By Kevin Roepke, USGC manager of global trade

Taiwan in recent years has paid one of the largest premiums for U.S. corn in the world. While the 2012 drought and U.S. short crop suppressed exports to Taiwan in the past year, this kind of long-term support and loyalty  is appreciated, which is why the U.S. Grains Council hosted a delegation of more than 20 members of the Taiwanese agricultural sector this week. The Taiwanese team included some of the largest corn buyers in the world, world-class academics, government officials and USGC Director in Taiwan Clover Chang.

The delegation had numerous questions on how the United States will be able to meet future demand for corn. In a meeting at the Council’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., the team was updated on this year’s highly unusual but ultimately promising growing season. Following the shadow of the worst drought in generations, farmers ushered in the planting season with record flooding and late April/May snowstorms, a “flash drought” concluded the summer and caused alarm for farmers and end-users alike. Still virtually every analyst has projected a world record U.S. corn crop. This leaves prompted many questions from the team about how the United States can do it and what can be expected, in terms of quality and regional variability.

The team was also interested in the future of corn production practices within the United States. The United States is the quickest adopter of technology, which is why the Taiwanese delegates were presented with information about the “starting five players” of “Team 20”. Team 20 represents the lofty yet attainable goal to achieve 20 metric tons of corn per hectare of land (more than 300 bushels per acre) as a national average yield. Each “player” contributes to achieving the goal of producing enough food to satisfy the world’s growing demand.

Team 20’s “Starting Five”

–Global Positioning System Navigation—The ability to accurately apply agronomic inputs with high precision
–Biotechnology—The advancement of corn varieties using premium hybrids and transgenic features to optimize performance
–Plant Population—Sustainably producing more plants per acre
–cornDRONES—The ability to accurately scout and make precise recommendations of agronomic treatments to specific areas of a corn field to increase yields
–Precision planting—Applying the right varietal technology to the land paired with the ability to plant the proper seed that is developed for the specific soil conditions. Additionally, this technology should increase plant population on higher quality, more productive land.

The delegation was also keen on learning how the American Oil Renaissance will affect U.S. corn production and U.S. corn exports. The Council highlighted several fertilizer plants being built right in the heart of the corn belt to use readily available and cheap natural gas from the Bakken Oil Formation to produce fertilizer for American farmers. Without much public fanfare, there is almost $6 billion of additional fertilizer plant capacity being built in states like North Dakota and Iowa. Because fertilizer is the second-largest cost component of producing corn, this will inevitably improve the long-term competitiveness of U.S. corn.