KCGA’s Rogers Highlights Atrazine, Conservation at EPA Meeting

EPA Administrator Michael Regan held a roundtable discussion with farmers and ag leaders on Thursday at Guetterman Brothers Family Farms in Bucyrus. KCGA President Brent Rogers represented corn growers on the panel and talked about corn growers’ opposition to the proposed revisions to the atrazine registration and the roles conservation and technology play on corn farms in Kansas and across the country.

“We need atrazine in our toolbox whether it be in Kansas or Iowa. In northwest Kansas, we averaged between 3 and 6 inches of rainfall last year, so if you look on the drought monitor, that big red blob, that’s where we’re at. So we don’t deal with a lot of water erosion issues in the western half of the state. We deal with wind erosion. And the biggest way to control wind erosion is to keep the ground covered whether that be a growing crop, a cover crop or some sort of residue,” Rogers said. “For the last 25 years on my farm I’ve been no-tilling and it’s for that reason—it’s to try to keep as much residue on the soil as we possibly can. We don’t a lot of tillage. And if we are forced to go back to tillage because we lose some of the tools in our toolbox such as atrazine or any of the chemistries that we currently use, we’re going to have to resort to tillage in order to control the weeds that present problems to us.”

Rogers spoke about his dedication to water conservation and the work of the Groundwater Management district he serves on. He highlighted the impact of technology that is helping with conservation efforts.

“Technology is the word I’m taking out of this meeting today and I think we’re just touching the tip of what’s coming in terms of farming by the acre, farming by the pixel and I think you saw some of the technology today with how we’re applying chemicals now. You’re seeing spray technologies by some of the companies where you can apply chemicals just where they’re needed, not across the entire field,” Rogers said. “I think that’s going to play a very critical and important role in what goes on especially with our water savings. We’ve had the implementation of water probes and pivots being controlled by GPS. All that has saved a lot of resources and a lot of water and going forward those kind of things are going to help us.”

Bill Pracht, who farms and is CEO/President of East Kansas Agri Energy ethanol plant at Garnett, also spoke at the roundtable. He talked about ethanol and E15 as well as agriculture’s positive contribution to carbon capture on their farms and through the production and use of ethanol fuel.

“There’s a new crop and it’s not cover crops. Cover crops help, but the new crop is carbon. So we’re really farming for carbon credits that are going to be available with the use of cover crops and with the use of no-till with better farming practices all around. One charge of our committee was to talk about how does that farmer get paid for that carbon credit? And I made mention … that the farmer usually ends up on the short end of the stick. EPA needs to work with USDA on how we’re going to measure carbon because carbon in Anderson County Kansas where I farm versus a county in Iowa is a much different measurement. We have to have ways and I think it needs to go through USDA, where each farmer can report his county and measure it there—that’s the only spot that we can get true measurement on a nationwide  basis,” Pracht said. “If you’re an ethanol producer like I am as well, we are in the carbon business as well. Because we make a low carbon fuel and I know that you’re supportive of E15 on a year-round basis.”

Pracht said he had been working closely with EPA agriculture liaison Rod Snyder on the E15 issue and about efforts of the ethanol and ag industries to encourage Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to put Kansas back on the letter signed by several governors asking for a waiver to allow year-round E15 use in their states.