Corn Growers Call for E15 Legislation

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Members of the National Corn Growers Association didn't mince any words on Wednesday following the latest USDA estimates of a record corn crop expected in 2025.

U.S. farmers need more markets now.

Corn growers called on Congress and the Trump administration to push across the finish line legislation that would allow year-round, permanent sales of E15 nationwide.

If the 16.7-billion-bushel (bb) production estimate comes to fruition, it will be devastating to farmers and rural communities.

"This is a major concern for our farm back home here," NCGA President and Illinois farmer Kenneth Hartman Jr. said during a press call on Wednesday. "I mean, this doesn't only just affect our farmers, but this goes back to rural America. We had good prices back in 2022 and we had reasonable cost for our inputs. But now these prices have dropped in half and at the same time -- I call it the inflation factor."

Tuesday's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report that also projected a record yield of 188.8 bushels per acre (bpa) and a 30-cent drop in the farmgate price to $3.90 a bushel, came in an already challenging price environment, Hartman said.

"You know our local elevator now has it already $3.38, which is extremely lower even than we're talking about as far as the (Chicago) board of trade," he said. "I know there's going to be areas that are going to actually for the first time in many years dropping in the $2 range, probably the $2.80, $2.90s at harvest because of the basis."

NCGA Chief Economist Krista Swanson said the math is worsening for corn producers.

Farmers are facing an 85-cent-per-bushel loss at current market prices, a third consecutive year of negative profit margins with the 2026 outlook "even worse," she said, while the cost of producing a corn crop is around $4.75 a bushel with a $3.90 price.

"This report with these updated production projections just ups the ante," Swanson said.

"It increased the urgency on the need for market-driven demand solutions; the economic health of corn farmers and rural America is really on the line. One statistic that I've been using a lot lately is if we look at USDA's average cost of production figures, they have $897 per acre expected average cost to put in an acre of corn for this 2025 crop. That is only 3% lower than the cost of production in 2022. At the same time, back in 2022, there were times where the nearby futures contract for corn was over $8."

In addition, the latest USDA estimates bumped up planted acres from 95.2 million to 97.3 million. Swanson said the estimate was made with data from additional farm surveys that have not been made public.

"The division that prepares the WASDE has access to that (survey data), and so these acres changes were based on some of that certified acres data coming in from farmers," she said.

"So that tells us that this change to acres, while caught a little bit of a surprise, is likely to be pretty realistic, or close to where the final will end up, at least for the planted acres side. Harvested acres can always swing depending on the weather that we have throughout the fall."

In February 2025, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress introduced the National Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill would harmonize fuel volatility regulations for ethanol-blended fuels across the country, allowing national E15 sales permanently.

Hartman said NCGA is hoping the latest WASDE estimates will lead to more urgency in passing the legislation.

"We seem like we have a lot of support from Congress in many areas," Hartman said.

"We've got our champions who have been working on this. The president actually in '19 signed that in but then there were some judicial areas there that caused it to get kicked back out. So, we feel like the president is supporting us. You just need to find a bill that they can carry it and get it through Congress so it's permanent."

Hartman said he believes that once an E15 bill is passed, more retailers will offer the fuel and expand markets.

Allowing national E15 sales permanently would add about 2 billion bushels of corn demand.

Swanson said if markets for corn are not expanded enough through E15 legislation or other ways, then the farmers will face more tough choices.

"They can look to try to cut costs," she said.

"In some ways for some there may be some tough decisions that have to be made in terms of land strategy. An area where there's a lot of higher cash rent, maybe a farmer will drop one of their higher rental rates and cut what they're farming."

The cancellation of capital purchases may also be on the table.

"Find if there's any management type of strategies that you can change to try to conserve money," Swanson said. "Work really closely with lenders and financial advisers. Look to ways to diversify or bring in other revenue streams or off-farm income as well."

Hartman said even before the latest USDA estimates, purchasing equipment has been on the back burner.

"I know we on our farm haven't had many purchases lately because of the economics of the last couple of years," he said.

"The machinery manufacturers of the world are going to end up where they're not going to sell products, they're going to lay off people as they already have."

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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