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NCGA calls for ag aid that expands markets, boosts ethanol demand

The chairman of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) says a proposed $10 billion assistance package would help many farmers survive the slumping ag economy.

Illinois farmer Kenny Hartman Jr. says farmers are feeling the squeeze of tight margins.

“It’s a bad situation right now with these input costs so high and the price is lower.”  He says, “I mean, we definitely need some supplemental payments to keep our farmers going so they can keep farming in the future here until we get these markets.”

He tells Brownfield that fertilizer prices are especially concerning.

“These fertilizer prices, I can tell you, phosphates are $250 to $300 higher than they were a year ago,” he says.

Hartman says NCGA ideally would like to see any aid package also include market expansion.

“We want a package that helps create markets, like E15.”  He says, “For every 1% that we use more ethanol in the United States, it’ll use about 1/2 a billion bushels of corn.”

The administration has said the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government has delayed work on the proposed assistance package.  

AUDIO: Kenny Hartman Jr – NCGA