ASA Vice President Works for Agriculture

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Cindy

ASA Alan Kemper His wife calls him a “PMG” – Professional Meeting Goer – because Alan Kemper has been serving on the boards of state and national agricultural organizations for over two decades now.

As First Vice President for the American Soybean Association, Alan will soon be the first person to have served as president for both ASA and the National Corn Growers Association. He was president of NCGA from 1989-1990. Naturally, he grows both corn and soybeans on the family farm in west central Indiana with the help of his son Brian.

Alan was a very busy guy at the Commodity Classic last week but I was able to do a quick interview with him while he was in the BASF exhibit presenting the annual BASF/ASA Scholarship award. He talked about the scholarship program, the attendance at Classic, his thoughts on Secretary Vilsack’s speech and the importance of the soybean export market. Listen to or download that interview in the player below:

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ASA Celebrates 90th Anniversary by Highlighting Soybean Successes

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Joanna

The American Soybean Association (ASA) is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year and has a lot to celebrate. Last year, the organization received more than $12.8 million in export funding from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service for the promotion of U.S. soybeans and soybean products. ASA President Rob Joslin noted in the organization’s press conference during Commodity Classic that this was the largest of that type of grant ever given to one organization. ASA’s committee, Rural Initiative Soy and Human Health, also received a historic grant of $26 million for the promotion and infrastructure of soy in Afghanistan.

However, grant dollars were not the only success for 2009. Joslin highlighted some of the policy work his organization is undergoing in the beltway that affects soybean farmers in terms of both biofuels development and the farm bill.

“ASA led efforts to correct a flawed proposal by the EPA. This proposal would have disqualified soy as a feedstock from the mandated Renewable Fuels Standard,” said Joslin. He continued by saying that ASA believes this was not the intent of Congress and with their efforts, among others, the new rule by the EPA allows for the continuation of soy as a feedstock for biodiesel.

Biodiesel has also been hit with the lack of extension for the Biodiesel Tax Incentive. Joslin said that to date, 23,000 workers across the country are idled and the longer the biodiesel plants don’t produce biodiesel, the harder it will be for the plants to begin running again once the incentive is passed; yet, ASA is confident the incentive will pass.

But the lack of the biodiesel tax credit also affects farmers. Joslin said that it costs farmers 25 cents per bushel by not having biodiesel production. Of the 3.3 billion bushels harvest in ’09, this will costs farmers $825 million in income.

Joslin, on behalf of ASA, expressed continued hopefulness for 2010 for soybean farmers across the country and reiterated that they will continue to work on their behalf both here in the states and abroad.

You can listen to the highlights of the ASA press conference below.

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ASA Scholarship Award Winner

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Cindy

BASF ASA Scholarship winner Ben Bellar, a high school senior from Howard, Kansas, was named the 2010-2011 ASA Scholarship recipient during the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, California. An active member of the ASA and FFA, Bellar has been raising soybeans since he was a child and plans to study agriculture technology management at Kansas State University next year. He is pictured here at the BASF exhibit on the trade show floor with ASA First Vice president Alan Kemper of Indiana and Nevin McDougall, Group Vice President, North America Crop Protection Division at BASF. Ben is the one in the middle, in case you were wondering!

Bellar’s scholarship package includes a one-time $5,000 education award, a trip to the Commodity Classic and special recognition during the ASA Awards Banquet. The scholarship is offered and managed by the ASA and is made possible through a grant by BASF.

I talked to Ben about his background and goals in life and you can listen to that interview below.

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Biodiesel Tax Credit Needed Now

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Chuck

In the general session at Commodity Classic we heard from the President of the American Soybean Association, Rob Joslin. Rob was interviewed by session moderator Mark Mayfield.

Rob says one of his goals has been to visit as many of the ASA state affiliates as he can and he’s over half way there. He thinks it’s important to know what the states are thinking. He says they really need the biodiesel tax credit back in place immediately. He says that’s in a jobs bill in the Senate right now.

You can listen to Rob and Mark below.

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BASF Recognizes SOY Challenge Winners

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Cindy

BASF The Science Behind Soybeans David and Sue Roehm= David Roehm and his lovely wife Sue of Leesburg, Ohio are the grand prize winners of the 2009 SOY Challenge Program. David was on the program for the BASF Science Behind Soybeans seminar for the media Wednesday at the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim and he gave Sue plenty of credit as his partner for their achievement in the 2009 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Challenge, sponsored by the American Soybean Association and BASF Crop Protection.

In the challenge, they used a couple of BASF products – Scepter and Headline – and did a side by side yield comparison on several different varieties beans. “We did come up with a yield bump, about four bushels better in every case, pays for the application – especially with $10 beans,” David told me. “I think the economics were especially good in 2009, as well as the pressures with the added rain and moisture we had.”

As winners of the challenge, the Roehms got a new Dodge truck, but as an added benefit, they also got a new kitchen.

Since Sue takes care of the bookkeeping on the Roehm farm and she admits to being a little skeptical when they entered the challenge because of the additional upfront cost involved. “With the chemicals, that’s a very big portion of our budget for farming,” Sue said. One of those additional costs was for Headline, which increases plant health. “And by increasing the plant health, you hopefully get a better yield – and it was through that better yield that I got to remodel my kitchen!”

Listen to or download back to back interviews with the Roehms in the player at the bottom. And watch a video of David’s presentation at “The Science Behind Soybeans” below.

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Social Media For Soybean Growers

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Chuck

One of the friendly faces you’ll meet when you check in to the media room at Commodity Classic is Cassandra Schlef, Communications Coordinator for ASA. She helps with press releases, their weekly Leader Letter and website updates that include Twitter and Facebook.

Cassandra says the media room this year has been expanded to include more work tables and internet access that includes wireless. They’ve also expanded the hours the room is open too. She says it should make it easier for us to do our jobs and I agree.

Cassandra thinks the pre-registered number of media is about 130 but they expect more to walk in and I’m sure that will happen.

I’ve just started a photo album for Classic which you can find here: Commodity Classic Photo Album

You can listen to my interview with Cassandra below.

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Media Room Leaders

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Chuck

The guys who are overseeing the media room again this year are Bob Callanan, American Soybean Association (l) and Ken Colombini, National Corn Growers Association.

I talked them into posing for me this morning with our media room sponsor sign. Thank you New Holland!

The media are starting to trickle in as we get closer to the official kickoff of this year’s Commodity Classic. We’ve got a lot of room for them in about the most spacious facilities I remember us having for the event.

Cindy is out and about on a photo shoot and we’ll get our Commodity Classic photo album started later this morning. It’s going to be a fun and interesting week and we hoped you’ll check in to our live coverage as events happen here in Anaheim.

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