus on drying solids and concentrating liquids.

“For us, the most interesting thing is seeing what’s happening with in particular the bio-based chemicals,” said Colin Crankshaw, vice president of process engineering and sales with Dedert Corporation. “Our equipment and technology is used throughout the world in the chemical industry, and seeing now that there is opportunity to generate the same chemical products from corn that have been generated from petrochemicals for 50 to 100 years is exciting now. So we can employ our technology into this new biochemical business.”

Crankshaw said new processes to separate sugars and proteins are generating value-added products that used to be considered byproducts. He said the company recently built a new research facility in the Chicago area that will help them to seek better solutions for every possible drying and evaporation problem brought to them by their customers. Crankshaw attended this year’s Corn Utilization & Technology Conference in St. Louis.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Colin here: Interview with Colin Crankshaw, Dedert Corporation

2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, Corn, CUTC, Ethanol

New Driving Ethanol Podcast from Growth Energy

Cindy Zimmerman

The past two years have been among the most challenging for the ethanol industry, and Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor has been at the front lines of the battles which are continuing stronger than ever.

In this edition of the Driving Ethanol podcast, Skor reflects on her two years at the helm of the industry organization and talks about what is going on today, particularly as it relates to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his granting of waivers to refineries. She outlines five major answers that Pruitt should provide to the industry during his travels this week meeting with farmers and ethanol producers in Kansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Growth Energy Driving Ethanol Podcast 6-13-18

Subscribe to the Driving Ethanol podcast

Audio, Ethanol, Podcasts

Paul Jr. Gets Ethanol Education Building RFA Bike

Cindy Zimmerman

The slick, custom-made motorcycle that runs on 85% ethanol was a big hit at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop Tuesday and so was its creator Paul Teutul Jr., who spent two hours at the Renewable Fuels Association trade show booth taking photos with FEW attendees.

Teutul is the owner and master-designer of Paul Jr. Designs and one of the stars of Discovery’s American Chopper, which revealed the new bike during Monday night’s episode. In the process of designing the motorcycle for RFA, he became an ethanol advocate. “There seems to be a misnomer about ethanol and motorcycles. It is almost like people that ride motorcycles think ethanol messes up their bikes, and the research that I have done tells me that is just not true,” Teutul Jr. said.

The partnership with Teutul evolved from the RFA’s new Fuel Your Knowledge campaign aimed at educating bikers, boaters, and other small engine users about ethanol. RFA wants bikers to know that only ethanol blends up to E10 are approved by every motorcycle manufacturer, and the custom motorcycle simply demonstrates the functionality and compatibility of ethanol.

Chuck Zimmerman caught up with Paul Jr. at the RFA booth yesterday to learn all about the making of the ethanol bike and what he learned in the process. Interview with Paul Teutul Jr. at FEW18

2018 Fuel Ethanol Workshop Photos

Fuel Ethanol Conference content sponsored by

Coverage of the Fuel Ethanol Conference is sponsored by Syngenta Enogen

Audio, Ethanol, RFA

Precision Ag Bytes 6/13

Carrie Muehling

  • Lindsay Corporation and Farmers Edge have announced a partnership that will deliver an unmatched suite of ag tech and digital agronomy solutions for their customers. This collaboration between Lindsay Corporation and Farmers Edge provides farmers with a simple solution to easily access field-centric data and deep insights they need to make informed decisions and get the most out of every acre.
  • The Soil Health Institute seeks up to six scientists and a statistician/database manager to join the Soil Health Institute team. The professionals will assist in the evaluation of soil health indicators at long-term agricultural experimental sites across North America.
  • The Soil Health Institute has released the Agenda for its Third Annual Meeting, August 1-3 in Albuquerque. National and international leaders will address such contemporary topics as achieving corporate sustainability goals and environmental markets through soil health, recent advances in understanding the soil microbiome, links between soil health and human health, federal and state policies for advancing soil health, enhancing research-farmer connections for greater adoption, and others. Click here to register.
  • Broadgnss announced at the 9th China Satellite Navigation Conference a new high precision satellite position receiver with patented RAC (Real-time Array Calibration）technology. It features positioning accuracy closer than one meter (up to 10cm) by receiving only single frequency (GPS L1) satellite signals, the RAC technology in high precision satellite positioning which frees the dependence on traditional augmentation network and significantly reduces the cost, making way for high precision satellite positioning in large-scale applications.
  • AgbioInvestor announces that subscriptions are now available to its AgbioCrop and AgbioSeed services. In addition to these reports, AgbioInvestor’s range of services also includes sigma Select and AgbioNews.
  • Midwestern BioAg has launched a wholesale and ag retail sales strategy through a partnership with Vivid Life Sciences. Vivid has an extensive wholesale and ag retail distribution network and together the two companies will introduce the TerraNu Nutrient Technology products throughout the United States.
  • Agrian has added a new feature to its field scouting app – a pest trap counting solution. The new functionality will allow for more automated and seamless information sharing, empowering field staff, agronomic advisors and growers to easily monitor activity and look at aggregated data to make decisions on the fly as it relates to pest threats. The upgrade is already available and ready for immediate use to all current Agrian scouting clients.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

Show-Rite on Site at World Pork Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

Show-Rite®, which is part of Hubbard Feeds family, provides nutrition programs formulated specifically for breeders and exhibitors who want their show animals to perform their very best.

Ryan Sites was at World Pork Expo last week as part of the technical support team for Show-Rite and had a chance to talk to many of those who were participating in the Junior Nationals. “This is a great avenue for us to explain a lot of the new products we have coming out,” said Sites. “We’ve got a couple new additive products coming out that look real promising from the trials we’ve done.”

Sites says Show-Rite® Show Feeds is dedicated to both providing great nutritional products for show animals and offering expert knowledge for their customers.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Ryan Sites, Show-Rite

2018 World Pork Expo photo album

Coverage of World Pork Expo is sponsored by World Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by AlltechWorld Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by showriteWorld Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by hubbard
AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Health, Audio, Nutrition, Swine, World Pork Expo

Growth Energy CEO Keynotes #FEW18

Cindy Zimmerman

Two years ago, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor was brand new to the job and the Fuel Ethanol Workshop was her first public introduction to the ethanol industry. Today, Skor keynoted the industry event again as an ethanol professional who has been seasoned by fighting for the fuel during some very difficult battles.

“The battles ahead are tougher, and higher-stakes, and we need to remind ourselves that we have what it takes to win,” said Skor. “And we’ll keep on fighting, from the EPA to the halls of Congress, where other oil-backed lawmakers have already announced their latest plans for so-called reforms of the RFS.”

Skor highlighted the victories over the past year and the challenges the industry continues to face. Listen here:
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor #FEW18 Keynote

Fuel Ethanol Conference content sponsored by

Coverage of the Fuel Ethanol Conference is sponsored by Syngenta Enogen

Audio, Ethanol

Hubbard Showcases Blueprint Swine Program at #WPX18

Cindy Zimmerman

Success is often achieved by simply following the blueprint.

At last week’s World Pork Expo, Hubbard Feeds showcased its Blueprint® program for swine, a species-specific program to help producers identify ways to improve efficiency and maximize genetic performance.

“For pigs, we designed different sow, nursery, and finisher programs that include between six and 12 different Alltech technologies,” said Dr. Stewart Galloway, Senior Swine Nutritionist. “Our goal is to improve gut health, immunity in the pigs, milk production in sows, decreased death loss…and ultimately more pigs going to market at full value.”

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Dr. Stewart Galloway, Hubbard

2018 World Pork Expo photo album

Coverage of World Pork Expo is sponsored by World Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by AlltechWorld Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by showriteWorld Pork Expo virtual newsroom sponsored by hubbard
AgWired Animal, Alltech, Animal Agriculture, Animal Health, Audio, Swine, World Pork Expo