May is Renewable Fuels Month, and it is the perfect time to reflect on the journey of the ethanol industry and its roots in farming communities.
Todd Brown, Chairman of Dakota Ethanol, recently shared a story with Ag News Wire about how South Dakota’s corn growers were instrumental in the creation of the state’s first large-scale ethanol plant in 1999.
“The ethanol industry was just becoming new. There were a few private plants, but when I look back, the South Dakota corn growers were so all in and so dedicated, and when you think about it, we were going to be the first plant and we were going to be a 40 million gallon brewing plant and so it was going to take $15-20 million worth of equity. That hadn’t been done. It definitely hadn’t been done in South Dakota, and so the South Dakota corn growers were very instrumental and they did a lot of things that really tipped the scale,” he explained.
Today, Dakota ethanol produces 100 million gallons of eco-friendly ethanol annually, sourced from 33 million bushels of locally grown corn.
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The new AFBF Women in Agriculture survey is accepting responses from women in the industry across the United States now through March 31.
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University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) representative Dr. Dirac Twidwell joins us with the latest on woody encroachment conservation efforts in the Great Plains.
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API said it stands ready to work with Congress to develop a balanced approach to E15 legislation that promotes fuel choice, supports investment certainty, and contributes to a stable and fair marketplace for American consumers.
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In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is asking that farmers be allowed to use marketing assistance loans to help stay afloat.
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Beef industry groups seem to agree — market-based pricing, not federal intervention, best supports rancher livelihoods and long-term beef supply stability.
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