A32*Lancastar Farming, Saturday, May 13, 2000
Guest speaker Bill Robinson of Kreamer Feeds, second from left, joins these Poultry
Science Club members who won special awards Josh Elliot as most active new
member, Heather Lehman for the club’s highest grade point average, and Tom Karr for
the highest grade point average in the poultry science major and the most active club
member.
Checkoff Dollars Harvest
Springtime Results
research and development dol
lars private companies reinvest
in new products, markets, and
processes. Farmers in 19 states
have established programs to
pool money generated by col
lecting a fraction of a cent per
bushel on each bushel sold. The
resulting fund is managed by a
board of farmers. In some cases
the money is pooled into bigger
projects at national level
through the National Com
Growers Association (NCGA).
In other cases, the farmers at
state level chose to fund projects
and activities within each state.
“Besides encouraging Cargill
Dow and helping the company
seek funding through Depart
ment of Commerce grants,
NCGA invested check off dol
lars from farmers to fund basic
research to get things going.
And, Cargill helped us evaluate
research opportunities,” said
Lee Klein, the NCGA president
elect and a farmer from Battle
Creek, Neb., referring to the new
PLA plant development.
“NCGA members and all com
growers who pay the checkoff
can take pride that their dollars
funded the research that has led
to this new facility. Since 1994,
Randall G. Renninger
ST. LOUIS (Mo.) U.S. corn
growers don’t harvest a crop in
April. But during the last week
of April, corn growers began
harvesting a crop of new corn
marketing opportunities that
had been planted and nurtured
with grower checkoff funds.
First, on April 25 at Blair,
Neb., Cargill Dow broke ground
on the first world-scale manu
facturing facility to make plas
tics and natural synthetic fibers
from corn. When completed in
late 2001, the plant will process
40,000 bushels of com per day or
14 million bushels of corn annu
ally to produce polylactides
(PLAs), plastics, and fibers for
clothing and carpeting.
Second, on April 29, a group
of Missouri farmers opened the
Show-Me state’s first corn
ethanol plant. The Macon, Mo.,
plant will turn six million bush
els of locally grown com into 15
million gallons of ethanol and
about 100 million pounds of dis
tillers dried grains.
Both events are examples of
the state and national projects
that farmers fund with checkoff
dollars to create and expand
markets for U.S. corn.
Checkoff funds are similar to
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com growers at the national and
state-level organizations have
turned this research into a top
priority.”
Klein further illustrated some
of the longer-term opportunities
for corn, opportunities that will
need checkoff investment. “This
opens the door to the possibility
of other price-competitive con
sumer products made from re
newable resources such as corn.
The tremendous potential for
consumer goods could eventu
ally lead to demand for another
500 million bushels. That addi
tional demand could add 25
cents to the price of a bushel of
corn.”
Saturday’s grand opening of
the Northeast Missouri Grain
Processors (NEMOGP) ethanol
plant was not only the opening
of Missouri’s Erst ethanol plant,
but also for a new generation,
farmer-owned, value-added co
operative.
Again, com growers’ checkoff
dollars played a big part.
Through the Missouri Com
Merchandising Council, the
farmers who administer the
state’s com checkoff funds, corn
growers provided seed money in
1995 to help NEMOGP orga
nize.
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Penn State Poultry
Science Club Wins
National Awards
(Continued from Pago A 1)
ganic and antibiotic-free feeds.
Robinson said the demands for
organic products is growing 20
percent a year in the United
States and 30 percent a year in
Europe. The company also sup
plies specialty feeds to duck,
rabbit, guinea, and other niche
market producers.
“We’ve made changes over
the 53 years in business. We’ve
changed how we administer
sales and credit. We’ve changed
our relationship with people and
changed our products. We have
hundreds of feed formulas in the
computer and two nutritionists
Penn State Poultry Science Club adviser Dirk Wise, front
center, is joined by the club's new officers. In front, from
the left, Luke Zerby, Ag Student Council representative;
Heather Lehman, president and in back, Josh Elliott, vice
president, and Robert Miller, secretary/treasurer.
'557
•bile
on staff. We have 20 different
growing programs.
“We started training pro
grams for employees and are
trying to create our own experts.
Our employees have varied job
descriptions.”
The Penn State Poultry Sci
ence Club actively participates
in the Fall Products Spectacular
during a home football game, Ag
Hill Olympics, a fall awards cer
emony for scholarships, fall field
trip to a related business, turkey
sales, the Farm Show, the At
lanta International Poultry Ex
position, and a food bank twice
a year.
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