IGCA President Greif works to keep industry growing

     While corn farmers faced a difficult year in 2019, with low prices, wet weather and unusually late planting and harvest, Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) President Jim Greif of Prairieburg said there may be brighter days ahead.

     Or at least, days that aren’t any worse.

     “Unless there’s a major drought or disaster, I don’t see us going backwards on price any,” said Greif, 63, who raises corn and soybeans in the Prairieburg area and has been farming for 41 years.

     “I don’t see us going to $5 corn or anything like that, but I think we’re going to maintain a decent level, and a little higher than it is right now.”

     Greif, of Prairieburg, is president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, and has been since August, moving up after serving one year as vice president.

     “I’ve been on the board for nine years,” he said. “The board members vote on the executive committee. I’m elected (to the board) by farmers in Crop Reporting District 6. Once you’re on the board, the rest of the board elects the executive board.”

     That, he said, is a three-year term, with one year as vice president, one year as president, and one year as past president.

     “I like to have a say on all the current legislative issues,” Greif said.

     A couple of those have the chance to improve things for Iowa corn producers. One is the trade deal with China announced by President Donald Trump Jan. 15.

     “This deal with China is huge, but they have not bought anything yet,” Greif said. “We could put 50 cents (per bushel) back into this corn market pretty easy with that, if it comes to fruition.”

     The other involves patents the corn industry has recently received for a process to manufacture ethylene glycol out of corn.

     “It’s antifreeze, and it’s a base for a lot of other chemicals and industrial uses. That could be a huge market for corn,” Greif said. “We’re a long ways from marketing that yet. But that’s one of the ways the checkoff dollars are working for corn growers.”

     There is also a downside, largely from the Trump administration’s decision to allow 31 small refinery waivers. Those are available to small refineries that can prove they are in financial strife, freeing them from their obligation under the Renewable Fuel Standard to blend biofuels like ethanol into their gasoline or purchase credits from others that do.

     “The largest use of corn is livestock feed, and our number two use is ethanol,” Greif said. “That one single issue is what’s hurting the corn price more than anything. They’ve taken over a billion bushels of corn off the market that we thought was sold. That alone has cost us at least a dollar on the corn market.”

     Greif also shared the difficulty Iowa farmers faced this past year with weather and field conditions.

     “Everything we did was very trying,” he said. “We ended up with a fairly decent crop, but it was hard getting them planted and hard getting them out of the field.”

     A foot of snow in October stopped harvest for about a month, he said, and then after farmers resumed, propane ran out, setting them back another 2-3 weeks.

     “It all kind of piled up,” Greif ssaid. “Luckily, about the second or third week of December, we had a little Indian summer and a lot of crop got harvested right before Christmas. There were combines running in the neighborhood on Christmas day.”

     Ultimately, he said, “We didn’t break any records, but it did turn out all right.

     “Last year there were areas of the country, like the Dakotas, that had disasters. But then there were other areas that had the best yields ever. Texas actually had a really good corn year. So it all kind of averages out every year.”

     As ICGA president, Greif answers a lot of questions about the corn industry.

     “I’m not a polished public speaker, but you soon learn that you have to be in front of the crowd quite a bit,” he said. “You get used to it. I do a lot of these kinds of interviews. Every time there’s a hot button issue, the staff at Iowa Corn gives them my phone number, so you have to be ready for that.”

     The ICGA handles the political side of the industry, with Greif at the forefront.

     “Iowa Corn has paid lobbyists at the state level,” he said. “The people on the ICGA board are called in several times a year if there’s an issue to sway one way or the other.

     “We try to keep a good personal relationship with our local legislators as best we can.”

     One of the issues the board will be pursuing in 2020 is funding for ethanol infrastructure, enabling the industry to create E15, E20 or E25 blends of ethanol with gasoline.

     “We want to make sure the infrastructure is in place when we do get to that level of ethanol blends,” Greif said.

     “Our ultimate goal is to make corn profitable for farmers in Iowa, and anything we can do to create more markets.”

     Greif is owner of Prairieview Ag Service, and is a certified crop advisor. He has also served on the Linn County Farm Bureau Board of Directors for the past 37 years, and belongs to the Iowa Soybean Association.

     He and his wife Sharon have three children: Peter, Nick and Katie.