Minnesota Corn Growers

Where did winter go? If you are like me, you enjoyed the abnormally warm and dry winter. After last winter, we needed a vacation! Speaking of vacations, I had the opportunity through the Minnesota Corn Growers Association to do some traveling in March.

In early March, my beautiful wife Paula and I flew to Nashville to be a part of the Commodity Classic. This is the Super Bowl of farm tradeshows in the U.S. During this week, meetings of the major commodity groups took place. There were 2 sessions of Corn Congress in which I attended as I am a voting delegate for Minnesota. All states that belong to the National Corn Growers Association had representation. The main thing that happens in Corn Congress is going through our resolutions book and voting what we do and don't stand for. The tradeshow had over 400 exhibits and saw over 6,000 people through the doors. Needless to say, I had a tough time seeing everything there in just a few days. All of these events were held at the beautiful and spacious Opryland Resort. When not in meetings, we walked next door to the Grand Ole Opry for an evening. I'm not a big country music fan, but really enjoyed the ambiance and mystique as we took in 6 different performers.


In mid-March, a small group from Minnesota Corn along with the Southwest Council, which comprises commodity groups, lenders, and farmers from the southwest part of the county ascended on Washington D.C.  Through our national lobbying firm, Combest and Sell, we were scheduled to meet with over 100 legislators and staff in a 2 1/2 day span. There were 25 people in our group and as such got divided into different teams to take on the many appointments. I believe we made an impact on the legislators and staff as we had a strong and important message to deliver. We made it clear that we need a new Farm Bill, not to harm crop insurance, and letting each producer choose their type of crop insurance knowing one size doesn't fit all. There were other issues we touched on, but that was our emphasis. Although ag is 1/4 of 1% of the national budget, we have seen disproportionate cuts already made, with more sure to come.


The Minnesota Corn Growers' Day on the Hill was also in mid-March. This is a time when many of our directors schedule visits with representatives and senators in their district. We had the opportunity to meet with Ag. Commissioner Frederickson at the Capitol as well. The overall impact again when visiting with legislators is big. They really get to hear what the corn growers are all about and it's important.


I hope to be done with travel for a while now. We have different state and county events coming up, but at least I won't have to be out of state when we are planting that 200 bushel corn!


Regards,
Noah
noah@farmlandman.com
320-894-7528