Kansas: At least 20 new E85 fueling sites will open in the next year, thanks to a collaborative effort between the Kansas Corn Commission, United Bio Energy and the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC). Kansas currently has five E85 stations located at Hays, Maize, Great Bend, Topeka and Garnett. There are over 6 million FFVs on the road today that can operate on E85. NEVC Project Director Robert White estimated there are more than 80,000 FFVs in Kansas. Kansas now has seven ethanol plants that use 65 million bushels of corn and grain sorghum to produce 170 million gallons of ethanol per year. Prairie Horizons Agri-Energy LLC will begin construction in October on a 40 million gallon plant at Phillipsburg. Other plant projects are in various stages of planning, including a 100-million-gallon plant in Haskell County announced this week.

Nebraska: A recent tour of Nebraska farms and other agricultural venues in the state made quite an impression on a group of grain buyers from Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asia Trade Team’s visit to Nebraska was sponsored by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and hosted by the Nebraska Corn Board. Participants came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The group visited grain elevators, an ethanol plant and farms in eastern Nebraska. Lim Hooi Hon, a trading manager with Soon Soon Group of Malaysia, has been buying Nebraska corn and soybeans for nearly 25 years. He said the quality of the corn he purchases is very consistent from year to year, which is a big advantage for Nebraska corn producers. He said he was impressed with the quality of the corn and soybeans he observed in Nebraska fields. The competition for the Southeast Asian grain market is intense, Kimberly Rameker, USGC  regional director for Southeast Asia, said. South America is the top competitor to the U.S. for sales of corn and soybean meal. While price is a major factor in purchase decisions, Rameker said the U.S. has an advantage with the consistency and quality of its grain.

Colorado: Front Range Energy began construction on its ethanol plant near Windsor, Colorado. The plant will process about 14 million bushels of corn into 40 million gallons of ethanol and approximately 120,000 tons of distillers' grains annually.

Illinois: The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) announced today that they are prepared to immediately authorize the use of temporary and emergency grain storage and structures to ease space shortages caused by shipping delays on the Mississippi River. IDOA made their decision to head off any potential problem in the making after analyzing storage capacity,  carryover from last year, and taking into account that harvest is going full speed across the state. Approximately 1.2 million bushels of grain have been approved for temporary storage thus far with applications for an additional 19 million bushels under review. Illinois warehouses have a combined storage capacity of 1.2 billion bushels with another 1.2 billion bushels in on-farm grain bins and other storage.

NCGA Fiscal Year Coming to an End.

A friendly reminder to all corn growers who have outstanding expense reports, please make sure your reports are submitted to NCGA no later than Friday, Sept. 30.