AUSTIN, TEXAS, US — Members of the US Grains Council (USGC) discussed plans for the coming year and the United Nation’s Year of the Woman Farmer in 2026 during its 22nd International Marketing Conference and 65th Annual Membership Meeting in Austin, Texas, US.
The event provides members with an overview of the Council’s strategy for the coming year and includes several advisory team sessions, where experts in various agricultural commodities and markets come together to conduct market and commodity-specific analyses while sharing experiences relevant to their industry for this year.
“My theme for this year, Cultivate the Future, reflects both the opportunities and challenges of the current trade environment,” said Verity Ulibarri, chairwoman of the USGC. “At this meeting, we gather to discuss issues facing our industry and explore future demand for feed grains, DDGS and ethanol around the world. The Council staff has taken my theme to heart — by cultivating markets for US corn, sorghum and barley from wherever they are working — whether in the Council’s Washington, DC, headquarters or in remote places around the globe and stewarding them for generations to come.”
During the event, former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, who served on the Senate Agriculture Committee and was a delegate to the UN’s 61st General Assembly, gave a presentation on trade policy.
The day continued with a panel of female farmer leaders, including Jennie Schmidt, USGC at-large director from Maryland; Wendy Osborn, Ohio Corn and Wheat director of market development from Ohio; and Ulibarri. The leaders shared perspectives of the industry and planning on next year’s celebration as the International Year of the Woman Farmer designated by the United Nations.
“I went on a mission last year hosted by the United Nations, US State Department and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to start the work on celebrating the UN International Year of the Farmer,” Schmidt said. “This mission focused on the type of technology that we use on the farm and how women farmers in Indonesia and Vietnam could potentially use some of the same concepts to increase efficiency and marketing in their countries. This mission made an impact on me where I connected with women farmers in those countries and realized that we have many similarities.”
The day concluded with an overview of the Council’s recent activities and outlook for the future from Ryan LeGrand, president and chief executive officer of the USGC.
“It's a great big world out there and we have council staff positioned in all the right places to take advantage of growing need for US coarse grains and ethanol,” LeGrand said. “We have been busy and the outlook for our organization is intensely bright. Our work as a whole is growing by leaps and bounds, and we continue to push beyond what we thought was achievable just a few years ago.”
