The report cites increased regulations that could drive up costs of production meat, milk and eggs by anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent. It shows that a 25 percent increase in costs to animal agriculture would reduce U.S. exports by $1.1 billion and cause nearly 9,000 Americans to lose their jobs.

Listen to or download the USB press conference here: United Soybean Board Press Conference

2012 Commodity Classic Photo Album

The highlight of the event was a new rendition of the song Ring of Fire. Accompanying the band to sing the new lyrics were the current USB Chair, Vanessa Kummer and other past Chairmen. I just happened to capture the moment on video for your viewing pleasure. I know John will really appreciate this. You’re welcome John and congratulations on your very deserved award! You’ll hear Lance Burditt, Osborn Barr, explain why John is so deserving of this award. In the photo John is responding to all the love by making a few comments.

You can read the lyrics here (.doc).

2012 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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.

Listen to or download my interview with Dan here. REG President Dan Oh

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.

Listen to or download my interview with Jim here. Minnesota soybean farmer Jim Willers

Watch the ribbon cutting below and see photos in the REG Albert Lea biodiesel plant photo album

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.”

Listen to my interview with Jim here. USB Director Jim Call

More interviews and stories from the meeting can be found here.

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

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.

Listen to my interview with Wendell here. Wendell Knehans with Novus International

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

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.”

Listen to my interview with David here. David Hartke, USB Director

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.”

Listen to my interview with Jacob here. Jacob Parker, USB Director

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

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.

Listen to my interview with Dwaine here. Dwaine Ford, USB Director

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

“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.

Listen to my interview with Miguel here. Miguel Escobar with USSEC

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

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.”

Listen to my interview with Phil here. USB Past Chair Phil Bradshaw

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

“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.

Listen to my interview with Jim here. USSEC CEO Jim Sutter

USSEC First Animal Utilization Stakeholders Meeting Photos

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

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.

You can listen to or download her comments here: Dep. Ag Secretary Merrigan's Remarks

You can listen to or download my interview with her here: Interview with Dep. Ag Secretary Merrigan

You can find photos from the event here: USB Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop Photo Album

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.

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.

You can download or listen to the full press conference here: USB Teleconference - IPE/IFE

2011 International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo Photo Album

AgWired IPE/IFE coverage sponsored by:

“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

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.

You can listen to my interview with Phil here: Interview With Phil Bradshaw

Farm Progress Photo Album

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 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!

You may recall the unveiling of this concept car by Furniture Row Racing last year at the American Farm Bureau Federation public relations conference. It was also on display at the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City.

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 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.”

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.

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.

You can listen to or download (mp3) Phil’s remarks here:

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.

You can listen to or download (mp3) Jim’s remarks here:

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.

You can listen to or download (mp3) Ike’s remarks here:

Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: and

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.

“We’ve just recently developed a special soybean that is going to deliver a soybean that has more energy for the feed and poultry industry,” Philip told me. They are starting poultry feeding trials soon and as long as it tests well they could have the variety available within five years. “This will help make our domestic livestock producers more competitive,” he said, which is important to the soybean industry, since 98 percent of all soybean meal produced here is fed to livestock and about 80 percent of the soybean is meal.

Listen to or download my interview with Philip in the player below.

2010 International Poultry Expo photo album

AgWired coverage of International Poultry Expo is sponsored by:

Becherer was raised on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin and has always maintained strong ties with the agricultural community. John has more than 20 years of management experience and holds a master’s degree in agricultural economics.

USB would like you to take a minute to register on the website and take advantage of all the information they have for growers including, seed selection tips, pest and disease diagnostic guides, a sustainability calculator and a directory with just about every new soy-based product your soybean checkoff has helped develop. You can customize the page too. Here’s how to register:

* Visit www.unitedsoybean.org, then click on login/register, located on the upper-left corner of the home page, to fill out your information fields.
* Congrats! Now you are ready to begin customizing your individual home page.
* Now, just click on add content in the upper-left corner. This will display your customization options.
* Add the modules that meet the needs of your operation, including localized weather, livestock and additional crop information.
* Click the X at the top of an individual module to remove it from your home page.
* To edit the module content, just click the diagonal pencil icon.
* Click the minus sign to minimize a module.

Visit www.unitedsoybean.org today and come back often for time saving updates that can help increase your profitability.

We’d like to thank the United Soybean Board for their support of the AgWired community!

In this week’s column, Pablo talks about the impact of this year’s weather in South America. Here’s a sample:

The last rains of the middle of November did not reach Cordoba, and the drought continues to affect more than 50 percent of the province. This is the province with the greatest soybean growing area in the country, producing 11 million acres. The first crop of soybeans has already been delayed for a month. According to a report by the Buenos Aires Grain Board Exchange, 3.2 million acres have been planted; this equals 28 percent of the whole province acreage.

I called Pablo yesterday at his hotel in Chicago and talked with him about why it is important for soybean growers in the United States to keep abreast of developments in South America. You can listen to my interview with Pablo below.

The USB Expert Advice tool features a weekly column rotating between four industry experts: Pablo on South American markets, David Asbridge on U.S. markets, John Baize on soybean and soybean oil industry news and Michele Payn-Knoper on using social media in agriculture. The columns can be accessed on the USB website under the “community” tab. Farmers are encouraged to ask questions and post comments after each new article and to engage the industry experts.

Now, here is that interview with Pablo and if you have any questions, just ask the expert after you read his column on the soybean checkoff website:

In his most recent column you’ll find information about China.

A lot has been said about the impact China has had on the global economy since it opened up to foreign investment and capitalism in the early 1990s. However, until one looks at the numbers, it is virtually impossible to gain a true grasp of how much it has impacted our world. In particular, China has been by far the most important factor impacting global demand for soybeans.

I spoke with John about his work for the United Soybean Board. He says he advises the USB on where he thinks global markets are going. He says its his goal to help them make the best decisions on where to spend Checkoff dollars. Producers will find this type of information in his column. John invites producers to submit questions which he’ll do his best to answer.

You can listen to my interview with John below.

Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. LinkedIn. Digg. Farmers. Wait – how do farmers fit with all of these new-fangled tools? Welcome to 2009 and the age of social media. Studies show that four out of five online Americans are active in some form of social content at least once a month. Believe it or not, you’ve been a part of the Web 2.0 social media revolution if you’ve been on e-bay, blogs, photo sharing websites or forums interacting with others. Now it’s time for you to tap into social media to impact your bottom line though access to soybean and other market intelligence, technical expertise, discussions with other farmers and consumer thought patterns about farming.

You can listen to my interview with Michele below.

Marc serves on the USB Production Committee so he’s especially happy that the organization can offer Expert Advice to soybean growers via a regular column on their website which allows registered growers to read, comment and ask questions and get answers. There are several regular Expert Advice columnists who Marc says are covering various topics like diseases, rust, insects, agronomics and just about anything that a grower will have to deal with. He says that one of the issues Southeast growers have right now during harvest is what to do with a crop that is still in the ground due to wet weather. He says they can find answers by posing questions on the Expert Advice section of the website since USB has a research project in progress on this very topic.

You can listen to my interview with Marc below.