Harvest is done early this year, which means this is the year to find out more about your Illinois Corn Growers Association at our annual meeting on November 20, 2018, in Normal, IL at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

Make a plan to attend.  You’ll get to hear from your association President about the work completed this past year and what he sees for the future.  You’ll learn more about the opportunities and challenges facing our association from our Executive Director, Rodney Weinzierl. 

There’s an opportunity to vote for new directors and to see current farmers and leaders honored for their work in various segments of our industry.

It’s free, and we’re serving breakfast!  You won’t want to miss it!

Illinois Corn Growers Association Annual Meeting

November 20

Marriott Hotel and Conference Center

Normal, IL

8:00 am – 9:30 am

Parking is free in the parking deck next to the Marriott

Following the annual meeting, you’ll want to stick around for the Farm Assets Conference hosted by WILL and University of Illinois.  The conference features a wide range of interesting speakers and topics, with an amazing lunch, all for $40!

Register here.

Here’s what you can expect there:

The Supply Chain Wants You - premiums & contracts

"The Supply Chain Wants You" will focus on how large corporations are reaching all the way through the supply chain to the farmer and will cover the direct impact on premiums paid for commodities and production practices. Panelists will project what the next 5 to 10 years may look like on farms in Illinois and in other parts of the Midwest, discuss how it impacts decisions to get bigger and what it means to stay medium-sized. The panel includes representatives from McDonald’s, Clarkson Grain, Anheuser Busch, and Syngenta.

Agriculture at Research Park

Research Park at the University of Illinois is home to 120+ companies, employing 2,100 people in high-technology careers. At any given time more than 800 student interns are working in these companies gaining valuable work experience while making real contributions to internal corporate R&D and product development programs. It is the birthplace of successful agricultural start-ups like Granular & Agrible and many corporations including ADM, AB InBev, Caterpillar, CME Group, Deere & Company, Dow AgroSciences, and Syngenta.

Trade, Tariffs, Grain Flow, Policy, & the Farm Economy

The flow of grains and other goods across the planet has been intentionally interrupted by the Trump Administration in an effort to create a more fair and balanced trading schematic. We'll examine the short and long-term effects, exploring how these changes project into future crop rotations, export routes, U.S. farm policy, and the health of the farm economy. The farmdocDaily team from the University of Illinois will guide our discussion.

WILLAg Marketing Panel

Commodity analysts are the bedrock of WILL Radio's agricultural programming. During our final session of the day, we'll tie all the other panel discussions into a meaningful look at commodity prices. Our experts will try to help lay out a road map of how old crop corn and soybean prices may change over the winter months while exploring pricing opportunities for the 2018 crop. We'll also dip into an early discussion of new crop pricing as U.S. and global acreages shift to counter changes in trade route distributions across the planet.