Senator Marshall Questions Witnesses at the Senate Ag Committee

Washington - On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), questioned witnesses Mr. Zippy Duvall, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and Mr. Jed Bower, President of the National Corn Growers Association, at the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. The hearing focused on increasing domestic consumption of U.S.-grown agricultural products.

Senator Marshall's questions were centered around year-round E15 and its impacts on corn exports as well as the 45Z market.

Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall's full remarks.

Highlights from the hearing include:

Senator Marshall: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to all our guests, our witnesses. We do appreciate you being here. Mr. Duvall, if I told you I have an export market that we could double overnight, that we typically export about 2 billion bushels of corn, maybe 2.3, but we have a new market that would add an additional 2.5 billion bushels of corn consumption. Would you be excited about that?"

Mr. Duval: "I would be really excited and celebrate with you."

Senator Marshall: "And of course, we've got that in our backyard. By going to year-round E15, it would be the equivalent of doubling our exports. And the beauty of that is we don't have to depend upon the ups and downs of having to deal with another country and maybe a different administration, all these types of things. So, how big of a win would this be?"

Mr. Duval: "It would be tremendous."

Senator Marshall: "Mr. Bowers, anything to add about how important year-round E15 is? Is there anything that's a bigger priority right now for agriculture that could really change net income today?"

Mr. Bowers: "You know, when you talk about all the bushels, Senator, and the amount of acres corn happened to cover this past year, I mean, a lot of farmers are looking for a way to make a profit, and they're hoping this is the light at the end of the tunnel. I think we've seen a lot of acres transition just for the hope that we're going to get E15, and we might bring some profitability back. So that is our number one priority, and we truly hope that it gets over the line here soon."

Senator Marshall: "And then if I told you that I have another export market that would consume even more corn than year-round E15, and I talked about 45Z. What would be the good again? Mr. Byers, what would be the impact of the 45Z potential market?"

Mr. Bowers: "Senator, absolutely tremendous. You know, the American corn farmers are the best in the world at raising corn. You give us a goal, we'll raise the corn, and we'll produce the corn. We just need the markets."

Senator Marshall: "This is the number one ask I had for President Trump and his team going into the election, to proceed with 45Z, and it's here. We even got undenatured alcohol in there so that we can export it as well. Mr. Duval, are you all happy with the President's rules for the 45Z?"

Mr. Duval: "Currently, we are, of course, we could always modify them a little bit, and I don't want to get into the weeds of that. But yes."

Senator Marshall: "Okay, looking through Mr. Duval's own graphs here, it's very enlightening that we saw a record decline in net farm income in 23 and 24, and then we talk about input costs. And I think that's probably the number one challenge right now, is input costs. Input costs stayed stable in 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 is when we saw it looks like just a record increase in input costs, and they continued up upward, but they haven't come down. People tell me that usual input costs come down when the commodity prices come down. And, you know, I'll open it up to anybody. Why did the input costs go up so much? And then, what are the solutions?"

Mr. Bowers: "Senator, I guess I'll start. The input costs went up because they could. Nobody told them they couldn't. As farmers, you know, we're left out, out in the weather, in the cold, and there's been a lot of consolidation in that realm. And with a lot of the things happening around the world, our ability to source fertilizers and inputs has really declined, and we're left stuck with what we got."

Senator Marshall: "What you're really referring to is a concentration of industry. Yes, when we speak of input costs, really what we're talking about are chemicals and fertilizers. They would be the big chunk of input costs. You know, certainly, diesel fuel is in there as well. But until nine days ago, diesel fuels were coming really, and even interest is a huge expense for farmers. For a million-dollar operation loan, interest rates went from two to 9% overnight. So, it's good that that's coming down as well. Mr. Duval, anything to add on, on input cost?"

Mr. Bowers: "Well, we know the events around the world, with the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran is not helping things at all, and it's been challenging. Of course, we've encouraged the people that are providing those inputs to be more transparent, so that we could more understand on the farm why those increases have come so high. The other increase you haven't even mentioned is the increase in machinery. I know you can't touch a cotton picker for less than a million dollars. And it does one thing: it picks cotton for about a month. It has probably doubled in price in the last five or six years. So, there's really no explanation other than what's happening around the world, and I think there needs to be more transparency, so that we can understand why these inflated prices are there."

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