Wesley Spurlock, a grower from Spurlock of Stratford, Texas, officially took the helm as the President of the Board for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Saturday and he has his eye on trade as a major focus of the 2017 fiscal year. Trade will play a starring role in finding homes for the increasing corn harvests and one growing area of trade: ethanol and dried distillers grains (DDGs).

“This year is much like the one we just finished,” said Spurlock. “We are looking at a massive corn crop. It is still being harvested but, even with some rain problems in the Midwest, the yields may be there. So, growing demand remains awfully important to finding a use for the crop that we have.”

Spurlock will utilize several teams focused on various elements of increasing demand including ethanol. “Our new action teams work well with our strategic plan,” said Spurlock. “We have three new teams focused on demand: the Ethanol Action Team; the Feed, Food and Industrial Action Team; and the Market Access Action Team. These groups on the demand side will all be working hard to find out where we are and where we need to be.”

He continued, “We have to work every side of this. We need trade. We need to work for the Trans Pacific Partnership. We need to work with our partners in the livestock industry. We need to work with the ethanol industry to keep that market open. And, we need to keep government regulations from becoming more cumbersome.”

Spurlock stresses that members will play an important role in achieving success. “We need the grassroots to go straight to their Representatives and Senators. They have to be active on the political side and the regulatory side. When we ask, it is because we do really need all of our members to come out and voice their opinions so that we can all keep the freedom to farm.”