The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is calling for government action after the USDA’s latest World Agriculture and Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report projected a record-breaking corn crop this year.
The report predicts that US farmers will harvest 16.7 billion bushels of corn in 2025, up from 14.9 billion in 2024. This large crop could push the already record low price of corn even lower.
JR Roesner, a board member of the NCGA and a farmer in Dubois County, said the association wants the government to increase demand for the crop by allowing for a year-round consumer access to E15 ethanol.
“If we would increase to 15 percent blend, we're looking at a 2.29 billion bushel increase in demand,” he said. “So that would pretty well consume what the state of Illinois grows in a year.”
The NCGA has pointed out that this solution would come at no cost to consumers and require no additional infrastructure to take effect.
Roesner said that if farmers continue to have to produce corn for more than it sells for, it’ll begin to have ripple effects on the communities they live and work in.
“The fabric of rural communities is vitally at stake here, and if we don't see some changes soon, we're going to see that start to play out through many of our communities across the state and across the nation,” he said.
NCGA is also asking that new and old trade deals with countries around the world be finalized in order to broaden the market for US corn.
