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Nebraska Corn Board applauds senate passage of WRDANebraska Recent Senate passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is good news for Nebraska corn producers, according to Nebraska Corn Board farmer-director Bob Dickey of Laurel. The WRDA legislation authorizes the construction of seven 1,200-foot locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Dickey, who also serves on the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Board, 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 is either fed or processed in-state, or is shipped to southern or western markets via railroads," Dickey said. "But as we saw last fall in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when you have problems with barge movement on the Mississippi, it has 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 Board executive director Don Hutchens 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. "Just in the past year, we have seen more competition from Illinois corn moving to Texas feedlots," Hutchens 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 Nebraska Senators Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson both voted for WRDA, and he thanked them for their support of the corn industry. WRDA will now go to a House-Senate Conference. Dickey said he is optimistic that final passage will come before year's end. "This is a big win for corn growers, and both the National and Nebraska Corn Growers Associations can be proud of what they have accomplished," Dickey said. "In fact, WRDA is our second major legislative victory in the past year, the other being the Renewable Fuels Standard. The grassroots efforts of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association and the hard work of the NCGA D.C. staff have been critical in getting these issues addressed." The Nebraska Corn Board collects and disburses the funds generated by the 1/4 of a cent per bushel corn checkoff. Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education. Date: 7/25/06
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