iowacorn.org A LOOK INSIDE: RootsIOWACORN ConnectingEDUCATIONThrough CommonGround MARKET DEVELOPMENT The Value of Trade Missions to Iowa’s Corn Farmers SupportingRESEARCHNew Uses: Consider Corn Challenge June 2022 ICPB SPECIAL EDITION
Connecting Through CommonGround
Mary joined CommonGround as a volunteer two years ago after her husband learned about it at an event he attended and encouraged her to get involved. Mary was excited to build relationships with other moms and wives, learn from each other and share about their farms and families. In a time when labeling and marketing continue to become more challenging for consumers to understand, she believes it is even more important to build relationships with consumers in our state and beyond. “I love building trust and a relationship with women, then becoming a resource they come to with questions about food. It is so rewarding to help other women to understand the food choices they are making.”
What started as a few volunteers across the U.S. in 2010 has blossomed into a thriving organization of hundreds of farm women telling their stories. Across Iowa, 39 women volunteer to bridge the conversation gap between consumers and farmers. Volunteers serve on one of the four CommonGround committees; food workshops, Ladies Night on the Farm, social media or CommonGround Connections. These committees work to connect with consumers in person, out on the farm and through social media to share their farm life stories. Over the past 12 years, CommonGround has grown to be a strong, reliable source for individuals to find out about where their food comes from because of its great network of volunteers. Meet some of the Iowa volunteers and find out why they believe CommonGround matters.
With
Kerri Bell and her husband, Lance, along with their daughters Ellie and Sophie, raise corn, soybeans, alfalfa, cover crops and have a purebred Hereford cow-calf operation. Kerri also works fulltime as a second grade teacher. Their love of the land has kept the Bells progressively improving how they operate to be as efficient as possible as they work to conserve natural resources for their future and others in farming. When they’re not busy on the farm, the Bells love to support their community by volunteering with 4-H, FFA, Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association, CommonGround Iowa at the local, county, district, state and national levels! Kerri joined CommonGround to share her passion for agriculture with people wanting to know where their food comes from and understand how it is grown. Kerri believes that CommonGround plays a very important role as consumers get further removed from the farm and have more questions about the food they feed their families. “Sharing our personal experiences on the farm helps bridge the gap with consumers to build that trust in farming as we share common values and beliefs and decrease misinformation.”
Sara Ross has been a CommonGround volunteer from the very beginning back in 2010. At that time, she was just starting to share her family’s farming story online and CommonGround gave her an even bigger platform to share that story. As someone who did not grow up on a farm, Sara felt it was so important to share what she was learning, especially since consumers were wanting to know where their food comes from. Sara loves sharing about what she and her husband, Kevin, do on their farm, everything from raising corn, soybeans, alfalfa, cattle and their boys. They all love farming and are very active in school and sports. They are always up for going out to feed the cattle or ride in a tractor or the combine during harvest. “Farming isn’t just a job, it’s our lifestyle. We are proud to be growing crops and livestock that provide food, fuel, feed and fiber for Valconsumers.”Plaggeand her husband, Ian, raise corn, beans, pigs and four kids in northern Iowa. On the farm, you can find Val driving the tractor, marketing grain, taking care of the farm financial records and helping take care of livestock. “I love raising our kids on the farm and having them active in the day-to-day operations. It teaches them responsibilities and they get to have a first-hand understanding of the lifecycle on the farm,” shared Val. Twelve years ago, Val began to make a more conscious effort to share her and her husband’s story of farming and raising a family. She became involved with CommonGround because it provided her with the tools and ability to share her farming story both across the state and nationally. “In Iowa, we do so much in agriculture! CommonGround helps us share that story of what is happening right here in our backyards and show consumers where their food comes from.”
Mary Lauver was born and raised on a farm in Illinois. After marrying her husband, Andrew, they decided to come back to his family’s farm
where they grow corn and soybeans and raise their two-year-old daughter, Doris. Aside from farming, Mary is also an attorney at a law firm.
Sara Ross, Minden, IA Volunteer Since 2010
more and more consumers becoming removed from farming, now more than ever connecting about our food and where it comes from is important. CommonGround was created to do just that, making food and farming personal. When consumers understand that real families are raising their food and share common values and expectations as them, they have more trust in farming and farmers. CommonGround was formed through a partnership between the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, the Iowa Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the United Soybean Board.
Val Plagge, Latimer, IA Volunteer Since 2014
Mary Lauver, Rockwell City, IA Volunteer Since 2020
Kerri Bell, Keota, IA Volunteer Since 2020
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quality of the final crop. We all like to do business with people we have relationships with; international partners are no different.”
“There was a reason Mexico was our first trade mission after the pandemic. It was great to be able to engage face to face with our customers from one of our most important trade partners,” shared Nick Helland, farmer from Huxley, Iowa. “It was a great trade mission and our friends in Mexico appreciated seeing how much we value their relationship and business.”
The Value of Trade Missions to Iowa’s Corn Farmers MARKET DEVELOPMENT
In March, three Iowa Corn representatives, Export and Grain Trade Committee members Pete Brecht and Nick Helland and Iowa Corn’s Marketing Manager Victoria Butt, participated in a trade mission to Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico. This mission was led by Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Naig and coordinated by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The team consisted of leaders from Iowa Corn, Iowa Beef, Iowa Pork, Iowa Soybean and protein industry representatives. The mission worked toward growing the export market for Iowa’s agricultural commodities.
In January, Iowa Corn Growers Association District 3 Director Mark Mueller participated in the USGC Corn Quality Rollout Meeting in Mexico. During Mueller’s visit to Northern Mexico, he met with grain buyers, ranging from small feed mills serving local poultry and hog producers, to larger buyers for cattle feedlots.
IOWA CORN PROMOTION BOARD SPECIAL EDITION Roots 2022 | 3
Last fall the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) hosted three trade teams from Mexico in collaboration with the USGC. The trade teams included representatives from major grain import associations, corn trade merchandisers and top grain buyers from Mexico. During their visits, they experienced harvest first-hand, learned about corn, corn coproducts, corn quality and crop conditions from Iowa farmers, toured ethanol plants, met with corn and DDGS merchandisers and visited with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Julie Kenney.
In an ever-globalizing world, international partnerships remain vital to creating strong relationships that ultimately result in corn trade. The United States is the world leader in corn exports, with Iowa leading the charge as the top-producing state of corn, DDGS and ethanol, among other products. In fact, the ag sector is the only sector of our economy with a trade surplus. Iowa Corn understands the importance of trade to farmers’ bottom lines and continues to invest in the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) to build relationships with our international customers, create conversations and break down barriers for trade.
“ICPB proudly invests checkoff dollars with the U.S. Grains Council to protect and expand markets for corn and corn products around the world,” said ICPB President and farmer from Primghar, Iowa, Kelly Nieuwenhuis. “Having international customers visit our farms and ethanol plants creates trusting, strong relationships and they are able to witness the hard work that goes into production and the
As the USGC mission states, we work together to develop markets, enable trade and improve lives. This goes hand-in-hand with the Iowa Corn mission of creating opportunities for long-term Iowa corn grower profitability. The reality is that over 95% of the world’s population lives outside the U.S. With strong trade relationships, the U.S. and Iowa farmer can continue to produce more on less land and feed the growing global population.
To learn more about our trade missions visit iowacorn.org and grains.org.
As one of the top purchasers of U.S. corn, Mexico continues to be a key market to grow and strengthen trade relationships for corn in all forms. Mexico is the second-leading corn export market for Iowa, totaling $824 million in corn purchases last year. In 2021, Mexico imported 15.6 million metric tons of U.S. corn equating to 22.3% of U.S. corn exports. Mexico also remains the top market for U.S. DDGS exports and one of the top export markets for U.S. pork and beef. Meeting with customers both in Iowa and abroad is a key component to building relationships, understanding challenges and opportunities and enabling trade, especially in valuable markets such as Mexico.
The Consider Corn Challenge continues to push organizations to find innovative solutions to create new uses for corn, ultimately creating more profitability for corn farmers.
New Uses:
This contest works to support NCGA’s goal of creating new uses and aims to help organizations find potential uses for corn in the bio-based products industry. The Consider Corn Challenge recognizes and awards organizations who are doing cutting-edge research on corn-based chemicals and materials and are working towards commercialization of that product, resulting in more corn grind. The Consider Corn Challenge has completed three contests and has awarded fifteen winners. See the full list of awarded projects at ncga.com/newuses.
Winnerslicensing.ofthe
Supporting Consider Corn Challenge
4 | Roots • FO R MOR E INFOR MA TI ON, CO NT AC T: Iowa Corn | | | | iowacorn .org | corn info@iowacorn. org IOWA CORN PROMOTION BOARD SPECIAL EDITION RESEARCH ICPB ELECTION TIMELINE: June 20 July 12 D eadline for requesting absentee ballots. E lections held at local county extension offices. Absentee ballots must be postmarked on or before July 12. IOWA CORN PROMOTION BOARD DIRECTOR ELECTIONS are quickly approaching. Crop reporting district 2, 5, 7 and 9 are up for elections. To request a petition or learn more about the election process please contact Iowa Corn: 5505 NW 88th Street, Johnston, Iowa 50131 or at 515-225-9242. Visit iowacorn.org for further details and more information. Find more info about Iowa Corn’s new uses initiatives by visiting iowacorn.org.
The six winners of the Consider Corn Challenge I focused on chemicals that could be potentially used in biobased plastics, coolants, adhesives and more in a wide variety of products. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) was among the first cohort of winners for the development of MEG (monoethylene glycol). Corn-based MEG is a drop-in replacement for current fossil fuel-based MEG and a base chemical for products like antifreeze, pop and water bottles and polyester clothing. Over 75 billion pounds of MEG is used in the world every year with the yearly growth in the market equal to nearly 100 million bushels of corn.
Recently, Technip Energies purchased ICPB’s patents, technology and rights for the process technology to produce MEG. Technip Energies will advance the technology development and construct and operate a pilot plant to commercialize the technology, making it available for
Finding new, innovative ways to use corn and continue to make the piles of corn disappear remains a top priority. One project at the national level that aims to do just that is National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Consider Corn Challenge.
Across Iowa and the United States, corn farmers are continuing to adopt better conservation and innovative management practices on their farms, resulting in improved production efficiency. Farmers continue to improve their yields every year, continuing to produce more with less. To put it in perspective 100 years ago, the U.S. produced 2.55 billion bushels on 91.9 million acres, and last year, Iowa produced that amount on 12.45 million acres.
Consider Corn Challenge II were recognized at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and AgTech held in Des Moines, Iowa. Among the recipients was Sumatra Biorenewables, LLC. from Ames, Iowa which utilizes a material developed at Iowa State University. Six more organizations were recognized and awarded during the most recent Consider Corn Challenge III.
Past winners of the Consider Corn Challenge have continued to move their projects forward into the next development phase, received additional grant funding, entered into joint agreements and obtained registration for state biobased production incentives. If all fifteen winners of the Challenge were to reach even 5% of commercialization with their products, corn demand could potentially grow by approximately 170 million bushels.
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Agriculture and farmers have done so much to improve water quality, enhace soil health and continue to grow better corn, and for breweries these practices are helping to create a quality product. Consumers want these TO BREW
LANCE LILLIBRIDGE
Lance Lillibridge, Iowa Corn Growers Association president and farmer from Benton County, implements strip tillage, cover crops and grazing on his farm. About a year ago Lance started partnering with ReUnion Brewery, based in Coralville, to produce beer out of the corn grown on his farm. Lance’s neighbor suggested they take Lance’s corn to ReUnion, malt it and make a beer out of it. After sampling the corn for quality, ReUnion took a small amount of corn and brewed Amber Ale. Corn beer was a relatively new endeavor for ReUnion but they were interested in making more Iowa based beers from Iowa grains. Lance shared that although not normally a connoisseur of micro-beers, he really enjoyed the Amber Ale and loved that it came right from his own farm and products. So did others in his community. At the local Dollar Fresh store, a pallet of Amber Ale was sold out in just a few days once the store labeled that it came from the Lillibridge’s local farm. Consumers in his area are excited that they know who grew the corn in their beer and know it comes from a trusted source who implements good practices on his land. Lance hopes to continue to work with ReUnion in future years to continue to make the Amber Ale.
FROMwherereallylocally-grownhigh-quality,productsandlikethattheycantrustitiscomingfrom.”FARM
Farmers across Iowa are continuing to implement strong conservation practices on their operation, working to improve soil health and water quality. Some of these farmers have even found a niche market for their products within the brewery and distillery industry. Read about some of the partnerships that are currently happening with Iowa farmers.
RAY GAESSER
Miller Malting Textile Brewery iowacorn.org/water
MIKE BRETZ
Eric DubuqueMillerCounty
Ray Gaesser along with his wife Elaine, son Chris and daughter-in-law Shannon, farm in Adams County raising corn and soybeans. Ray has been farming there since 1978 and from early on implemented conservation practices on his land. Since 1991, they have been 100% no-till on their operation and started implementing cover crops in 2010, continuing to grow that amount every year. Ray says the real push for them to implement conservation practices on
Look at how we farm today and have continued to feed people and make our farms better for the next generation. Working with Revelton, we will be able to able to share our message about farming and conservation to both people within agriculture and also outside of ag.”
I retired from General Mills while working on a team that was tasked with optimizing the future supply chain. Now as a regenerative farmer, I see how we can improve the local supply chain, providing healthy grains to others, who in turn can make amazing products for their customers! All while improving the environment for future generations!”
Ray AdamsGaesserCounty Revelton Distillery
After retiring, Mike Bretz took over his family farm in Buchanan County. On his farm, Mike implements soil health practices aimed at regenerative agriculture. Mike’s goal is to have 100% of his ground covered at all times to reduce erosion, cycle nutrients and build soil aggregation to defend his acres against weather extremes such as drought and excessive rainfalls. He grows non-GMO corn, soybeans, rye, wheat and oats. In 2021, when planting wheat for the first time, Mike ran short on seed and decided to plant the remaining ten acres with rye. Looking for a market for his rye, Mike was connected with Miller Malting in Cascade who was looking for a grain source that was grown utilizing conservation practices. Once the rye was harvested it was sampled to check against quality standards, which it exceeded. It was then malted by Miller Malting and sent to Textile Brewing Company, out of Dyersville. Textile liked the connection to the land and Iowa agriculture and created ReGen Rye Beer. The future of this partnership looks bright. This year he will be planting 40 acres of rye to be available for malting. He will also continue to learn and adopt his practices on his operation to improve the biology of the soil on his farm.
their farm is wanting to protect the land and improve the soil. They also have experienced great benefits including saving money on equipment and fuel. Last fall, Ray began discussion with Revelton Distillery out of Osceola about wanting to use more local grains in their distillery. This relatively new distillery was mainly sourcing rye from out of state and wanted to find a local supplier who is also caring for the land. Ray is growing some rye for cover crops and will be suppling a little bit this year and hopes to continue to grow the amount in the future. Ray is excited for this partnership and to be a supplier for a specialty market and have an alternative income source, but more importantly, that he will continue to be building soil health by planting a mix of cover crops.
ERIC MILLER
Eric Miller is a farmer from Dubuque County and owner of Miller Malting in Cascade. On his operation, he implements soil health practices such as reducing tillage and mostly no till, cover crops, grazing cover crops, alternative crops and keeping the ground covered 100% of the time all year round. Eric has a large focus on harvesting small grains in his crop rotation, growing wheat and barley and most recently open pollinated corn. Miller Malting is a one of a kind malthouse for malting grains to distribute to breweries. Eric wants to support Iowa farmers that are doing sustainable practices by malting their grains and working with other organizations to build out the Iowa farming story in a positive light. He currently sources grain for Textile Brewery in Dyersville, Iowa and is working to grow his local connection for sustainably grown products for local markets.
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He knows with these practices he will begin to see input costs decreasing, time in the fields go down and the wildlife start to return.
Mike BretzCountyBuchanan TextileReGenBreweryRye
Photo courtesy of Iowa Soybean Association
MARK •AugustatIowaCALENDARS!YOURCornSoilHealthSeminarsthe2022FarmProgressShow30and31Learnmore!Scanorvisitiowacorn.org/waterConservationInfrastructure•IowaSmartAg•OptimizingFertilizer•SoilHealth•NitrogenInitiatives•Carbonmarkets•SmallGrainsandAlternativeMarketsVisitusattheEventsBuildingoutsideGate #6, 10 am to 2 pm with 30-minute seminar slots and an hour break for lunch and networking. Seminar Topics Include
