Corn farming ‘has a very bright future’

ST. LOUIS — For Lynn Chrisp, past president and now chairman of the Corn Board of the National Corn Growers Association, the glass is half full.

Using pivot irrigation on a farm established in 1880 under the Homestead Act, Chrisp raises several different types of corn along with soybeans in Hastings, Nebraska.

Farmers have struggled with low prices, trade wars and difficult weather, but there still have been successes to celebrate, Chrisp said.

Farmers are facing a difficult time now, but what do you see on the horizon?

“As tough as this year has been with the historically wet spring and just unbelievable numbers of acres that were prevented from being planted, which really created an economic stress for our members, it’s probably worth noting over the last year some of the good things that have happened.

“The first week of my presidency in October 2018, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was announced as being completed in principle and that was a very welcome announcement. But as almost everyone knows, almost a year has gone by and we are waiting for the opportunity to get USMCA ratified in Congress. We need to get that across the finish line so that we have certainty in our trading relationships with our important trade partners in Mexico and Canada, our neighbors that supply extremely important markets that have a day-to-day impact on the price and economic condition for the farm.

“Within a couple weeks of that announcement, President Donald Trump announced that he was going to instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to start a rule to allow year-round sale of E15 and that was a situation that we and our other industry partners in the ethanol industry have been working on for some time and were really pleased to hear that was going to be undertaken, as well.

“We were disappointed with the results of the first round of the Market Facilitation Program payment, but that improved in April with the second round after the talks with China had collapsed and the administration said that they were going to support the farmers in regard to loss of trade opportunities. I think that our membership is much appreciative of that.

“In December, we had the signing of the farm bill that happened in a very expedited time frame in that it was passed and signed in the same year that it was brought up for consideration in Congress, which has rarely happened over the last couple of decades. Being president in a year of the farm bill signing was an excellent experience and I had the opportunity to be on stage with President Trump and his team and other representatives of the agricultural community, as well, for the signing. That was a real appreciated opportunity to be able to represent NCGA and our membership in that regard.

“There’s been a lot of good things that have happened. That rule that I talked about in my first couple weeks of my presidency then for year-round E15 was completed by EPA and announced just right at the first of June, so it was in place for this summer’s driving session.”

So, you can’t control the weather above, but NCGA is impacting what happens on the ground below?

“NCGA focuses every day on our jobs about creating demand because this country is best in its ability to produce successful crops when the weather cooperates and we need to have those markets in order to support our economy so that farmers can get to a point where they are experiencing better bottom lines than what we currently are right now.

“It’s an exciting situation, and I would encourage anyone that has an inkling of getting involved in an association that really has an opportunity and is positioned well to make a difference to look at spending some time with the corn growers association. I’ve had an excellent opportunity in doing so over the last couple of decades and have enjoyed the opportunity to review some of those successes that we have today and think that NCGA and corn farming has a very bright future because of all the work that NCGA is doing.”

What’s your advice to other farmers to be a part of that change?

“On a fundamental basis it really does not take much time to be involved and be in the count to make a difference. I will say that the opportunity these days with electronic communication and the good job that our communications department does in making that easy to participate in hearing our voices on any particular issue as we identify the need to communicate with the White House or with the U.S. Department of Agriculture or with EPA on various regulatory issues that are in front of us that affects our farming operations day to day, it’s an extremely easy thing to do. It just takes a couple minutes.

“The last effort generated thousands of responses both into the White House and the EPA on the issue that we were working. So, it does not take much to be involved in such a way that you can be counted and can be heard. Consider that.

“And if you also have an inkling at improving some of your leadership skills, NCGA is really good at providing some leadership development programs to the point where you can get comfortable in working from a leadership position, as well.

“I can say that a couple decades ago when I was a much younger farmer that I never dreamed I would be in a situation where I would have devoted as much time as I have to the association, but it has been well worth it and I’ve been glad to step up and supply some of that leadership in conjunction with the rest of the board and our action teams, as well. There’s plenty of opportunities to get involved.”

What will you remember from your term this past year as president?

“I was asked going into my presidential year about a couple of project priorities that I had on my mind that I would like to see some significant progress made. I picked two — low-carbon octane standard initiative, and a year ago we were working through a NCGA task force on the ethanol question as far as future fuels policy. We made great strides in that area and hopefully shortly we’ll have a bill introduced in Congress to try to establish an octane standard for the future.

“The other priority was life cycle analysis because conversations over the last number of years regarding corn farming contribution to greenhouse gas and the environmental discussion were important for us and we needed that information that established it as a benchmark from a scientific standpoint. We should be in a situation where we’re pretty close on that.”

What accomplishments stand out during your many years of service to corn growers?

“I’ll go back into the mid-2005, 2006 time frame, when we were working on a farm bill and a new concept and through what is now referred to as the Risk Management Action Team. At that time that team started a project that we developed that was referred to as Average Crop Revenue Election. ACRE was a fairly revolutionary idea for Title 1 in the farm bill and set the stage for revenue programs that were in place at that point in time then and subsequently was altered a little bit then and became ARC-county. Those two programs provided a lot of needed support at times when it was real critical for our membership and was very targeted in its delivery, which was part of the success of the program.

“Beyond that, I had the opportunity to work with enterprise crop insurance then and equalization of premium support as it was compared to optional units at the time. As all of our membership knows, crop insurance is the cornerstone for our safety net as we continue our farming operations year over year now. Because of those changes, enterprise has grown to be the Risk Management Agency’s No. 1 choice for crop insurance and optional units have declined over the years because of it.

“We also got into a project of GPS harvest data reporting, which is certification of yields and proof of loss capability, utilizing modern technology on our combines and reporting to Risk Management Agency, as well, for certifications. That has been a real positive for our membership, as well.”

Meet Lynn Chrisp

As chairman of the National Corn Growers Association, Lynn Chrisp also chairs the Nominating Committee, co-chairs the Agri-Industry Council Executive Committee and is a board member of the Monsanto Grower Advisory Committee. In addition to serving on the Governance Committee, he chairs the National Corn Growers Association Foundation.

Previously, Chrisp served in various capacities on the Ethanol Action Team, the Production and Stewardship Action Team, the Public Policy Action Team, the Trade Policy and Biotechnology Action Team, the Resolutions Committee and the Finance Committee.

At the state level, he previously served as chairman of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association Government Relations Committee with oversight for state and national issues along with responsibilities for Nebraska’s leadership program to Washington, D.C. He also has led an effort to establish a cooperative agreement resulting in operations for Nebraska Corn.

Away from corn grower activities, Chrisp served as member and chairman of Nebraska’s Southern Public Power District’s Board of Directors.