NEWS RELEASE

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Immediate Release:
Thursday, June 26, 2008

Nebraska Corn Board contacts:
Kelly Brunkhorst: 800.632.6761

NEBRASKA CORN CHECKOFF UPDATE

NCB, NeCGA Discuss, Reaffirm Support of RFS:  Nebraska Corn Board (NCB) director and National Corn Growers Association first vice-president Bob Dickey and director of market development Randy Klein spent time in Washington DC to discuss and reaffirm Nebraska corn growers support for the renewable fuels standard that was contained in the most recent Energy and Security Act of 2007.  Joining them in DC were Nebraska Corn Grower Association director Carl Sousek and executive director Scott Merritt.  The delegation spent time also thanking each of the Nebraska Senators and Representatives for their past support.

So Many Factors, So Many Out of Our Control:  In a letter to Nebraska’s Federal delegation and to various membership and commodity organizations, chairman Jon Holzfaster and executive director Don Hutchens took athe opportunity to discuss the many factors that are affecting the corn market today.  The letter specifically addresses what influence Nebraska corn producers have had in the past, and also outlines the many other factors that are completely out of the control of the Nebraska corn producer.  Factors such as weather, index fund speculation, value of the dollar, and world demand from an increased middle class, are just a few of the factors that Nebraska corn producers can not control and are major factors that are driving today’s corn market.

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Races to National Audience:  The Iowa Corn Indy 250 Race took center stage this past weekend for the Indy Racing League (IRL).  The race’s main sponsors, the Iowa Corn Growers Association and Pioneer took the opportunity to also partner up with other Midwest corn states such as Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Ohio, Indiana and the National Corn Growers Association to promote the ability of the US corn producer to provide America’s feed, food, fuel.

Storage of Wet Corn Co-Products Manual Released:  The Nebraska Corn Board in cooperation with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources published Storage of Wet Corn Co-Products.  The manual discusses the various ways of storing co-products such as distillers grains and corn gluten to extend the shelf life of these products.  The manual also contains a cost budget sheet that producers can utilize in estimating feed costs of stored products.  The manual can be found at the Nebraska Corn Board’s website or UNL’s Beef website, http://beef.unl.edu.


June is Dairy, Turkey Month:  The Nebraska Corn Board supported Nebraska’s dairy and turkey producers during June by raising awareness of the role that each industry plays in Nebraska’s economy.  Nebraska’s dairy industry, which includes 59,000 dairy cows, produced 1.08 billion pounds of milk this past year.  And the turkey industry provides more than $100 million in economic benefits.  The Nebraska Corn Board also supports these industries through financial support of A-FAN, dairy and turkey promotions and research on the utilization of ethanol co-products in their rations.

Nebraska Corn Board Enters Blogging World:  The Nebraska Corn Board recently developed a blog site, Nebraska Corn Kernels, which will provide corn growers an opportunity to react and provide comments on various posts dealing with hot topics in the industry.  The website can be found at http://nebraskacorn.blogspot.com/.        

Monsanto Mobile Technology Unit & Pipeline Field Tours:  Monsanto and the University of Nebraska will host the Monsanto Mobile Technology Unit (MTU) and Pipeline Field Tours in Mead, Nebraska July 8th and 10th.  The MTU will provide producers information on molecular breeding and genomics, crop analytics, biotechnology, research, corn pipeline, oilseed pipeline and ethanol initiatives.  The Nebraska Corn Board in conjunction with the Nebraska Corn Growers Association will have a display at the event and would like to invite producers to come out and enjoy the event.  The event will be located at the Ag Research and Development Center South of Mead off Hwy 66.  Tours will run from 8am to 6pm both days.  Please RSVP at 1-866-450-7787 to reserve your tour time.

Nebraska Corn Checkoff Update is published monthly for corn industry leaders and others in Nebraska.  For more information, call: 1.800.NECORN1 (632-6761) or send an e-mail to NCB.Info@nebraska.gov.  Additional information can be found at the Nebraska Corn Board’s website, www.nebraskacorn.org. 

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