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Innovation Adds Value For End Users

By United Soybean Board
 
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Checkoff looks beyond the bushel to grow demand, impact farmer profitability 
 
U.S. soybean farmers have always been interested in new and unique ways of doing things in the industry. Propelled by soy checkoff support in many cases, innovation has helped soybean farmers achieve higher yields, create and expand markets and ultimately drive profitability. As the next step, the checkoff is looking to soybean farmers to think beyond the bushel. 
 
“Thinking beyond the bushel is taking advantage of opportunities for soybean farmers to capitalize on the different constituents of soybeans,” says Jared Hagert, North Dakota farmer and United Soybean Board (USB) chair. “Two things we focus on are soybean meal and oil. Those are important components to farmers, because oil and meal are what make up the bean and drive demand.”
 
Hagert asks farmers to consider soybeans as more than just a commodity that they deliver to their country elevator by the bushel and instead as capsules of valuable meal and oil. Those components are what soy end users buy – and what processors get paid for. So higher-quality meal and oil benefits everyone in the supply chain – including farmers.
 
Hagert says the checkoff is working on new innovations to pack more nutrition into the meal, which will create more value for farmers.
 
Growing appetites for U.S. soy
 
The population of hogs and chickens in the U.S. is getting larger, and so is their need for high-quality feed. According to soy checkoff-funded research, hog and broiler production in the U.S. has grown over the years. The number of hogs produced in the U.S. has increased nearly 25 percent since 2003, while broiler production has increased by more than 15 percent. More hogs and chickens means more opportunities for soybean farmers, but only if farmers produce high-quality feed that is desired by animal ag.
 
“The meal side holds some great opportunities,” says Hagert. “Our end users look for certain protein and amino acid content so they can make a ration that works for them.”
 
Poultry and livestock farmers depend on high levels of protein, amino acids and digestible energy to maximize their animals’ potential. One way U.S. soybean farmers can bring meal innovation to their farms and help meet these customers’ needs is by thinking beyond the bushel and planting varieties that both produce high-quality, high-protein soybeans and deliver high yield.
 
“It’s certainly understandable that many U.S. soybean farmers focus on yield when selecting seed,” says Dan Corcoran, checkoff farmer-leader from Piketon, Ohio, and team lead of USB’s Value Task Force. “However, we’re really producing protein and oil. The quality of the protein is what’s most important to our top end-user – animal ag.”
 
Proactive innovation saves a major market
 
Farmers in nine states have been innovating for the past few years to supply a different set of customers with a premium soybean oil to meet their needs.
 
John Motter, Ohio farmer and checkoff farmer-leader jumped on board with high oleic soybeans in 2011 and says the varieties have yielded competitively with the commodity soybeans planted next door.
 
It’s the benefit to the end user that makes high oleic soybeans different.
 
“High oleic is very important to our food customers, which is our No. 1 oil market,” Motter says. “This innovation is where the industry needs to go in order to be competitive in world markets.”
 
With a desire to offer menus of zero-trans-fat fried foods, two innovative restaurants recently put a high oleic soybean oil to the test in their kitchens. This oil provides a more healthful frying alternative that meets food-service functionality needs and is sparking interest among U.S. soybean farmers because of its potential to regain market share.
 
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, named a 2014 breakout brand by Nation’s Restaurant News, and The Inn at Virginia Tech recently participated in case studies conducted by the soy checkoff in which they tested the oil using their own menu items. The results were a “big nutritional win,” according to Pam Smith, a culinary nutrition consultant who conducted lab analysis of the foods tested.
 
“High oleic soybean oil comes from U.S. farms, and we see that as an important advantage for our operation,” says Max Kiebach, director of food and beverage at The Inn at Virginia Tech University. “As a land-grant university, we appreciate that the soybeans are produced right here in U.S.”
 
“Foods cooked in high oleic soybean oil have a better food quality as far as texture, taste and color,” says Jonathan Creger, executive chef at The Inn at Virginia Tech.
 
After participating in the checkoff case study, The Inn at Virginia Tech has committed to moving forward with high oleic oil in its kitchens, and Firebirds is looking forward to making the switch sometime soon. As the number of companies adopting the oil increases in the near future, industry officials expect U.S. acreage of high oleic varieties to grow as well.
 
With the potential for an additional 1.5 billion pounds of lost soybean oil demand because of trans-fat labeling, farmer adoption of high oleic soybeans is more important than ever. Getting new customers to switch to high oleic requires farmers showing that the industry can produce an abundant supply of the oil.
 
A soy innovation that farmers can use
 
Innovation in oil isn’t a new concept to U.S. soybean farmers. As a former USB chair, Nebraska farmer Greg Anderson has seen the checkoff bring forth many innovations. That includes the biodiesel industry, which the checkoff helped establish and continues to support today.
 
For example, the checkoff invested in research that laid the groundwork to qualify biodiesel as an advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard, making biodiesel the only Advanced Biofuel that is commercially available.
 
The checkoff continues to support research needed to illustrate the environmental benefits of biodiesel, as well as its performance in diesel engines. To-date, checkoff-funded research has given people across America many reasons to get revved up about biodiesel:
 
  1. Biodiesel is cleaner-burning
  2. Biodiesel emissions are 86 percent lower than petroleum
  3. Biodiesel is renewable
  4. Biodiesel is less toxic than table salt
  5. Biodiesel biodegrades faster than sugar
  6. Biodiesel is the American alternative to foreign oil
  7. Biodiesel supports 62,000 U.S. jobs
  8. Biodiesel can be used in existing diesel engines without modification
  9. Biodiesel is supported by all major engine manufacturers
The results continue to open doors to more opportunities for advancement. Anderson points out that in many cases, biodiesel can power the equipment that farmers use to plant, grow and harvest their soybean crop.
 
Biodiesel is an innovation with far-reaching benefits, Anderson adds.
 
“I see my soybean fields as oil fields,” he says. “It’s renewable – it’s not something we take out of the ground and it’s gone. But it’s also important to remember that soybeans are both oil and meal; using the oil for biodiesel doesn’t make the meal more expensive for animal feed.”
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