Our Annual Meeting. You Pick the Town.

Posted October 27, 2026

We are planning the CCGA annual meeting, and rather than decide where to hold it and what to talk about in a room by ourselves, we are asking the people who would have to drive there.

Two questions and a blank box. It takes about a minute, you do not have to give your name, and the answers go to the board and nowhere else.

First, Who You Would Be Spending the Day With

We are not the checkoff board. We are sponsor-driven volunteers — corn producers who work tirelessly to bring programs and positive change to Colorado agriculture, paid for by the businesses and growers who back us rather than by any automatic assessment.

Growers ask us about this at meetings, usually some version of I already pay the checkoff, why am I being asked for anything else. It is a fair question with a specific answer. The checkoff is prohibited by law from spending a cent on policy. It funds research and promotion and does that work well, but it cannot call a congressional office about a farm bill, cannot argue a disaster title, and cannot put a producer in front of the people writing the rules. That is not a criticism of the council. It is the statute — and it is the gap this association was built to fill.

That work is done by volunteer corn producers. What it has looked like:

Disaster relief went statewide. The excessive heat case carried through the Southwest Council of Agribusiness moved Colorado from 24 drought counties to coverage for the entire state.
T-yields raised for corn across Colorado. Our transitional yields sat below comparable ground in other states. CCGA carried it to the SWCA board and the council took it to RMA directly.
CLIP built with Texas Corn Producers and AgriLogic — a new federally subsidised umbrella revenue option for diversified operations.
SB-021 fought, along with the labour rules that rode with it.
E15 and the RFS defended, because ethanol demand is corn demand.
Over $1.2 billion secured for Colorado agriculture since 2018 — MFP, CFAP, ARC/PLC, PPP and now ECAP.

None of that came from a meeting we were invited to. It came from growers on Friday morning calls with lobbyists and congressional staff, trips to Washington, and round tables in rooms where the people writing the rules could hear from somebody who actually farms. The record is here if you want the names and the detail.

Now Your Turn

Where should we hold it?

One choice. If none of these work, write in the town that does.

Sterling Yuma Burlington Somewhere else Tell us where and we will look at it seriously.

What would actually be worth 2 hours of your valuable time?

Tick as many as you like. This decides the programme, so be honest rather than polite.

FSA programmes, explained — and how to actually use them What the programmes are, what they pay, and the paperwork that decides whether you get it. Walk-throughs, not a policy lecture. Marketing with AI What these tools can and cannot do for a grain marketing plan, shown on real numbers rather than talked about. Making the bank work for you An inside look at what an ag lender actually needs to see, from people who make those decisions. What strengthens a file and what sinks one.

Anything else

A topic we missed, a speaker worth getting, a time of year that works better, or something we are getting wrong. This box is the most useful part of the form and the board reads every one of them.

Know a business that would sponsor this?

You know the businesses around you better than we do — the seed dealer, the equipment shop, the bank, the agronomist. Name anyone worth a call and we will do the asking. You do not have to introduce us, and we will not say you sent us unless you tell us to.

Who you are, if you want to say

All optional. Leave it blank and your answer still counts the same — we would rather have an anonymous opinion than no opinion. Give us an address only if you want to hear back.

Name

County

Got it — thank you. That goes straight to the board. If you left an address we may come back to you about the programme; if you did not, your answer still counts exactly the same.

Responses are visible to the CCGA board only. They are not published, not counted in public, and not shared outside the association. Name, county and email are optional and blank is fine. We record the submitting network address to stop one person answering fifty times; it is not used to identify anyone and is not kept alongside anything published. CCGA administers no USDA program.