Investment in California Ethanol Market Aims to Benefit Nebraska Corn Growers

Sep 14, 2021

By Matt Olberding

Agriculture officials from Nebraska and two other states have decided to put more investment into the California ethanol-based fuel market.

The Nebraska Corn Board announced this week that it and corn checkoff organizations in Kansas and Missouri will provide California fuel retailers $1.25 million over the next year to increase availability of gasoline with an 85% ethanol blend, known commercially as E-85. The fuel will be supplied by Pearson Fuels, the largest E-85 distributor in California, which has nearly 250 retail stations located throughout the state.

It’s the second investment in E-85 in California by the Nebraska Corn Board, which earlier this year provided two grants to Pearson to pay for E-85 pumps at two gas stations in the Los Angeles area.

“These stations are moving a tremendous volume of E-85,” said John Greer, the Corn Board’s District 2 Director. “One station alone would use about 50,000 bushels of corn in the form of ethanol in just a year. The investment is already proving worthwhile for our corn growers.”

California is by far the largest E-85 market in the country, accounting for over 40 million gallons in 2020 and on track to reach 50 million gallons in 2021. Despite that, it has fewer E-85 stations than either Iowa or Minnesota, which combined have less than one-fourth the population.

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.