BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – There will be plenty of challenges for agriculture and corn growers under the second Donald Trump presidential administration, but also opportunities for growth and improvement. This is according to Rodney Weinzierl, executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association (ICGA), who addressed a full contingent of Illinois Corn directors, officers, staff and membership during the organization’s 52nd annual meeting on Nov. 26 in Bloomington.

“There will be a lot of challenges and opportunities here, but we really think President Trump, as he comes in, is going to be really focused on regulation. There is opportunity here with regulation and pricing, and we also have opportunity because he’s going to be focused on what he did in 2017 with putting the tax cuts in place that expire at the end of 2025,” said Weinzierl, before adding that there will be challenges in the trade space.

“Tariffs can have a blowback effect potentially. Typically, ag is on the receiving end of that. So, we’ve got to figure out how to work with the new administration to turn tariffs to our advantage,” he added.

As for Trump’s cabinet nominations, Weinzierl said, “I wouldn’t say they are mainstream (candidates). It’s going to be really interesting to see what this administration does. (Trump) is hitting the ground running and appears to have learned from his first (term) that it takes a while to get the machine up and running. He’s putting his machine in place before he gets there.”

On the legislative front, Weinzierl updated membership on the status of the latest Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that is likely to move through the U.S. House and Senate during the lame-duck session and be signed into law by President Joe Biden. Once approved, the funding will provide much-needed stability to continued lock and dam restoration on the upper Mississippi River waterway system.

‘What this does for us is that it allows us to begin to shift resources and political capital into other things. We’ve been on this project for like three decades and have (invested) a lot of political capital, resources and shoe leather. Now (WRDA) has its own momentum moving forward,” Weinzierl said of ICGA efforts to secure and maintain lock and dam funding, which date to the 1990s.

As for federal 45z tax credits for “climate-smart” farming, Weinzierl anticipates Trump slowing down the Biden-led production incentive if not eliminating it entirely. “How this tax credit works is really precedent-setting relative to recognition that some farming practices can lower the carbon intensity score of products that the farm goes into. This (tax credit) might not be perfect when it comes out, but now we have something to work with to try and move in the direction we need to move,” he said.

Turning back to tariffs, the Illinois Corn leader reiterated that corn growers must make their voices and needs heard by the Trump administration to head off resultant market setbacks such as what occurred during his first administration.

Weinzierl noted that other countries have been known to not play fair with the U.S. on past corn tariffs, placing barriers on U.S. corn exports to lessen competition.

“Maybe we can finally get those countries to the bargaining table through tariffs,” he said. “We’re not going to be talking about big free trade agreements probably for a while, but surgically there is a lot of opportunity here to go after some markets that could really be beneficial to us that we’ve been trying to get some movement on for a long time.”

Ethanol exports should improve with Japan’s announcement that they would move toward ethanol splash-blends for their fuel supply by 2030, which, according to Weinzierl, is “huge” news for U.S. corn growers. Turning to passage of a new farm bill, he fears that with Congress facing a likely-prolonged debate over 2017 tax credit extensions, new farm legislation could be forced to wait until as late as 2026 for passage.

Weinzierl, who has served as ICGA executive director for the past 31 years, switched gears to talk about what advantages the state’s farmers could glean from a potential presidential bid by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in 2028, as has been rumored by Springfield insiders.

“Our governor is really, really interested in considering a run for president, and that creates an opportunity for us in Springfield. This is because based on the (2024 national) election and how Vice President (Kamala) Harris did, whoever is the Democratic candidate is going to have to figure out how to get to the middle,” he said.

“(Pritzker) now has four years to demonstrate what kind of policies occur in Springfield; therein lies opportunity. This may be the best thing we have going for us in Springfield, when you think about the supermajorities (Democratic legislators have a 78-40 advantage in the Illinois House and a 40-19 edge in the Senate). Don’t discount the opportunity – we need to help him to figure out how our goals can help him.”