BIP Grant – $17 million Biofuels Infrastructure Program (BIP) Grant quietly goes into place. The program, designed to place over 700, E15 blender pumps into Texas fueling stations is quietly nearing completion. A total of 160 stations will have 41 dedicated E85 dispensers, 654 blender dispensers and 49 underground tanks. 654 blender dipsensers are “E15 pumps” as opposed to the standard E10 pumps. “We are very excited about being able to leverage producer checkoff funds with this grant in order to increase usage of Texas produced ethanol”, said Wayne Cleveland, Executive Director of Texas Grain Sorghum Producers. The grant is being administered through TDA and has various project partners that will spend over $12 million in their own funds to build infrastructure for ethanol. A majority of the pumps will be located in Metropolitan areas with a few going into place in Plainview and Lubbock. TGSP is currently working with all groups to help market and brand those pumps.
TGSA Holds Southern Regional Meeting — Last week, TGSA’s newly formed delegate body held the first meeting of one of its three regions – North, Central, and South. The body met in Corpus Christi for an evening of discussion about agriculture policies and the state of the sorghum market. Highlights of the discussion include:
• Marc Adams from CoBank walking members through the ripple effects of grain lien legislation that passed the Texas Legislature in 2015
• Patrick Wade laying out TGSA’s policy agenda heading into the 2017 Texas Legislature. The delegate body’s legislative committee decided to commit to defending water rights, individual property rights, fair transportation policy, and the ethanol industry.
• Tim Lust discussed where Washington DC currently stands in regard to the 2018 Farm Bill and what can be expected moving forward
• Wayne Cleveland relayed the newest marketing statistics
Following the meeting, delegate body members from the region will submit votes to nominate someone to TGSA’s board of directors. Each region will nominate one member to the board each year for three years, until the board is entirely comprised of delegate body members. We are excited about the future of our association and look forward to seeing the North region members in Amarillo at the end of the month.
Strong Exports Continue — Demand from the export market reached historic levels for the week ending Nov. 3, with 16 million bushels of sorghum sold since Oct. 26, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service’s report. The sales represented one of the highest recorded export sales of sorghum in one week. The trend continued into this week as another round of historically strong export commitments were posted, China lead Japan and Mexico in purchasing 13.8 million bushels. These sales bring total commitments for the year to 71.3 million bushels or 28.5 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s export target for the marketing year. Shipments were also strong with China, Japan and Mexico taking delivery of 3.5 million bushels, bringing total shipments for the year to 49.1 million bushels.
Advanta Seeds Partners with Texas A&M AgriLife — Advanta Seeds and Texas A&M AgriLife Research formed a partnership focusing on seed technology research and development for a variety of crops, including sorghum. Texas A&M will house a new bioetch research center that both organizations will utilize. The partnership’s goal is to provide higher yielding hybrids that are stable across seasons in order to help farmers meet global food supply and sustainability challenges.
