NCGA Discusses Challenges, Opportunities and Transportation Needs at Trucking Conference (5-7-07)

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has told the nation’s truckers that improvements must be made to the U.S. transportation network if agriculture is to continue to flourish through new opportunities and markets.
 
During a speech to the American Trucking Association NCGA Corn Board Member Jamie Jamison highlighted the significant and important contribution corn producers have made to the economy.

Jamison told attendees that corn growers have produced some of the largest corn crops on record, while also advancing the research and technologies in producing ethanol and coproducts such as dried distiller grains.  He discussed out how corn grower’s success is directly tied to the efficient movement of goods — whether by barge, rail or truck —— and the critical need for a reliable, cost-effective, efficient and secure transportation infrastructure as corn growers continue to produce record crops.
 
“Corn gets from the farm to fuel via this nation’s roadways and it is imperative we continue to maintain an efficient trucking fleet to meet the growing demand of commodities and biofuels in this nation,” said Jamison. “Improving transportation networks should be a national priority that deserves urgent attention. Strained capacity in all modes, increasing rates for rail service, structurally deficient bridges and mediocre roads, and locks and dams long past their expected useful life are just a sampling of the issues that significantly affect our ability to market corn and corn byproducts.”
 
U.S. agriculture is the largest user of the freight transportation network, accounting for nearly one-third of all freight transportation services provided in the U.S.  According to a recent report by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service domestic movement of corn is dominated by trucks, accounting for roughly 67 percent of the traffic from 2000 to 2004.
 
Jamison emphasized the implications of the growing biofuels market and its use of the transportation system He said although 80 percent of ethanol is by rail, 20 percent is almost solely reliant on truck transport.
 
As ethanol and renewable fuels expand, reliance on trucking, Jamison noted, will increase, making labor and truck availability critical to agriculture’s continued success.
 
Jamison’s speech on the opportunities and challenges facing agriculture and trucking is available here.