Nebraska Corn Organizations Applaud WRDA Passage
Immediate Release:
NE Corn Board contact: Bob Dickey 402.640.0686
NE Corn Growers contact: Scott Merritt 402.438.6459
November 9, 2007
Lincoln, NE—Officials of the Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Corn Growers Association (NeCGA) are applauding Senate passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).
The WRDA legislation authorizes the construction of seven 1,200-foot locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Nebraska Corn Board director Bob Dickey of Laurel, NE, who also serves as first vice-president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), said those infrastructure improvements will directly benefit farmers in the eastern cornbelt—but they are also important for Nebraska producers.
“Of course, most of the corn we produce in Nebraska is either fed or processed in-state, or is shipped to southern or western markets via railroads,” Dickey said. “But as we saw a couple of years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when you have problems with barge movement on the Mississippi, it can have a ripple effect throughout the country. Without continued strong competition between the barge, truck and rail companies, our basis and our markets in the western cornbelt are adversely affected.”
Nebraska Corn Growers Association president Randy Uhrmacher of Juniata, NE said that, without lock modernization, eastern cornbelt states could begin to lose access to their export markets through the Gulf of Mexico. If that occurred, he said, those states would be forced to start looking at markets to the southwest—areas that are traditionally strong markets for Nebraska corn.
“In the past couple of years, we have seen more competition from Illinois corn moving to Texas feedlots,” Uhrmacher said. “And with the expansion of the ethanol industry all across the U.S., those eastern states will have greater supplies of ethanol co-products, such as distillers grains, to deal with. We’re hopeful that as river system modernization takes place, they will continue to export most of their corn, as well as their ethanol co-products, to other countries.”
Dickey said that all five members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation voted for WRDA passage, and he thanked them for their support of the corn industry. But he said there is still much work to be done.
“Overturning the president's veto is just a permission slip to seek funding through the annual appropriations process,” Dickey said. “For some time now, NCGA has worked to secure pre-construction dollars for the Upper Mississippi River System projects, but the real work now begins with a full-court press to obtain construction dollars through the annual appropriations process.”
The Nebraska Corn Board is a self-help program, funded and managed by Nebraska corn farmers. Producers invest in the program at a rate of ¼ of a cent per bushel of corn sold. Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education.
NeCGA is a grassroots commodity organization that works to enhance the profitability of corn producers. Now in its 36th year of service to its members, NeCGA has over 1,500 dues paying members in Nebraska. NeCGA is affiliated with the NCGA, which has more than 31,000 dues paying members nationwide.
