Moving our Industry Forward with Partnerships
by Greg Roth
I do a lot of traveling around the region and the state and I continue to hear many producers and industry folks ask what we need to be doing to move our corn and grain industry ahead in Pennsylvania in these trying times. I think we are starting to make progress but it's difficult to achieve much by working alone. Many of us feel that just by working harder each day we can accomplish our goals, but I'm finding that by working together in partnerships among industry, university, producers and government we can achieve things that one group cannot achieve alone.
I've seen numerous examples of this starting to happen in other regions and now starting to happen in our industry here in Pennsylvania as well. I am writing this in Canada where I am attending a conference on corn breeding. The Canadians have problems with ear rot in corn affecting the feed and export potential of their crop. Several presentations here have related how they have pulled together producer, industry, university and government support to tackle this problem. They are making real progress at understanding the mechanisms behind ear rot and developing transgenic lines that are showing some potential for resistance to the problem.
Here in Pennsylvania, I've seen a similar effort happen with crop insurance. Industry representatives, corn producers, Pennsylvania Department of Ag and Penn State have worked together to make crop insurance more attractive and increased enrollment dramatically. Gene Gantz reported at our Corn and Soybean Conference this year that crop insurance has resulted in $50-60 million dollars being pumped into our rural economy this year, with potential for even more if we had had more signup. This is one example of how these partnerships can work to put dollars in your pocket.
I see similar relationships possible in other areas. In the ethanol plant development efforts that are happening around the state, for example, I have seen some good examples of this kind of partnering going on. Partnership efforts are underway to assess the feasibility and discuss the issues surrounding the development of that market for corn. That is good.
Recently, in our department, we initiated corn hybrid silage testing program with dairy producers and the support of industry. This has been a good example of a partnership between industry, producers and the university to work at making us more competitive.
At our recent Corn and Soybean Conference, Marcia Taylor told us we need to be more aggressive about maintaining a competitive animal industry to support our current basis in corn. Otherwise, livestock production may move to South America and take our corn markets with them. Here's another opportunity for work in a partnership mode that seems to have worked on other issues.
I also feel that we need more partnerships to develop better hybrids and production strategies adapted to our region to create added value opportunities for grain producers. Seed companies or Penn State can't do it alone. We need the industry/government/university /producer partnerships to make this work, too.
We also heard at our conference that "the world is run by folks who show up". Get involved. Bring some new ideas forward. Help develop some partnerships. Let's get the ball rolling.
As producers, network with the leadership in our Pennsylvania Corn Growers Association and other farm groups to build new markets for our crops and help to address some of our specific issues here in the state. As industry, government or in university folks, look to pitch in to make things happen. And remember that key word...partnerships.