Iowa Renewable Fuel Marketing Awards Presented

Cindy Zimmerman

Ron Burmeister with Iowa 80 (left) and Joel Hirschboek with Kwik Trip accept awards from Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey

Kwik Trip, Inc. and the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott are the 2018 winners of the Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey’s Ethanol and Biodiesel Marketing Awards. The awards were created by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to recognize fuel marketers that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to promote and sell renewable fuels.

“Kwik Trip and the Iowa 80 Truckstop have both made marketing renewable fuels a central part of the business and it is great to recognize the commitment and investment they have made to do it successfully,” Northey said. The winners were announced and recognized during the Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores of Iowa Annual Meeting in Des Moines this week.

Kwik Trip, Inc, is winner of the 2018 Secretary’s Ethanol Marketing Award Kwik Trip, Inc. currently has 25 locations in the state of Iowa selling E15 and 25 locations selling E85. Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott is the winner of the 2018 Secretary’s Biodiesel Marketing Award. Iowa 80 Truckstop has offered biodiesel since 2002, which makes this the 15th anniversary of their program.

And, yes, Bill Northey is still Secretary of Agriculture for Iowa, over four months since he was nominated to be USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and there is no word on when the Senate will be able to move forward since Sen. Ted Cruz put a hold on his confirmation over the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol

National Biodiesel Conference to Celebrate 25 Years

Cindy Zimmerman

The biodiesel industry is heading to Fort Worth January 22 – 25 for the silver anniversary of the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo.

“Every conference we’ve sponsored has been an exciting event for our industry,” said National Biodiesel Board (NBB) CEO Donnell Rehagan. “But this one is obviously going to be special as we take the opportunity to not only recognize the milestones we’ve passed over the last two-and-half decades, we’ll also look forward to meeting the challenges ahead as the industry continues to grow and plays an even greater role in America’s ever more critical energy sector.”

One of this year’s highlights will be a session with the filmmakers who premiered “Hot Grease” at the DOC NYC film festival before its debut on the Discovery Channel last November. The feature length documentary tells the story of biodiesel’s rise and the industry fight for survival in the face of numerous public policy challenges.

The public is also invited to the conference to explore the event’s Conference Central, where they can learn all about how biodiesel is made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil and animal fats, and to participate in a “ride-and-drive” with vehicles provided by area dealers and equipped with the latest diesel engines. A Texas driver’s license is required for local residents to attend free of charge.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen

Audio, Biodiesel, Biodiesel Conference, NBB

Ethanol Production Going Strong

Cindy Zimmerman

According to the first Energy Information Administration report for the new year analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol production dropped below a million barrels a day for the first time in three months, while the last week of 2017 was still slightly above a million.

Ethanol production averaged 1.032 million barrels per day (b/d) for the week ending December 29, and 996,000 b/d for the week ending January 5. Ethanol production only dropped below a million barrels a day eight weeks in 2017.

The four-week average for ethanol production finished 2017 at 1.072 million b/d for an annualized rate of 16.43 billion gallons. Stocks of ethanol were 22.6 million barrels, a 2.7% increase and the largest reserves in 31 weeks.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Trump Puts Rural America in the Spotlight

President Trump’s address to the American Farm Bureau Federation 99th annual convention this week in Nashville definitely brought agriculture some positive publicity, mentioning the word farmers over 25 times in his speech, more than any of the previous three presidents in all of their official speeches combined. Granted, that is just a guess but I feel safe in saying that if someone were to be able to fact-check it!

Farm Bureau estimates 7400 watched the president’s speech in person or on the Livestream, and thousands more have watched it since. Among those watching from home was former AFBF president Bob Stallman, who said it was the first convention he has missed in 30 years. The speech was also carried live by RFD-TV, Fox News and CBS. Agri-Pulse and RFD-TV were both granted interviews with the president. It was definitely a very big deal.

President Trump’s commitment to rural America with the signing of two presidential orders that will help increase broadband access out in the countryside, something that his Rural Prosperity Task Force made a high priority, was also a very big deal to many of the thousands at the event. Jamie interviewed a number of attendees to get their reactions, including FFA and 4H members, state Farm Bureau presidents, the Missouri Director of Agriculture and Mrs. Zippy Duvall. Listen to some of the comments here: Reaction to President Trump at #AFBF18

Watch President Trump video
AFBF President Trump Photos

2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Audio

CHS to Use Enogen® Corn at Rochelle IL Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

Syngenta has finalized an agreement for CHS Inc. to use Enogen® corn enzyme technology at its 130-million-gallon ethanol plant in Rochelle, Illinois.

Enogen corn will provide the CHS Rochelle facility with an industry-leading enzyme for enhanced ethanol production while also supporting local growers and the community. Several million dollars in premiums are expected to be paid annually to growers raising Enogen corn, locally, for the CHS plant in Rochelle.

“CHS is focused on helping its farmer-owners grow,” said Mike Van Houten, CHS Rochelle facility manager. “The Enogen program provides benefits for our plant, but is also a big win for our local community with the premium to be paid on every bushel of Enogen corn brought to us.”

CHS ethanol plants manufacture the alcohol-based renewable fuel via an advanced fermenting and distilling process that efficiently converts corn into simple sugars. The resulting ethanol product is primarily used as a fuel that is commonly blended with gasoline to increase octane and improve emissions quality. The Rochelle plant is an 81-acre, dry mill corn-based operation and was acquired by CHS in June 2014.

CHS is an ethanol producer, marketer and trader and one of the nation’s largest suppliers of ethanol-enhanced gasoline. Enogen corn enzyme technology is an in-seed innovation available exclusively from Syngenta that features the first biotech corn output trait designed specifically to enhance ethanol production.

corn, Enogen, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Syngenta

Brazil Increases U.S. Ethanol Imports Despite Tariff

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol exports were up 14% in November over the previous month, totaling 107.2 million gallons, according to the latest government data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).

Despite the imposition of a tariff rate quota and 20% tariff in September, Brazil was the leading destination for U.S. ethanol exports for the first time in six months, receiving 28.1 mg. November also saw a small volume of denatured ethanol exported to China, which has not imported any U.S. fuel ethanol in the prior 10 months. Canada scaled back its imports of U.S. product to 24.2 mg, a 29% reduction from October. Exports to India perked up at 15.5 mg, a 17% increase, while shipments to the Philippines more than doubled to 9.9 mg. These four countries accounted for nearly three-fourths of all U.S. ethanol shipments in November. Exports to all destinations for the first eleven months of 2017 stood at 1.19 billion gallons, indicating a record annualized export volume of 1.30 billion gallons.

Read more on the RFA E-Blog.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, RFA

President Trump Addresses Record Farm Bureau Crowd

“Farm country is God’s country,” said President Donald J. Trump at the conclusion of his remarks to a record crowd at the American Farm Bureau Federation 99th annual convention in Nashville.

“100 is so much cooler,” Trump said. “I’ll just have to come back again next year.”

The president hit all the high notes to please the crowd that helped elect him to the White House, from lower taxes to increasing rural broadband access, but only briefly mentioned trade and NAFTA, which farmers are most concerned about when it comes to administration policy. He focused on eliminating unnecessary regulations. “Oh are you happy you voted for me,” the president said as he talked about “ditching the rule” – the Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS, which Farm Bureau stridently opposed.

Listen to President Trump’s entire remarks here – President Trump at #AFBF18

Watch President Trump video archive
Find links to all AFBF convention content.

2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Audio

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue at #AFBF18

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue set the stage for his boss and our president Donald J. Trump to address the largest general farm organization in the country Monday.

Perdue highlighted accomplishments of the Trump Administration related to agriculture and discussed the importance of trade and NAFTA in particular to U.S. agriculture. “To get a deal, we need all sides to seriously roll up their sleeves and get to work,” Perdue said. “We have put a number of proposals on the table to modernize NAFTA, and critically for agriculture, to address key sectors left out of the original agreement – dairy and poultry tariffs in Canada. Now, we want to see our negotiating partners step up and engage so we can get the deal done.”

Perdue also noted that USDA has been rolling back excessive regulations following a directive from President Trump, including WOTUS, the Waters of the U.S. rule which was the subject of Farm Bureau’s Ditch the Rule campaign. “You know, sometimes a mud puddle is just a mud puddle,” Perdue said. “We don’t need the federal government coming in and regulating everything to death.”

The secretary also officially presented the findings of the President’s Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity.

Listen to Perdue’s address here: USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue at AFBF18

Click here to watch it on video.

2018 AFBF Convention Photo Album

WATCH LIVE or click for archived video
Watch President Trump live from AFBF starting at 3:00 pm central.

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Audio, USDA

Farm Bureau Excels at Instant Convention Content

The communications team for the American Farm Bureau Federation is really getting a workout for the organization’s 99th annual meeting in Nashville this week with President Donald Trump attending Monday afternoon. Over 200 registered media and room for only 90, having the vast majority of the convention schedule being changed at the last minute, and just dealing with the logistics of a presidential presence will make Monday a challenge for even the most seasoned professionals. But, no matter what, you will be able to see the president’s speech live, or go back and watch it later – and you will have photos and audio almost immediately after it is over.

In fact, you can find the majority of the main activities at the AFBF convention live-streamed, archived, photographed, and audio filed, with multiple press releases, through the Farm Bureau convention media guide. With the help of state Farm Bureau communications specialists, the AFBF communications team has always been the best at providing content for media. Chuck was one of those state staffers at Florida Farm Bureau who was brought on the AFBF team for the 1985 convention in Hawaii. They were using some of the earliest satellite technology to send both audio and video back to the mainland for some media, but they were also shipping video stories on cassette using the latest express shipping services and getting audio content sent via telephone. News releases and photos were still mostly sent by mail but they were using some of the earliest facsimile machines at the time.

AFBF has always kept up with the latest in communications technology, so now you can watch and record it live as it happens, get high resolution photos, and subscribe to audio feeds from the event via podcast. Jamie will be on the ground there for President Trump’s address Monday and we will have an AgNewsWire virtual newsroom page set up for her photos and interviews, but here are the links to various content sources from AFBF:

Convention photos
Live streaming video and links to archived videos
B Roll Video
Audio files

Farm Bureau is really the epitome of an organization that excels in providing virtually instant digital content from their conventions. AgNewsWire is a way for smaller organizations to get content from their own meetings produced and distributed to a wider audience. It’s what we do best, and we learned a lot of it from working with Farm Bureau over the years.

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision

ZimmCast with MN Soybean

Tom Slunecka is one of the first people ever to be featured in a ZimmCast, back in 2005 when he was executive director for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). That organization became Growth Energy in 2008, and Tom has been executive director for Minnesota Soybean, which includes both the state Growers Association (MSGA) and the Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC). We had the pleasure of doing a little media training for Tom and his board this week so we had some time to catch up and reminisce a bit.

Tom was also the first person to name our signature meme the ZimmComm Golden Microphone on its first event out of the box, the 2007 NAMA conference, which makes him a founding member of the Golden Mic Club!

You will find Tom on page 25 of the latest AgriMarketing magazine because the Minnesota Soybean Biodiesel Project was named 2017 Product of the Year. Congratulations to the entire Minnesota Soybean team for that honor!

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 570 with Minnesota Soybean’s Tom Slunecka

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here. Use this url in iTunes or your favorite news reader program/app.

The ZimmCast

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AgWired Energy, Soybean, ZimmCast