NCGA Delegates Outline New Priorities DENVER, Colo. Com growers from around the coun try outlined the mission for the National Com Growers Asso ciation (NCGA) and set the stage for future policy actions during the 1994 Com Classic, February 27-March 1 in Den ver, Colo. During two days of voting delegate sessions, 260 com growers considered hundreds of resolutions and amendments. The mission statement of the NCGA and the National Com Development Foundation cap tures the broad role that this organization plays: “to enhance com profitability and usage to improve the quality of life in a changing world." To achieve these goals, NCGA re-emphasized their commitment to activities, such as supporting programs that expand com consumption and utilization, cooperating with other farm organizations to promote a more unified voice for agriculture and voluntarily adopting “environmentally sound" soil management techniques. Highlights of the voting del egate session: • NCGA leaders continued their support for fair and open trade and encouraged Congress to ratify the General Agree ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). They also offered support for USDA’s Market Promotion Program (MPP), which can expand commercial export markets. The delegates Facts prove that starch content is what makes corn the ideal animal feed. And that's what makes CFS Waxy Corn different from dent. CFS Waxy is 100% amylopectin starch...zero percent amyiose. (Dent is 25% amylose). Amylopectin starch is more digestible. That means CFS Waxy maintains no less than a 25% advantage over dent...in the feedlot or milking parlor. On-farm tests show the average weight gain/feed efficiency in beef, sheep, swine and other animals fed waxy corn increased up to 10% over dent fed animals. In dairy herds CFS Waxy increased butterfat, protein and milk production. And, CFS waxy can be produced as a cash crop...often bringing premium prices when used for export. Faster weight gain, more milk and flexibility...that's why CFS Waxy hybrids are more than just corn. See Your Local CFS Seedsman for More Information ©PARS, INC. 976 West Ridge Road Elizabethtown, PA 17022-9750 1-800-WAX-CORN 929-2676 Custom Farm Seed * Momence, IL 60954 Th* limitation of warrant war and requested that Congress fund the MPP at the currently approved program level of $lOO million, rather than the $75 million requested by Presi dent Clinton in his 1995 budget plan. • With several exciting pros pects for new com uses on the horizon, delegates urged the NCGA and state affiliates to woric with government, univer sity and industry representa tives to develop a comprehen sive national com research strategy before passage of the 1995 Farm Bill. They also urged Congress to fund Alter native Agricultural Research and Commercialization (AARC) program at the full level authorized by the 1990 Farmbill. • When Congress considers future farm program legisla tion, NCGA delegates asked them to include initiatives that would assure opportunities for improved profitability, enhance demand for basic commodities and value-added products, establish a national policy to utilize agricultural products as renewable resour ces, provide income support, and reduce the complexity of farm programs. NCGA went on record as supporting additional flexibili ty for farmers to rotate their program crop base acres to other crops for environmental benefits. They also encouraged discussion of revenue assur ance as part of the 1995 Farm Bill without endorsing any spe- and rcmady of Mch bag of CFS M«d toM it part of th« Ufmi of th« sal* th«f*of Plmm note limited -iCFr cific proposal. The concept, which emerged from the lowa Farm Bill Task Force, would guarantee farmers a portion (such as 70-percent) of their expected gross receipts. This type of program would replace the current system of deficiency payments, crop insurance and disaster programs. • Delegates devoted consid erable time to discussing the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which has idled about 36.5 million acres. Unless Congress acts to continue the program, the first acres will start to come out from under their ten-year contracts in late 1995, and 22 million acres could be unleashed by 1997. NCGA encouraged lawmakers to continue implementing the program with the following guidelines in mind: extensions of expiring contracts should be subject to competitive bidding: encourage haying and grazing instead of crop production on expiring CRP contracts; tree planting should be encouraged; enrollment and renewal of con tracts should be targeted to the most environmentally sensitive land such as field borders, large waterways and other areas needed for conservation compliance. Increased empha sis should be placed on water quality: target areas should be allowed to be managed in such a manner that would not dis rupt the normal management of the entire field; and individual states should be allowed to Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 8> 1994—Page (O®3M MLI MlWi PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC. start on conservation work prior to the land coming out of the CRP, • Corn growers support increased funding for federal quality programs, including NAFTA Opens Up Markets WASHINGTON. D.C. “The best news we have had in some time is that U.S. com producers will sell at least 2.5 million metric tons (mmt) (98.5 million bushels) of com to Mexico every year,” said Mark DeVorc, upon returning from the U.S. Feed Grains Council’s Market Assessment Mission. DeVore represented the Nebraska Com Board on the mission that traveled to Canada and Mexico to study opportun ities to increase exports to these markets. “The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and PROCAMPO open up new opportunities in Mexico for com producers. “There is still some ques tions as to who will receive the 2.5 mint (98.5 mbu) duty-free quota,” DeVore said. “Howev er, based on our meetings, it looks like the wet milling industry and food industries will get the majority share.” The Mexican government and industry groups will deter- 88,000 HAVE YOU HEARD? WHOLESAL E K RETAIL HOVDKLL FARMS 302 lona Road, Lebanon, PA I /’U-12 Phone 71 7-272-8943 USDA’s Water Quality Incen tive Program and nonpoint source pollution programs authorized by the Clean Water Act. mine which sectors receive the duty-free com quota from the United States. Mexico’s wet milling industry currently util izes 1-1.5 mmt (39.4 to 59.1 mbu) of com annually. “They are already using U.S. com, it is a matter of increasing the amount they use,” DeVore said. “At the wet mill we vis ited, there were several tracks full of Nebraska waxy com waiting to be processed.” “Almost as important as NAFTA is Mexico’s new domestic agricultural policy, PROCAMPO,” DeVore said. “Producers will be paid based on owned acreage, not the amount and type of crop they produce. There will no longer be the incentive to plant com, for which they were guaran teed double the world price, and it is expected that com acreage will decrease.” Mexico’s old agricultural policy paid producers double the world price for com and this encouraged its production at the expense of other crops. 221
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