No discord between Nebraska corn, cattle groups
US - Nebraska Cattlemen raised eyebrows last month when the group adopted a policy calling for no further ethanol mandates and a phase-out of existing ethanol subsidies. But at the Nebraska Ag Classic in Kearney Wednesday, Brownfield found out that doesn’t mean Nebraska's corn and beef producers are at each other’s throats.
14 December 2006
2 minute read
In fact, Brownfield found Nebraska Cattlemen Executive Vice President Mike Kelsey in the Nebraska Corn Growers Association board of delegates meeting. He said talk of discord between the state’s corn farmers and cattlemen is nonsense.
"Absolutely not true at all," Kelsey said. "In fact, the relationship between cattlemen and corn producers has never been stronger, in our opinion" he added. "That's a cowboy's opinion, and I think we've got some friends in the corn industry that would say the same thing."
One of those friends is Don Hutchens, Executive Director of the Nebraska Corn Board, who told Brownfield corn growers have a vested interest in the success of the state’s cattlemen. "We realize in Nebraska our number one customer is the cattle industry," asserted Hutchens. "We want them to be profitable as well."
Indeed, Hutchens said Nebraska Cattlemen and Nebraska Corn Growers plan a joint lobbying trip to Washington D.C. after the first of the year. And Hutchens said his goal as the ethanol industry grows is to find a balance between the needs of corn growers and cattlemen.
"The thing we're going to guard against is anything that swings the pendulum too far one way, that causes the livestock industry pain," Hutchens explained, "or the pendulum swinging too far the other way, pushing corn prices back down there to a point where farmers can't find a profit margin and simultaneously see the government backing out of some of its traditional support for farm programs."
Source: Brownfield Network
