Continuous improvement leads to profitable innovations
Twenty-five years and four presidents ago, American farms looked a little different than today.
Farmers didn’t consult nearly as many screens or sift through the same amount of data to make their decisions. They couldn’t pull up the markets on their phones or identify a weed with an app.
And just as the industry has progressed, soybean farmers have continued to stay on the cutting edge of research, marketing and education through their soy checkoff. That dedication to continuous improvement increases farmer profitability through checkoff-contributions in key areas such as biodiesel, aquaculture and high oleic soybeans.
Looking forward to the next 25 years, U.S. soybean farmers’ commitment to innovation will advance the U.S. soybean industry, allowing it to continue evolving with the changing agricultural landscape.
Leading the way with biodiesel
Early in the checkoff’s history, U.S. soybean farmers laid the groundwork for a new, reliable, sustainable fuel: Biodiesel.
Farmer-leaders directed checkoff funds to demonstrate biodiesel’s performance in engines and, through a lifecycle analysis, proved its longevity in the renewable fuel market.
Now, biodiesel is shown to be1:
- Cleaner-Burning – It burns much cleaner reducing particulate matter, carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and other smog causing particles.
- Renewable – Biodiesel is made from renewable resources like soybean oil, animal fats and recycled cooking oil. It has the highest energy balance of any commercially available fuel, returning 5.5 units of energy for every one unit needed to produce it.
- Biodegradable – Biodiesel biodegrades faster than sugar and breaks down four times faster than petroleum diesel. Within 28 days in water, pure biodiesel degrades nearly 90 percent, or slightly faster than the dextrose test sugar used as a scientific baseline. This is another reason it is much safer to handle and transport than petroleum.
- The American alternative to foreign oil – Biodiesel is produced from coast to coast in nearly every state with regionally diverse raw materials. It is made from locally available byproducts and co-products – soybean oil in the Grain Belt, recycled cooking oil in urban areas, animal fats from rendering plants in the Southwest and more.
- Used in existing diesel engines without modification – Biodiesel has widespread support across all diesel applications because it is easy to use with existing infrastructure.
Through collaboration with the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), the checkoff helped establish an industry specification, develop standards for fuel quality and test biodiesel’s performance.
By helping to increase demand for biodiesel, the checkoff is helping to secure future profitability for U.S. soybean farmers.
Investing in export markets
The ability to export excess soybeans is an important factor to the price of U.S. soybeans.
The soy checkoff helps foster relationships with buyers of U.S. soy throughout the world, helping to market U.S. soy’s advantages over competitive sources.
One promising market is the soy-fed aquaculture market.
By 2030, an additional 41 million tons of aquatic species per year will be needed to maintain current per capita levels of seafood consumption globally. And, as consumer tastes for seafood grow, so does the aquaculture industry’s preference for U.S. soy.
The checkoff, along with various industry partners, are working hard to make sure the future is bright for U.S. soybean farmers and the aquaculture clients they serve.
“The members of the Soy Aquaculture Alliance, including the United Soybean Board (USB), the U.S. Soybean Export Council and the International Soy in Aquaculture Program, are getting more and more soybean meal used every year in aquaculture,” says Mike Beard, Indiana soybean farmer. “But it doesn’t stop at diet; we’re also funding research, relevant to soybean meal, to improve technology, make farmers more efficient and improve sustainability.”
The soy checkoff is also funding several research projects here at home, being led by researchers at Auburn University.
“The checkoff is the glue that binds our projects together,” states Terry Hanson, Ph.D., aquaculture and natural resource economist at Auburn University. “The more research we do, the better positioned we are to compete for grants and the better U.S. aquaculture production does in the global marketplace, and making U.S. aquaculture better on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.”
And while these projects are specific to fish, they hold many similarities to research projects that the checkoff funds related to soybean meal’s more traditional users – poultry and swine.
“The same investments that improve profitability for livestock farmers on land are applicable to improving profitability for fish farmers, and soybean farmers as a result,” Beard adds.
Winning back food demand with high oleic
Soy checkoff research and partnerships with seed companies and processors helped accelerate the commercial availability of high oleic soybeans. The premium soybeans offer food customers a high-performance oil option that doesn’t require extra processing.
The soy checkoff believes high oleic soybeans will give the U.S. soy industry an opportunity to win back market share and increase demand from end users looking for an oil that performs under high-heat conditions. Restaurants can use high oleic soybean oil to fry foods without worrying about the oil breaking down and creating an altered taste.
After testing high oleic soybean oil in their fried and baked foods, chefs say they’re impressed with the oil’s performance. And more U.S. soybean farmers are responding to meet that demand.
In total, U.S. farmers planted about 450,000 acres of high oleic soybeans in 2016 – nearly double last year’s numbers. Every successful high oleic crop proves to customers that the soybean industry is willing and able to provide a consistent supply of high oleic soybean oil.
The soy checkoff, in cooperation with Pioneer and Monsanto, has set a goal to double high oleic acreage again next year. Looking ahead, the checkoff’s goal is 1 million planted acres in 2017.
“This is an opportunity to take a look at what we can do to help the soybean industry grow,” says farmer leader Kevin Wilson, who grows high oleic and commodity soybeans on his farm in Walton, Indiana. “The future of high oleic soybeans looks really bright.”
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