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.

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

2011 International Poultry Expo/International Feed Expo Photo Album

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