Continuum Ag and Siouxland Energy team up to focus on low-CI corn

Today Siouxland Energy Cooperative, an ethanol plant near Sioux Center, Iowa, and Continuum Ag, announced a partnership focused on helping farmers zero in on carbon intensity (CI).

“We could not be more excited to work with Siouxland and their farmers to quantify on-farm CI scores and build potential tax credit markets,” says Mitchell Hora, Continuum Ag CEO and founder. “Farmers and biofuel manufacturers are each other’s key partner and teaming together to produce low-carbon fuels is an opportunity I’m glad we get to help with.”

Hora says Siouxland Energy is focused on preparing for when the U.S. Department of Treasury reveals the regulations around the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit. The goal is to be able to pay farmers with lower CI scores a premium for their corn because it will count toward lowering the CI score of the ethanol.

That is where Continuum Ag comes in.

“Continuum Ag is going and getting farmers onboarded, so we’re ready when the time comes,” says Hora. The company developed TopSoil.Ag, a software designed to to help farmers figure out and verify the CI score of their bushels. Continuum Ag is exploring a partnership with EcoEngineers as the third-party verifier of the scores.

Last December Continuum Ag announced the “Billion Bushel Challenge,” which will help farmers discover their CI score for $25. So far 160 million bushels have been scored. The company has worked with farmers in over 40 states and 20 countries. Hora says partnering with Siouxland will provide even more incentive to farmers to get involved.

“We have no idea what the rules are going to be, but it at least is a little bit more certainty for farmers in that Northwest Iowa area,” he says. “They know that if they want to pursue getting their data put together, they’ve got a partner in that ethanol plant that also is putting in the work to try to build the market for them.”

Tom Edwards, grain merchandiser for Siouxland Energy, says the plant is “… happy to pursue a journey forward with Continuum Ag and bring our farmers to the table to help us capitalize on the pending 45Z opportunity. This is an incredible opportunity for American biofuels and we believe this collaboration can be instrumental as we look to farmers to help us meet our low carbon goals.”