The Renewable Energy Group (REG) celebrated the official grand opening of REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant in Minnesota on Monday, with representatives of the state and local community and agriculture industry.
REG President and COO Dan Oh (right) says the plant was shut down in 2008 when economic woes hit the biodiesel industry, but REG felt it was a significant plant that needed to get back in operation. “Think of a gallon of biodiesel in roughly every bushel of soybeans, this is a 30 million gallon biodiesel facility, so that really adds value back to a bean bushel,” Dan told me.
Pictured here with Dan is Jim Willers, a Minnesota farmer who is a director on the United Soybean Board and a member of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. Jim says he’s proud of Minnesota’s support of biodiesel and how it in turn supports the local economy. “This plant’s put almost 25-30 people back to work, there’s usually 50 trucks that go through here and the spin off effect from this plant creates almost 2,000 jobs,” he said.
The final session of the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting in Seattle this past weekend focused on a discussion of new ideas to promote soybean exports in the future.
As chairman of the United Soybean Board International Marketing Committee, Jim Call of Minnesota split his time between the animal utilization and the human utilization meetings. “I think we covered a lot of areas. I think it gives our staff a little more direction on the projects they need to bring forward to the farmers in the future that we as farmers think will add value,” he said.
The last panel at the animal utilization meeting discussed ways that animo acid profiles could be used as a marketing characteristic. “Currently the market focuses on protein and oil,” Jim explained. “What we’re trying to do is get the market to focus instead of just on protein, on amino acid or digestibility.”
The vision of Novus International is “To help feed the world affordable, wholesome food and achieve a higher quality of life.”
That is a vision this global animal nutrition company shares with the U.S. soybean industry, with exports around the world accounting for more than half of annual production. “A lot of commonality in that and a lot of opportunity to work together and have complimentary efforts to do the right thing, not only for agriculture and livestock production, but for mankind,” said Novus International Director of Product Management Wendell Knehans, who participated in the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting in Seattle this past weekend.
Wendell gave a presentation at the meeting to provide an overview of Novus and possibilities of partnership, explain some of the technical services that Novus provides in the livestock industry, and discuss some of the mutual opportunities.
The weather is fabulous in Seattle this weekend, but directors of the United Soybean Board (USB) are inside and hard at work learning more about opportunities for exports at the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting.
As far as stakeholders are concerned, USB is one of the major ones represented here, since soybean checkoff dollars are used to fund the USSEC’s export promotion efforts. “I’m here to learn more about the world demand for protein for animal feeds,” says David Hartke, USB Director from Illinois. “Sitting on the Production Committee with USB, I’ve been asked to be the lead on the composition of the soybean and felt that I needed to be here.”
While all the USB directors I have featured so far are from Illinois, there are directors outside of the Midwest! One of them is Jacob Parker from North Carolina who says the export market for US soybeans is critically important for the industry, accounting for over half the production nationwide.
“We need to maintain that business,” Jacob told me. “We need to also make sure that our domestic crush continues and try to figure out ways to export meal as well as whole beans.”
The whole purpose of the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting this weekend in Seattle is to evaluate the international marketing program for animal feed use and explore ideas for the future.
One of the architects of the series of meetings that will be held in advance of program allocations for the 2013 budget year is United Soybean Board (USB) International Marketing Animal Utilization Subcommittee Chair Dwain Ford of Illinois. “By gaining the knowledge of the market we hope to be able to invest checkoff dollars more wisely and get a greater return on our investment for the farmers,” he said.
Participants in the US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting got a quick trip around the world in about four hours Saturday morning with presentations on global opportunities for soybean exports for animal use.
“We had 11 speakers representing eight different countries or regions,” said Miguel Escobar, USSEC Global Director of Animal Utilization. “We heard from all of them what kind of things they are doing in the marketplace for the future.”
Miguel says they wanted to let the stakeholders who fund the efforts of the USSEC know how their money is being spent. “The main two are the the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) of the USDA, the United Soybean Board (USB) and all the companies that are members of USSEC who have interest in animal utilization part of the business,” he said.
Miguel is very excited about the stakeholders meeting. “We are breaking the ground for what is going to happen in the future for animal utilization,” he said, noting that it represents an $18 billion segment of the U.S. soybean export market.
One of the many United Soybean Board (USB) farmer representatives in Seattle for the first US Soybean Export Council Animal Utilization Stakeholders meeting is Phil Bradshaw, immediate past chairman from Griggsville, Illinois.
Phil has also served on the USSEC board and is on the International Marketing committee for USB and he is pleased to see this meeting taking place and where the USSEC is at today. “I think we’re on the right track and the future’s bright, I just think we’re really going to move a lot of soybeans and soybean meal in the future.”
Phil just announced that he is retiring from the United Soybean Board in December. “It’s been a lot of fun and it was kind of a sad day when I wrote Secretary Vilsack and said I would be resigning as of December 7, but I want to focus on some other areas,” he said. “We got a lot of great new people on the board who can come on and take my place.”
The first ever U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting is being held this weekend in Seattle to allow soybean checkoff farmer leaders to brainstorm about projects for the future to increase soybean exports.
“This is the first time we’re doing an animal utilization meeting,” said USSEC CEO Jim Sutter. “We’ve used aquaculture as an example and we’ve done that the past three years.”
Jim says this the first meeting in a series to plan out projects for FY 2013. “So this is the first meeting to gather industry and regional inputs, then we’ll be working on strategy, and finally we come together and get final approval for all the projects we come up with,” Jim said. “That’s about a six month process and this is step one in the process.”
Presentations on Saturday morning included updates from soybean market representatives in all areas of the world on global opportunities for soybean exports in animal utilization.
With soybean exports doubling over the last ten years and the continued demand for US soy, the question arises can we handle it? Now, we know we can physically make that happen. We plant, grow and harvest more efficiently and effectively than any other country in the world, the concern arises if our ports and infrastructure will last the next ten years.
Early last week, the Soy Transportation Coalition and the Panama Canal Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a promise to continue to develop global commerce. Also involved in Monday’s MOU signing was the American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board. The objectives of the agreement are to undertake joint marketing efforts, data exchange to forecast future trade flows and market trends, and the sharing of information related to modernization and improvement projects.
With the Panama Canal increasing in size to be able to accommodate “Suezmax” ships – it could be a great thing for American Agriculture, especially since 60% of our exports currently travel through the Panama Canal. Except our infrastructure is failing and the Department of Commerce thinks existing ports will be incapable of handling the shipments within the next decade.
I sat down with immediate past Chairman of the United Soybean Board and a farmer from Griggsville, Ill. and he detailed Monday’s announcement. Bradshaw Talks Panama
The United Soybean Board held a Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop today at Hoover, Inc. Our featured speaker was Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan who announced the first 11 companies whose products have been certified to feature USDA’s new BioPreferred Label. “The USDA BioPreferred label assures the consumer that a product or package contains a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients.” You can hear her comments below as well as a short interview I conducted with her.
We also had soybean farmer representatives with us as well as representatives from a variety of companies that are now certified or working on it. I’ll be posting interviews with them later on.
One of the reasons this event was held in Ohio was the fact that three of the eleven companies are based here. Companies receiving the certification include:
Nutek Green, a division of Hoover, Inc., (Glenwillow, Ohio); Seventh Generation (Burlington, Vermont); Betco Corp. (Toledo, Ohio); Clear Lam Packaging, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, Illinois); DuPont Corporation (Wilmington, Delaware); ElastiKote (Akron, Ohio); Green Earth Technologies (Celebration, Florida); National Industries for the Blind Agencies (Lighthouse for the Blind, St. Louis, Missouri and Travis Association for the Blind, Austin, Texas); NatureWorks LLC (Minnetonka, Minnesota); Rochester Midland Corporation (Rochester, New York); Bio-Lub Canada (Quebec, Canada).
Deputy Ag Secretary Merrigan told us, “When consumers see the BioPreferred label in a store, they’ll know that the product or its packaging is made from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.” She also told me how happy she was that this program will help our farmers since it will continue to open up and develop new markets for their commodities.
Hello from “I wish it was warm and sunny” Cleveland, OH. Today the United Soybean Board is holding a Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop and I’m on the scene to capture it in photos and interviews. I’m primarily posting onto the USB Biobased Solutions Blog and will also post some items here.
This morning we’ll have Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan with us. She will announce the first 11 companies to receive USDA’s Certified Biobased Product label including several soy products. Deputy Merrigan will then try-out some of these certified products.
We’ll also have USB Director Dale Profit talk about what Biopreferred products mean for his farming operation and representatives from companies receiving the biobased label will discuss their newly certified products.
So, we’re on location at Hoover, Inc. Yes, that’s the vacuum cleaner company. It’s very interesting seeing some of the original advertising for their products. The company is now much larger and diversified and we’ll learn more about that during a morning tour with the Deputy Secretary.
This morning Dave Russell, Brownfield Network (right), moderated a United Soybean Board teleconference at the International Poultry Expo. Participating was Dwain Ford (center), USB Director and a soybean farmer from Kinmundy, IL and Mousa Wakileh, General Manager, National Poultry Co., Jordan. On a side note, I met Mousa on a U.S. Grains Council trip to his country a little over a year ago. It’s always nice to see people from other parts of the world and that’s one of the cool things about a show like this.
The subject of the teleconference was raising U.S. soybean farmer awareness of top customers and the poultry industry is the largest one. You might wonder why soybean farmers wouldn’t be aware of this and why the USB has had an on-going initiative to foster better understanding of this fact. In the teleconference you’ll hear Dwain say that there have been soybean farmers who oppose the growth and development of livestock operations and that shows the possibility that they don’t understand how important it is to their livelihood to be more supportive of their biggest customer.
Soybean checkoff-funded research indicates a significant disconnect between U.S. soybean farmers and their most important end customers. In fact, many U.S. soybean farmers identify their local elevator as their end customer.
Poultry and livestock, both here in the United States and throughout the world, use the vast majority of U.S. soybeans. For example, U.S. poultry and livestock consume nearly 98 percent of the U.S. supply of soybean meal. And poultry farmers use more U.S. soybean meal than any other end user.
As the president of China was flying in for a quick visit to the Windy City on Thursday, representatives from China’s 10 largest soybean crushers were signing agreements to purchase 110 million bushels of U.S. soybeans during a ceremony held in Chicago. The purchase is worth $1.8 billion and more bushels are expected to be committed tomorrow. A similar purchase agreement ceremony in 2008 was largest reported single-day export sale of U.S. soybeans in history, but this buying event – which may be larger – was split into two days.
“This is a huge event for soybean farmers, this isn’t something that happens everyday,” said Jim Call, United Soybean Board International Marketing chair and a soybean farmer from Minnesota. “We’ve had an office in China for over 25 years now. It just goes to show that our checkoff commitment for that long a period of time has really paid off.”
Soybean users in China, which purchased 825 million bushels of U.S. soybeans during the most recent marketing year, are the largest international customers of U.S. soy. The country currently imports one out of every four rows of soybeans grown by U.S. soybean farmers. “Every other row of soybeans we raise in the United States is exported and as we increase yields, any additional bushels will have to be exported, too,” Jim said.
Representatives from the Chinese companies said that they are pleased with the quality of U.S. soybeans, which they are purchasing in the form of both whole beans and soybean oil.
USB held a teleconference following the signing, which was in a room with a lot of background noise but there are some usable sound bites in here from Jim Call and the interpreter for Deng Haotian, representative from Sinograin. Here is the edited version for your listening or downloading pleasure: USB China Teleconference
The United Soybean Board was represented by Chairman, Phil Bradshaw, a soybean grower from Illinois, at the Farm Progress Show. I spent a few minutes with him to get an update on USB activities while he was visiting ag media.
Phil just got back from a trip to Japan to promote U.S. soybeans. He says they’re our 3rd largest customer. When it comes to export markets like Japan he can’t emphasize how important they are. Phil says fifty five percent of our soybeans are exported. The domestic market is still vital too and for that reason USB supports animal agriculture, the biggest component of the market. I asked him about the crop conditions in his area and he said they’ve got Sudden Death Syndrome for the first time but he’s still expecting a good crop.
Todd Gibson, the director of the USB and a soybean farmer from Western Missouri’s Carroll County, says this will be his first professional tractor pull he’s attended, and he’s satisfied to leave his own equipment back home. “I’ll let the big boys take care of it.”
The pullers, many of whom are associated with agriculture, will be available for the public to meet and talk to about the performance of soy biodiesel.
The video below is from last year’s event in Jeff City.
NOTE: This version of the story corrects an error that said the tractors will be running on soybean-based biodiesel. While the pullers MAY use biodiesel, they are not REQUIRED to do so. Much of the support equipment in the tractor pull will be using biodiesel.
Colorado Farm Bureau informed us today that the Farm American Chevrolet that will debut at the Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup race in Indianapolis on Sunday has a different look than when it was on display at NAMA earlier this year. As you can see here, the No. 78 Farm American Chevrolet is now a bright green, yellow, blue and white with the theme of ‘Cultivating the Future’.
Colorado Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers has lots more great photos on their Facebook page, including this YouTube video walk around of the car. Can’t wait to see it on the track!
On Sunday, Regan Smith’s Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet will be paying tribute to the American farmer and rancher at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a paint scheme and program promoting the importance of U.S. agriculture. Known as the No. 78 Farm American Chevrolet, the multicolored car of green, yellow, blue and white will depict farm life on the hood along with the program theme on the rear quarter panel of ‘Cultivating the Future’.
Barney Visser, team owner and chief executive officer of Furniture Row Companies, compares what has happened in the furniture industry to the threats facing the American farmer and rancher.
“The number of job losses in the American furniture industry due to unfair competitive practices by international governments has been devastating,” stated Visser. “To see the same trends occurring in our food supply, leaving us subjected to possible interruptions and unequal standards is something we see as worth fighting for.
“I don’t want America to fall asleep on this issue – this is where America needs to come together. I believe in the free market system, but we’re not free when we ask our farmers and ranchers to compete against foreign governments and potentially harmful standards that put us and our families at risk.”
The United Soybean Board (USB) is the only other sponsor to jump into a partnership with the Farm American car at this time. Furniture Row Racing is hoping other suppliers and industry organizations will help share in the support for this team.
Until then, Furniture Row Companies will be underwriting a majority of the Farm American sponsorship at Indianapolis and also at two additional Sprint Cup races – Aug. 21 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Oct. 10 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
“The United Soybean Board and soybean checkoff applaud Furniture Row Racing’s efforts to help protect farmers, ranchers and our food supply,” said USB Director Keith Dunn, a soybean farmer from Yale, Va. “By partnering with the Farm American car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — the heart of the soybean belt — we can inform racing fans of the major role U.S. soy and other U.S. agricultural products play in helping provide our nation’s families with a safe, sustainable and reliable supply of food.”
Ten soybean farmers from around the country will have the opportunity this month to see for themselves what their soybean checkoff investment is funding.
The United Soybean Board’s third annual “See for Yourself” program begins on July 26 in St. Louis and ends on July 31 in Mexico, the number one importer of U.S. soybean meal. Along the way, participants will tour several facilities that represent various end users of U.S. soy and have the opportunity to interact with USB farmer-leadership and provide their perspective and feedback on the checkoff. Several of the checkoff’s areas of focus, including animal agriculture, international sales, development of new soy uses and efforts to protect and increase yields of U.S. soybeans, will be highlighted on the tour.
Farmers who will be taking part in the trip are: Aaron Brandt of Missouri, Barry Alexander of Kentucky, Brian Cassady of Iowa, James Checkel of Minnesota, Bert Greenwalt of Arkansas, Loren Hylton of Indiana, Todd Oglesby of Mississippi, Dawn Scheier of South Dakota, Reginald Strickland of North Carolina and David Williams of Michigan.
International marketing was the focus of a press conference held by the United Soybean Board at Commodity Classic. First up on the podium was Phil Bradshaw, USB Chairman and a soybean farmer from Griggsville, IL.
He spoke about future efforts to increase soybean exports as conducted by the USB. A record 1.56 billion bushels of soybeans were exported in the most recent marketing year which is “every other row of soybeans produced in the United States.” He says the USB has just selected a new organization to represent soybean growers on the international level. That will be the newly re-organized U.S. Soybean Export Council.
The next person to speak was Jim Call, USB International Marketing Chair and a soybean farmer from Madison, MN.
Jim says the new model that USB has selected to increase soy exports will allow them to better coordinate on planning with exporters and customers. They expect to decrease the duplication of efforts and invest Checkoff dollars more wisely.
Last to address the press conference was Ike Boudreaux, USSEC Chairman and a soybean farmer from Lebeau, LA.
Ike says the USSEC is proud to have been selected by the USB to execute the new international marketing model. The new efforts will begin October 1, 2010. He says that USSEC is updating its operational structure in order to earn the business. He describes some of the elements of the plan they will be putting in place which includes targeting six key markets.
Soybeans are better than ever for the environment, which makes soy-based products greener than ever.
That’s the findings of a new peer-reviewed life cycle profile just released by the United Soybean Board (USB) that documents multiple energy and environmental benefits of U.S. soybean farming and processing.
“This profile is the first comprehensive life cycle study covering U.S. soybean production through four major biobased products,” said Arkansas soybean farmer John Cooper, a USB Director and Member of the USB Domestic Marketing Committee. “U.S. soy already delivers environmental and energy benefits. It’s exciting to see the trends point to even more in the future.”
A key objective was to update life cycle inventory (LCI) databases for soybean production and processing as well as conversion into four key soy-derived feedstocks (methyl soyate, soy lube base stock, soy polyol, and soy resin) used in fuel and industrial products. Its cradle-to-gate scope begins with soybean farming (the cradle) and goes through processing of products (the gate).
Among the study’s key findings are that soybean production results in significant greenhouse gas reductions and that soybean yields are 12 percent higher than 10 years ago and should increase 40 percent over the next decade.
The updated data show approximately 20% less direct energy used in soybean farming due to reduced diesel and gasoline usageand soybean processing facilities reduced their energy consumption by 45% compared to 1998 data.
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
The Renewable Energy Group (REG) celebrated the official grand opening of REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant in Minnesota on Monday, with representatives of the state and local community and agriculture industry.
The final session of the 
The vision of 
The weather is fabulous in Seattle this weekend, but directors of the 
While all the USB directors I have featured so far are from Illinois, there are directors outside of the Midwest! One of them is Jacob Parker from North Carolina who says the export market for US soybeans is critically important for the industry, accounting for over half the production nationwide.
The whole purpose of the 
Participants in the 
One of the many 
The first ever 
Jim says this the first meeting in a series to plan out projects for FY 2013. “So this is the first meeting to gather industry and regional inputs, then we’ll be working on strategy, and finally we come together and get final approval for all the projects we come up with,” Jim said. “That’s about a six month process and this is step one in the process.”
This morning Dave Russell, Brownfield Network (right), moderated a 
As the president of China was flying in for a quick visit to the Windy City on Thursday, representatives from China’s 10 largest soybean crushers were signing agreements to purchase 110 million bushels of U.S. soybeans during a ceremony held in Chicago. The purchase is worth $1.8 billion and more bushels are expected to be committed tomorrow. A similar purchase agreement ceremony in 2008 was largest reported single-day export sale of U.S. soybeans in history, but this buying event – which may be larger – was split into two days.
You may recall the 
International marketing was the focus of a press conference held by the 
The next person to speak was Jim Call, USB International Marketing Chair and a soybean farmer from Madison, MN.
Last to address the press conference was Ike Boudreaux, USSEC Chairman and a soybean farmer from Lebeau, LA.
and 
That’s the findings of a new peer-reviewed life cycle profile just released by the 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
