Information to improve corn production, marketing, and utilization will be the focus of the Jan. 8 Fremont Corn Expo.  The program will help farmers and agribusiness professionals plan for the upcoming growing season.  Topics and exhibits will offer strategies to help growers remain competitive in the corn industry.

Registration for the free event begins at 8 a.m. with a complimentary waffle breakfast sponsored by Fremont Area Chamber Agribusiness Council and Partners. The expo, to be held from 8:50 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the main arena at Christensen Field in Fremont, is designed for growers, crop consultants, agronomists, seed corn representatives, and others. A complimentary lunch will be served to participants courtesy of Dodge and Colfax County Farm Bureau.

Ruth MacDonald, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University, will present the keynote address: "Fact and Fiction about GMO in Food."

Her research has examined the dietary factors in cancer progression, specifically breast, colon, and prostate cancer, and her teaching has been on societal impacts on food systems and nutritional aspects of oncology. A registered dietician, she has studied  how selected dietary botanical supplements and phytoestrogens alter cancer cell development and has identified a role for estrogen receptors in colon cancer risk.

The program is based on topics identified by corn growers as important to their farming operations, including:

• Revenue Risk, Forward Contracting, and Crop Insurance with Cory Walters, UNL ag economist;
• Economic Impact of Expanding Livestock Production with Eric Thompson, UNL economist;
• Utilizing the Precision Ag Tools You Already Have with Joe Luck, UNL precision ag engineer; and
• a panel discussion with area farm managers and ag lenders on farming in 2015 with lower commodity prices.

The expo also will include updates on the Nebraska Corn Checkoff, Corn Growers Association, and ag industry.

A special nitrogen applicator certification training will be conducted for Lower Platte North Natural Resources District producers at 2:45 p.m.

After the Corn Expo at 3 p.m., USDA-Farm Service Agency Dodge County Director Bryan Ralston will address decisions producers and landowners need to make within the New Farm Bill.

For more information contact Nebraska Extension Educator Nathan Mueller at 402-727-2775 or nathan.mueller@unl.edu.

The Fremont Corn Expo is sponsored by Nebraska Extension, Colfax-Dodge County Corn Growers, Nebraska Corn Growers Association, Nebraska Corn Board, Fremont Area Chamber Agricultural Business Council and Partners, Dodge and Colfax County Farm Bureau, First National Bank Fremont, and KHUB radio and other area agribusinesses.