January 7, 2025 • 44 mins
What if Iowa's soybeans are worth more than just their weight in gold? On this episode of "Spilling the Beans," we're joined by Grant Kimberly, a leading figure in the soybean industry, to explore the monumental impact of soybeans on the U.S. economy. Listen as Grant uncovers the $17 billion powerhouse that is Iowa's soybean contribution, revealing how strategic choices in agronomy and biodiesel have reshaped market landscapes. He shares personal anecdotes and industry insights, peeling back the layers of soybean production, biofuels, and the vital role of soybeans in livestock feed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Each week, your hosts, PhilBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
We're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBackus.
And thanks again for joining usas we dive into the world of
soybeans, covering varioustopics and providing insights to
the soybean industry.
Happy New Year, Bill.
Happy 2025.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
How are you doing?
Welcome to 2025.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Here we go Welcome to 2025.
Here's another year.
This whole thing starts allover again, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yep, yep, yep, excited to be here and heck you
know, back in 2000, didn't evenknow if we'd make it this far
right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, no, that's for sure.
Yeah, we're all.
Y2k was supposed to end it all,but that was about.
That was a half a quartercentury ago.
So you know, bill, it's uh, newyear's, so we're gonna do a
different episode this year thatwe're now on our spilling the
beans that we haven't, uh,jumped into before, and I think
it's gonna be really interestingand we got a really great
(01:23):
expert that we got coming comingon.
You know, this episode is goingto go beyond the actual and
literal field where we've beenfocusing much of our time on the
G by E by M.
You know we've been talking alot about, you know,
environments.
We talk about managements andgenetics and what's going in all
that weed control, everything.
We're doing it from thatstandpoint.
But you know we're not onlyabout improving and influencing
(01:45):
the yield, helping from there.
But you know, really, ourultimate goal is to look at the
entire return on investment forthat soybean acre and bringing
it to the, to the listeners fromthere.
So it's just another part of it.
So, bill, I'm going to ask youthis question what is the total
impact of soybeans on the U?
S economy?
What?
What impact?
Yeah, the US economy.
(02:05):
What impact is that?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, obviously huge right.
So I don't really really knowthe answer to that.
You know, from the bestresearch I can find for Iowa
specifically, it's about $17billion is the overall impact.
And you know I'm going to havean expert come in here and
hopefully answer that question alittle bit better.
(02:26):
But you know, before I go there, let's go back a little bit.
And you know personally, youknow, when I went to Iowa State
University, you know I didn'tstart off actually in agronomy
and really everything I wasdoing here at Engines and
everything around that.
But then as I progressed,progressed, I ended up getting
(02:47):
my degree actually in, uh, youknow, processing grain and
biodiesel and ethanol productionand basically all that sort of
stuff.
And you know I had severalopportunities and several job
opportunities to go further intothat and that's really you know
my passion around.
You know soybeans it kind ofstems from that.
And when you go back to youknow locally, you know soybeans,
it kind of stems from that.
(03:07):
And when you go back to youknow locally, you know
personally where we haul oursoybeans to.
You know AGP off the farm andthen we, you know we've got a
lot of where I live now.
We've got a lot of my customersand neighbors haul everything
over to Bungie and you know wehave a lot of processing plants
and they continue to grow andevolve.
You know from that perspective.
And then you think about you togrow and evolve.
You know from that perspectiveand then you think about, you
know, biodiesel plants coming upand starting to get more and
(03:27):
more active and more crush goingon and everything around that.
So just think about all theproduction that we have and
everything around.
You know how do we feed.
You know all of our livestockand everything around that.
So there's lots of things goingon really in, you know, in
soybeans and that.
So really you know all of ourlivestock and everything around
that.
So there's lots of things goingon really in, you know, in
soybeans and that.
So really you know.
I'm going to introduce GrantKimberly.
(03:48):
Grant Kimberly serves as theSenior Director for Market
Development for the Iowa SoybeanAssociation.
He's also the ExecutiveDirector of the Iowa Biodiesel
Board.
He's been with ISA for 25 years, you know.
He's responsible for marketingand demand building initiatives
for the Iowa Soybean Association, worked with a lot of industry
partners, including the USSoybean Expert Council around
(04:09):
the world.
So Grant is a world traveler.
You know he's family.
Basically they still farm inIowa.
You know, way back, way back.
We both worked at Monsantotogether many, many years ago.
So you know again continues tofarm with his father near
Maxwell, you know, began farmingin 95, and now he's the sixth
(04:29):
generation to you know, farmthat farm basically in the US.
He's married to Natalie andthey've got two children
together and he's also activebasically in church and youth
sports with his son.
So welcome Grant, welcome tobasically Spilling the Beans.
Thanks for taking time with us.
So so again, looking forward toour discussion.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, thanks, jeff, bill.
Really happy to be with youguys today.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, so so I'll go.
I'll go back to Jeff's questionhere.
You know really if Iowa hasroughly 17 billion in overall
soybean revenue, you know reallywhat's that breakout within
Iowa for production, biofuelscrushing, and then how's that
compared to the overall US.
You know in comparison?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah, so yeah, that's about what the economic impact
is in Iowa when you factor inthe direct and total numbers
indirect numbers that kind ofcome along with that and total
numbers, indirect numbers thatkind of come along with that.
As far as the national numberfor the solar industry, it's
about, on average, about $125billion, and so that's kind of
when you factor everything infrom crushing biofuel, refinery,
(05:37):
you know local elevator, feedmills, delivery, you know
livestock sector that has adirect role there, and food use,
so everything kind of addedtogether, that's kind of where
the total ends up being.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, that's cool, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So, grant, we mentioned you know we've talked
about biodiesels.
It's growing in demand andyou're executive director of the
Iowa Biodiesel Board.
Can you elaborate some on theimpact soybeans are having on
the biodiesel production andwhat more of our listeners can
do to help?
So just give us kind of some ofthat background and the impact
we're seeing from that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, so since I've been working in the soy and
renewable fuels industry in theearly 2000s, I mean we've come a
long long ways.
And when I first started Iremember we were going around
just trying to get people to trya little bit of biodiesel.
I mean, the biodiesel industrywas only I think it was only
(06:35):
about 100,000 gallons in 1998,before I started.
And you know, of course, thenin 2004 is when Congress passed
the first federal biodiesel taxcredit and that's when the
biodiesel industry reallystarted to take off, and Senator
Grassley from Iowa, of course,was the major architect of that,
and that's when we saw theindustry finally get over the
threshold of, you know, got upto about a million gallons, and
(06:58):
today you know that.
And then later on, let's get tothe later 2000s.
And then later on, let's get tothe later 2000s.
President George W Bush signedthe Renewable Fuel Standard
Program 2007-2008 timeframe andshortly after that they signed
the Renewable Fuels II Standardthat Congress passed.
So there's basically two lawsthat came back to back.
(07:18):
The first one mainly dealt withethanol.
The second one dealt with allkinds of renewable fuels,
including biodiesel andeverything else that we're
seeing today and as we've grown,and that program has continued
to develop and move along andyou've got very state programs
that have come into place, likeCalifornia's low carbon fuel
standard.
Here in Iowa we have a veryrobust state tax credits for
(07:40):
biodiesel.
Minnesota has a mandate forbiodiesel.
Missouri has state tax credits.
Minnesota has a mandate forbiodiesel.
Missouri has state tax credits.
Illinois has a sales taxexemption.
All those things have factoredinto moving the needle forward.
And then now we're talking aboutcarbon and climate reduction
and carbon intensity scores, andso the corporate and all the
(08:01):
investor groups in the corporatesector are now starting to look
at this, because they'relooking at their carbon
emissions and ways to reducethose emissions, and biofuels is
the easiest way for them to dothat, the quickest way.
So now our market.
With all that being said andall that backstory, we're
looking at about a 5 billiongallon renewable fuel market for
what we call now thebiomass-based diesel sector, and
(08:24):
the biomass-based diesel sectorincludes and the biomass-based
diesel sector includes biodiesel.
It also includes renewablediesel and it includes a little
bit and probably more so in thefuture sustainable aviation fuel
.
So that's the biomass-baseddiesel sector and I think I
remember back in those days, Ithink the goal American Soybean
Association and others weresaying, oh, if we could just get
(08:46):
to a billion gallons.
We could just get to a billiongallons, that would be great.
You know and see, becausebecause really, if you, if you
remember, the impetus for all ofthis comes back to back before
my time.
But the farmers and the soybeanfarmers, the leadership in the
soybean associations were in theearly 90s looking around the
(09:07):
room and there's a littleproduct known as biodiesel.
It wasn't very well known.
Europe had been dabbling withit a little bit, but we had
excess supplies of soybean oilon the market and we had soybean
oil that was literally goingrancid in storage in some of the
soy crush facilities becausethey didn't have a home for it.
It was so cheap.
(09:27):
They were basically giving itaway and they looked at we had
to develop more markets for thisproduct because that was
holding down the opportunity tocrush more soybeans.
It was limiting farmers sellingopportunities.
And you remember the soybeancheckoff programs.
The national program started in1991.
(09:48):
So you had that now in place.
So you had a mechanism now toprovide the research, the market
development, all that kind ofstuff that you really needed.
You had to pass all the rulesand regulations.
You had to get engine approvalsfrom the different engine
manufacturers.
All that had to happen, and sothe farmers sitting around the
room made some good strategicdecisions and made these
(10:10):
investments, and over time ittook a while, but over time
those things started to grow andpay off into what we are today.
And now this biomass-baseddiesel industry is adding about
13% on average to the net marketvalue of the price of soybeans.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So to follow that up with.
So we've talked about.
You know we were hoping at onetime we could get to a billion
gallons.
You know now we're talking, youmay mention five.
You know five billion gallonsor where we're at with renewable
, what currently in biodieselthat we have going about those
plants.
How many bushel or do you havean estimate of how many bushel
of beans gets positioned intothat specifically through that
(10:54):
standpoint, do you have any idea?
I know that's an awful lot ofquestions.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
That's a tough number to actually give a direct
number on, because we're talkingjust the oil component of the
bushel of beans.
Say, that is roughly 30 to 40percent of the soybean oil right
now that we're currentlyproducing through our soy
(11:18):
processing sector.
The crush sector is going intothe biomass-based diesel
marketplace, and so you know, ofcourse we're talking when you
talk soybeans, we're talkingabout meal and oil.
And I will still say bottomline is the marketplace is still
driven by the demand forprotein and the demand for the
soybean meal.
That still drives it.
(11:40):
But now that we've increased thevalue of the soybean oil, which
was the lower value component,the food market is also the
number one market consumer still, but that's fairly stagnant.
It's not growing that much.
Very small percent, 1% or so ayear.
And you've got so muchcompetition from various
vegetable oils from around theworld the tropical oils of palm
(12:02):
and coconut oil, the other seedoils like canola, sunflower,
sunseed and then corn oil cancome into the into play and some
others as well.
So, um, it's, it's adding a lotof value because it's raising
the value of the price of thesoybean oil and that's improving
the, the opportunity to crushmore soybeans.
(12:23):
Uh, and that's then what it doesin return is it puts more
soybean meal on the market andactually lowers the value or
lowers the cost or the price ofthe soybean meal relative to
what it otherwise would havebeen.
Because supply and demand we'reputting more supply of meal on
the marketplace, so it'sactually helping reduce feed
costs, reduce food costs, reduceprotein costs.
So that's why you know we talkabout how that just adds a lot
(12:46):
of value and that's why we'reseeing more crush plants being
built and so it's using a lot ofsoybeans.
It's a big part of our overallmarketplace, but of course it's
a marketplace that's amulti-segmented place and we
have lots of products that comeoff of the soybean when we crush
it.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, that's something that's.
You make mention of that.
Over here in Nebraska, whereI'm at, that's something that
we're getting.
More soybean crush plants arecoming in, and it's not only a
nice avenue for marketing oursoybeans with, but with the
amount of livestock we have tooin the Midwest, that soybean
meal is a very importantcomponent of that too.
So it's exciting to see what'scoming in some of those avenues
(13:26):
in the next couple, three years.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
So yeah, I mean specifically to talk about that
further.
We have seen something we'venever seen in the industry in
probably 70 years this massiveincrease in the US crush
capacity.
It had been fairly stagnant fora long time.
Seen for the biomass-baseddiesel industry, biodiesel,
(13:50):
renewable diesel, aviation fuel.
We have seen an increase in newcrush plants being built.
There's several that have beenbuilt in the last couple of
years.
There's several more that arebeing constructed now and a few
more on top of that that are onthe drawing board to be built.
But when it's all said and done,probably within between the
(14:12):
last couple of years and thenlooking forward, maybe through
the next three or four years, wecan see roughly a 30% increase
in the U S crush capacity.
Uh, which is pretty, prettyamazing.
And saying that in another way,that's about another 600
million bushels of crush thatwill be added to the US
(14:33):
marketplace and that's going tobe more.
It means better basis for thefarmers in your area.
You're going to get better cashprices because you're going to
have more local delivery pointsthat you can sell your soybeans
to, because you're going to getmore when you can sell it more,
the more local you can sell it.
Typically when you have thesestronger demands, the better the
price is going to be.
(14:53):
And then you know we have toexport the meal.
We have demand for mealdomestically, but that's also
growing at a fairly slow rate.
So a lot of that meal is goingto have to be exported.
A lot of the oil is going to gostill the food sector and then
the growing biomass-based dieselsector.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, grant, just wow .
I mean a lot of exciting timesahead, right?
You put all that together, alot of things going on there.
So last month I sit on theAgribusiness Association of Iowa
board as the certified cropadvisor rep on that board and we
got a great partnership withthe Soybean Association, all the
other associations and we kindof went through all of our, our,
(15:32):
our priorities for the upcomingyear and you know, here we are
in 2025.
So, so, as we think throughbasically all the soybean
production, that that we'refocused on this podcast and
we're thinking about, you know,improving ROI, we're thinking
about everything that happens toall of the producers the
producers, the cooperatives, theelevators, everybody that's
buying and selling soybeanswithin our listenership.
(15:55):
Here we talked about oil, wetalked about protein, but when
you think about the composition,how does that influence our end
users and their profitabilityand then also the overall
profitability of the crushers?
So you think about soybean mealgoing into poultry, swine,
seafood we got some fish and andshrimp that gets used and
(16:15):
obviously we talk about oil andbiodiesel.
So how's?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
that all kind of play together.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Uh, from from a grower perspective, on how they
can, you know, potentiallyproduce better soybeans.
Uh, kind of from yourperspective yeah, uh, good
question.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Um, I would say you, ultimately we have to continue
to grow more soybeans, andthat's the bottom line, and, of
course, as farmers we all knowat this time anyway, we get paid
primarily based off of yield.
Now there is certain valuecomponents and quality
components that are veryimportant, and we want to
(16:50):
maintain that, and that's kindof a function of working through
that discussion with the seedindustry, talking about genetics
and so forth, and so that'spart of it.
Environment makes a difference,weather makes a difference.
Latitude north to south, eastto west can make a difference on
(17:11):
protein and oil content ofindividual varieties of beans,
and so that matters.
And so, you know, farmers, ingeneral some of that's a little
bit outside of their control,because that's more of a
function of where they grow thebeans and what the weather's
like and what the genetics arethat they're getting from their
seed supplier.
But we do encourage farmers topay attention to that though,
(17:33):
and more seed companies arestarting to list kind of the
average protein and oil contentpotential for certain varieties.
Certain varieties tend to havemaybe a little higher protein or
a little higher oil, so there'ssome differences there and that
might be a discussion that youmight pay attention to down the
road if your local soy processoror your local co-op decides
(17:54):
that they might pay a little bitof a premium for higher oil
content or higher proteincontent soybeans, and that might
be a case by case and region byregion kind of situation.
You know, we talk about higholeic soybean oil.
You know those.
That's another nicheopportunity, you know.
So a little bit along thoselines.
Uh, just to monitor, payattention to that, that kind of
(18:15):
thing, um, and ultimately yieldsimportant and we want to, we
want to continue to grow moreand and um, you know, but we've
always talked about, you know,roughly 80% of the bean is going
to be the, the protein and theand the and the carb
carbohydrate portion, and thenthe 20% is going to be oil, and
so we're going to continue towant to make sure that we have
(18:36):
good average oil content andgood average protein content and
I think the marketplace willtell us over time and tell the
industry over time do we need tomake some slight adjustments
one way or the other?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, no, thanks, graham, for that.
I couldn't agree more with whatyou said.
So I'm going to sneak in aquestion here, as you have been
a world traveler here over thepast.
Well, whatever your career,you've been globally with
production, you know, I think,philippines you mentioned
earlier before we startedrecording here and China and
(19:17):
things like that.
So can you speak a little bitabout that kind of what they're
looking at from that perspectiveon oil and protein and kind of
what they're seeing, if they'reseeing some of the same things
that we're doing here in theStates?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yeah, so I'll talk about that a little bit.
In the soy industry we arereally dependent on exports.
We export on average about 60%of the US soybean production.
So you know we're using about40, a little over 40% here
domestically in the variousmarkets that we talked about the
(19:48):
livestock markets and thebiofuel and food markets but
we're using a good share.
The rest of that is goingoverseas because 95% of the
world lives outside of ourborders, in the US.
So we've got to be able to dotrade and that's a major
priority for the US soy industryand the soybean associations
through our variousorganizations and networks.
(20:10):
So we work with an organizationcalled the US Soybean Export
Council.
They're the internationalexport arm of the US soy
industry.
The soybean associations fromthe state and the national, like
us, are members of theirs andsupporters.
We provide funding to do thepromotion, the research, the
demonstration projects and theother trade servicing
initiatives.
But we also work with the USsoy exporters.
(20:34):
The seed industry has been apart of that as well and been
members of theirs.
We're engaged in biotechapproval processes around the
world.
Those things are important inorder to have access to markets.
But you know, the soy exporterswho are also members of USEC
were working together and intotal we have either offices
(20:57):
full-time staff or consultantspart-time consultants working on
behalf of the US soybean farmerand US soybean exporting
industry in well over I thinkthe last numbers I saw was well
over 82 countries around theworld.
Numbers I saw was well over 82countries around the world, and
that's because we've got toexport in the form of whole
beans, soybean meal and evensome soybean oil is going
(21:18):
overseas.
And so, yeah, we go around theworld quite often to meet with
our customers and our buyers tounderstand what's important to
them, understand their market.
Every market's different and,as I've learned over time,
personal relationships meansomething to a a lot of these
buyers some buyers more and somebuyers less, and price in the
(21:39):
end is still what's reallyimportant.
But quality is important,consistency is important,
reliability of a supplier isimportant, and then the
relationships, and so we takefarmers to visit with these
customers overseas.
We bring the customers back tothe United States to visit our
farms, to visit our seedcompanies, to visit our co-ops
and our soy processors and ourexporters and our ports and our
(22:00):
facilities, and so it's a valuechain link that we have to
connect those dots and worktogether on, and we're doing
feed demonstration projects,we're doing market access
programs around the world andthose are the kinds of things we
do.
And so there's many, manyimportant markets and I'll just
take a step and go further onthat.
(22:20):
If you want to look at the wholebean markets around the world,
china by far is our number onemarket.
Most of us know that in theindustry they got 1.4 billion
people.
They have an affinity for pork.
They like their pork, they liketheir pork, they like their
chicken, they like their fish.
(22:42):
They have a high demand forprotein and that's because their
economy has been pretty goodover time.
As they move more people intothe middle class level of an
income, people desire to eatmore meat and more protein in
their diet.
And that's exactly what'shappened in China over time,
which the US soy industry hasbeen operating in China since
1982, well before anybody everthought that they would be there
.
But the foresight of the earlyfounders of our industry has
(23:05):
developed that industry andgrown that opportunity quite a
bit.
But Mexico is another veryimportant market next to our
neighbor, japan's very important, you know the EU as a block is
still a viable and strong market.
Indonesia, taiwan, you know,and I go to Egypt, I go down the
list and those are whole beanmarkets.
And then we look at othermarket segments and you're
(23:27):
talking about soybean meal andthat's as we process more
soybeans here in the US.
Those are other markets, whichhelps us diversify so we're not
only dependent on China, youknow, when it comes to whole
beans, so we can ship more as weget more demand for soybean oil
domestically.
That helps us diversify wherewe can export soybean meal
(23:49):
internationally and other places.
And of course, those soybeanmeal export markets that are
really key for us is thePhilippines, which I visited
here just in December, and youknow that's a key market.
They value the consistency andreliability of US soybean meal.
They're willing to pay apremium for it too, which is
(24:10):
great, and we love that.
They're loyal customers.
Mexico is the same way Veryimportant when you talk about
soybean meal.
Columbia, central Americancountries are important.
Canada is important, and thenyou go down the list, even down
to some other Southeast Asiancountries like Vietnam, growing
dynamic market.
They have a young population, alot of those Southeast Asian
(24:32):
countries they have.
Probably over 60% of theirpopulation is under 35 years old
and they're increasing theirincomes as well.
They're improving their dietsand they're growing and that's
making a big difference.
Morocco, middle East, northAfrica there's some important
markets there too.
So that's kind of a trip aroundthe world there real quick but
(24:54):
very important markets and wehave to continue.
Marketing is never one and done.
It's a constant process,process and people who you're
interacting with are changing.
People are moving intodifferent positions that the key
buyers and customers are goingto be different over time.
So it's a constant process.
So we have to constantly engagein in in when we're trying to
develop and facilitate theseinternational markets for for
(25:17):
soybeans and soybean meal yeah,no grant, that's.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah.
There's a lot of, a lot ofthings behind the scenes that we
just don't realize.
That go on in a lot of thisfrom that standpoint.
So, with that being said, notto get political here, we've
just come through a newpresidency.
We'll be starting here in a fewweeks.
We've been hearing a lot oftalk about tariffs.
(25:44):
We've been hearing a lot oftalks about this and that.
What is going to be the future?
I know you don't have a crystalball for it, but what will the
future for exports and importshave on soybean production in
the US?
We always talk about Brazil fora lot of things, but what their
production do.
(26:04):
But you know, what do we seegoing forward from an exports
and imports on that soybeanproduction in the future?
Anything you can kind of tellus.
I know there's a lot of fluidsituation obviously and a lot of
unknowns, but if you can giveus any insight or foresight
there, yeah, that's a goodquestion and also to think
through.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
And while, while, um, you know, there's lots of
different things going on hereand and I feel like agriculture
sort of is um, and and and extra, we're kind of on the outside
of this, but we're we're tied toit and connected to it, but
we're not directly in the middleof of what what's being talked
about.
Yeah, there's trade challengeswith China and there's some
(26:47):
trade challenges with otherparts of the world and there's
talk of, you know, we've got toprotect our markets and our
domestic manufacturing sectorand that's, I think, driving a
lot of this trade and tariff andrebalancing trade.
And we do have a trade deficitwith China and many other
countries around the world.
We are a major importing nationfrom a big picture standpoint,
(27:12):
overall economic standpoint.
Now, agriculture happens to bethe one bright spot when it
comes to, for the most part, anet trade surplus.
The other way, we havebenefited from growth in export
markets around the world wherewe benefited from free trade
agreements.
We benefited from some of theglobalization that's happened in
(27:34):
trade and and and moving moreof our excessive products that
we, you know, as farmers and asseed industry folks, we've been
really good at developing highvalue, very resilient genetics,
great production practices andwe've continuous improvement,
(27:54):
sustainability, all those things, and we're growing more than we
can consume.
So we're engaging around theworld and when it comes to the
trade side, we can.
We can benefit from that too ifit's done in a certain way.
You know, we sometimes get tradebarriers thrown up against us.
There's a lot of protectionistpolicies and places like India
(28:15):
that don't allow us access tothat market as well.
China will sometimes throw up abarrier if they want to
temporarily slow things down,and so we need and we need more
fair trade, and I think that'swhat this whole tariff trade
debate is about, and we get that.
We understand that.
That's important.
The one thing that does concernus sometimes is then when we
get into these things andsometimes it gets to be, you
(28:38):
know, we have to put tariffs inplace and trying to negotiate a
better deal.
Then the other countries ifthey're not willing to do that
right away, there's retaliationand we get retaliated, and
usually the first thing thatforeign countries like to
retaliate against us because weare so proficient of an export
agriculture export country.
(28:59):
They go after export ag exportsand they go after farmers, and
so we get tariffs put in placeon us, and you know.
So that's the challenge to thison the China side.
You know 2018 we've beenthrough this before.
We kind of know, I think, morewhat to expect at this point.
And you know that trade war wassomewhat costly for us as a US
(29:21):
soybean industry.
During that time, we did loseabout $27 billion in lost
exports markets for USagriculture in general not just
soybeans, but all of agriculturebecause of the retaliatory
tariffs that we had to deal withand, of course, that lasted a
couple years.
On the soybean export side, wesaw our exports decline.
(29:41):
So put this in perspective weexport about 30, had been
exporting about 35 millionmetric tons of soybeans to China
, and we lost about 16 millionmetric tons, so got cut in about
half during that trade war timebecause of the retaliation.
And then China tried to go toBrazil and Argentina to get
(30:02):
their supplies and they did fora period of time.
They couldn't do it all becausetheir demand's so big, but they
did cut it back some.
Now we since then got a phaseone trade deal that was put into
place, that was negotiated andthat turned out to be a really
good deal, and then our exportsreally rebounded and bounced
back for a period of time.
Now they're starting to trailoff again.
(30:24):
I don't think that phase onetrade deal really got enforced
that much by this lastadministration and wasn't paid
attention to as much.
And then you know, china'seconomy, of course, has suffered
.
I think in the news we're allpretty familiar with the real
estate bubble that the Chinesehave gone through and that's
hurt their economy.
Of course, covid, they're still, I think, having a hangover
(30:47):
from that because they didlockdowns for a lot longer than
the rest of the world.
So that's still bothering us alittle bit.
So I think, going forward, youknow what we're going to see.
I think what we would hope as asoybean industry is that we
could use the tariffs as a wayto negotiate some better
opportunities and hopefully bothsides know that everybody's
serious and we can move forwardquicker, not have this drag out
(31:11):
quite as long, and maybe go backto the phase one trade deal,
maybe make it better, maybe geta phase two trade deal in place
and see things rebound.
When it comes to China, mexicoand Canada, those are different
issues.
They've been brought up hererecently.
You know they're very importantmarkets for us too, there are
next door neighbors, so we hopethat we have a USMCA agreement
(31:33):
that was negotiated last timeand we hope that that can be
enforced.
And if there's some tweaks thatneed to be made, and maybe
that's where the, the tariffdiscussion comes in place.
And of course, the, theimmigration issue we all know
about, but again, nothingdirectly related to agriculture,
but we're going to be impactedby it.
So we hope that all the sidescome together quickly and they
(31:53):
can come up with a solution tocontinue to allow access to
markets for everybody involvedand we can continue to move
forward.
And that's going to be thechallenge, the crystal ball.
There's a chance that we mightgo through a little I don't know
a better word to describe itbut a little difficulty in a
short period of time here whenwe first get going on that.
But we're hoping that longerterm that can get resolved and
(32:15):
it can end up being a net better, a net gain for us, hopefully
over time.
But it's a lot of things outsideof our control and as an
industry, a soy industry, we'rejust educating the new
administration and the Congressabout what is so important to us
here and why we need trade, weneed more trade.
We need more bilateral tradeagreements put into place, and I
(32:35):
think the Trump administrationlast time liked to do those.
They want to do more of those.
They don't necessarily want todo the big multilateral trade
agreement with lots of countries, but they'd like to do
one-on-one trade agreements.
That's fine.
We need to do more of those,and that would be great to give
us more market access to othercountries around the world.
And, as I said earlier in mymind, india would be a great new
opportunity because, while thatmarket has potential with their
(32:57):
population, we just don't havemuch access to it right now.
And of course, they don't eatpork, but they do eat chicken
and and so there's stillopportunity there in fish.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
So we'll see what happens.
A lot to be determined here inthe next 12 months.
Yeah, grant, well, well said, Imean that's kind of why you
know we targeted this episodefor the first episode of the
year 2025, because this is socritical for everything we're
trying to do.
And you know, obviously you hitit on the head earlier you know
we've got to increase yields.
You know that's a big piece ofthe puzzle going forward here.
But you know global marketing Imean a lot of things going on
(33:35):
that you know a lot of listenersdon't get to hear about very
often.
So I guess, the final comments,any other areas to discuss.
And then one other thing iskind of you know how do people
get involved?
Get in contact with you ifthey've got more questions or
issues or things like that.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Yeah, I mean I guess I just add on to what I've said
too so what you said as well wehave to grow, continue to grow
and we have to compete.
I mean Brazil and Argentina andSouth America is our
competition, and so we have tocompete.
I mean Brazil and Argentina andSouth America is our
competition, and so we have tocompete with them.
We need to, you know, we needto continue to maintain our
soybean supplies, and while itlooks like we have a lot of
(34:13):
supply of soybeans globally herethis next year, we can't back
down from Brazil.
They're going to expand andgrow, but they have a lot of
challenges too.
We have some advantages overthem.
They have some advantages overus, but one thing that we need
to continue to improve on as anindustry is our transportation
logistics structure here in theUnited States.
(34:34):
That has been an advantage.
Brazil is closing that gap onus a little bit.
So we need to continue to makemore investments as a country,
and so we have to talk to ourand I encourage all farmers to
talk to your, get involvedlocally, talk to your
legislators, talk to yourcongressional representatives
and senators, your governors.
Everybody say how importantglobal trade is, but then how we
(34:56):
need to compete is we need tobe cost competitive around the
world and that's through ourtransportation logistics.
We need to make moreinvestments in our waterways,
our locks and dam structure,port structure.
The soy industry has providedsome funding in partnership with
various entities to dredge thelower Mississippi River up to
(35:19):
Baton Rouge to a deeper depth sowe can bring ocean-going
vessels further up theMississippi, which then reduces
the cost to transport soybeans,load and ship soybeans around
the world.
We've worked with soy crusherslike AGP to provide some funding
and then work to help securesome federal and state grants to
do an additional port expansionat the Port of Grays Harbor in
(35:42):
Aberdeen, washington, where itwill double the export capacity
to ship soybean meal.
That'll be a dedicated soybeanmeal export terminal.
So instead of 3 million metrictons, which is currently
approximately what gets shippedout of that terminal today,
it'll get doubled up to 6million tons and, putting that
perspective, we'd only had beenexporting about 14 million tons
of soybean meal.
(36:02):
So we need and with more mealproduction, with new crush
capacity, we're going to have toexport a whole lot more meal,
probably another eight to 10million tons, and so we need to
increase that capacity.
There's been increased capacityin the Port of Houston with the
Anderson's group has put in, isexpanding that facility and
other facilities around theworld or around the country.
(36:23):
So those things, talk to your.
Get involved as farmers.
Get involved with your locallegislators.
Get involved with yourcongressional delegation.
Tell the importance of trade.
Tell them what you do.
Tell your story.
Tell how sustainable ourproduction practices are these
days.
We've made constant improvementsin how we grow soybeans using
cover crops, using bettertechnology, the seed genetics.
(36:44):
We're growing more with lessinputs.
Those are all stories we cantell.
And then how do we do that?
We continue to grow our biofuelmarket.
We need better RFS volumeobligation numbers that the EPA
can put out every year.
Those are things ourcongressional delegation can do
and as farmers, we can advocatefor.
We need export market access toexport markets.
(37:06):
All those things are importantand that's what we do as a
soybean association, soybeanindustry.
We're advocating on behalf ofof the farmer, and I'm a farmer,
you guys are farmers, we'redoing it.
It makes it as personal for me.
So we're trying to grow theopportunity so we have a better
future for our, not only for ourcurrent operations but for our
(37:27):
future operations in the nextgeneration, and so those are the
things that we will continue todo, and you know we're happy to
talk to people.
Get involved with your statesoybean association and your
other agriculture commoditygroups.
Those are important.
Reach out to us.
We're happy to talk anytime andwant to get you involved in any
way.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Grant, thank you so very much.
Well said so, Jeff.
I'll turn it to you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, grant, thank you very much, appreciate you
taking the time with us.
Everything you brought intoperspective a whole lot of
things I didn't realize, a wholelot of things that I didn't
know, and some of those thingsmake a lot more sense than they
did before we listened to this.
So thank you for your time andfor spending time with us on
(38:15):
this podcast, and reallyappreciate you giving your
insight.
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Thanks, guys, it's been fun.
Enjoy it.
Appreciate all you do for theindustry as well.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
All right, have a great day.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Thanks again, grant.
Again, happy new year, welcometo 2025.
Happy new year to you.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Thank you, you bet.
Have a good one.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Boom, boom, wow.
Oh man, I could sit and listento that guy for a couple hours,
get a few beers and get going, Ibet you.
It's just interesting, though,how interconnected this whole
world is, isn't it?
It all intertwines together andeverything.
(38:54):
We heard a lot of informationtoday.
What was a couple of the keytakeaways you learned and that
our producers can garner somevalue from?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Yeah, I alluded to it earlier.
Grant grant said it.
Great, I mean, we've gotincreased production right.
That is our number one thing,and that's really what this
podcast is about is.
Everything we've been talkingabout is increased production,
you know, but it's also aboutincreasing roi.
It's increasing everythingaround that.
But, but increased capacity too, and and you, and one that I
hadn't thought about really wasthe infrastructure right.
(39:27):
So that had been our reallyadvantage over Brazil, right,
and everything we're doing.
But we're getting aged.
We got some things that are notas good as they once were.
And you think about theMississippi over there, you
think about locks and dams, youthink about barge traffic, you
think about the rail system, youthink about everything that
we've got going on in the portsand and the.
(39:48):
You know I've had the privilegeto go to some of the ports and
see some of that stuff and it'sjust quite the operation to to
understand how this all isinfluenced.
So one one that I hadn'tthought about was, you know,
dredging the Mississippi so gladto hear.
And again, I think some of ourpractices that we're doing here
in ag, you know, to reduce, youknow, some of our erosion and
hopefully not send as much ofour great soil down that the old
(40:10):
, mighty mess, and take care ofthat perspective.
So that, and strategic globalmarketing.
You know, basically theincreased diet globally which
increases demand, and everythingaround protein, just thinking
about it that way.
But protein and oil, everythingaround that.
You think about the sustainableaviation fuel.
That's a big piece.
(40:31):
You hear a lot about that,going on with that and a lot of
things that are important there.
Really, just everything aroundour discussion today is critical
for everyone to understand.
So again, just getting involved, I think that's a big piece of
the puzzle.
A lot of people don't getinvolved and they take a lot of
what we do for granted.
So I encourage that as well andthat's one of the things that I
(40:52):
do, what I do on that board and, you know, sit and help provide
my insight to you know, tothose people on that board as
well.
So how about you, jeff?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, you know too.
You made a comment aboutincreasing production right,
Increasing what we have and thencapacity.
How many more acres do we haveto develop for farm ground?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
We're losing every year, right.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
It isn't about getting more acres out there.
It's about utilizing the acreswe have and getting better at
producing.
What we're doing on those acresand that's really the premise
behind this podcast has been thewhole time is getting out more
per acre, getting a higherreturn on investment.
I didn't know that around 60%of all soybeans are exported out
(41:39):
of the US.
I thought that was higher thanI thought it would be.
So that was quite interesting.
And then when Grant was talking,you just don't realize all the
marketing that you have to do,and it isn't just once, and I'm
not saying selling, but you haveto keep, you've got to keep
cultivating those relationships.
You know, and he talked about82 countries where they have
(42:00):
offices.
You know where they're doingthat.
So you think about all thisbehind the scenes that's going
on.
You know we think is just assimple as, yeah, take the truck
and you know, go, load the truckor load the barge and ship it
out and life's good.
You know there's so many thingsinvolved there.
And then again you said at theend and Grant really stressed it
get involved with your locallegislation, tell them, you know
what we need to do.
(42:21):
And and yeah, that that thattransportation thing really
caught me off guard and it'slike, yeah, because we have been
kind of neglecting it for along time and we don't have that
advantage anymore.
So we really need to make surethat's flowing smooth to make us
a nice, efficient operation.
So, with that being said, bill,anything else to add before we
sign off for this podcast?
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Nope Again.
Happy new year to everyone,Welcome to 2025.
And hopefully it's anothergreat one.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Absolutely, absolutely, same thing for me.
Again, to everybody listeningand to this podcast, thanks for
joining us today for, again, forthis episode of Spilling the
Beans.
As always, we invite you todownload this Grow Smart Live
app, where you can get a bunchof resources and you have more
resources there.
And Download this Grow SmartLive app, where you can get a
bunch of resources and you havemore resources there.
And, as always, we say hey, ifyou want to share this podcast
(43:09):
with other growers, weappreciate it, because the more
information we can get out thereand help farmers get a higher
return on investment, the betterit is for everyone.
So, with that being said, formyself and Bill, thank you again
for joining us for this episodeof Spilling the Beans, this
episode of Spilling the Beans.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoritepodcast platform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
(43:46):
Hemisphere, liberty Outlook.
Zidua, zidua Pro, ponchivo, tevo, endura, revitec, fastac, elevo
, valtaipeer, rilenia, reaxor,liberty Ultra and Varaxor are
trademarks or registeredtrademarks of BASF.
Citavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
is exclusively marketed by BASF.
Fasttax CS is a restricted-usepesticide.
(44:07):
Enlist E3 is jointly developedand owned by Corteva AgroScience
LLC and MS Technologies.
Enlist 1 and Enlist Duo areregistered trademarks of Corteva
AgroScience.
Always read and follow labeldirections.
Nemisphere, liberty Ultra andBraxor are not registered and
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This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
(44:28):
be based solely on theEPA-approved product label and
any claims regarding productsafety and efficacy shall be
addressed solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF.
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Each week, your hosts, PhilBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
We're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBackus.
And thanks again for joining usas we dive into the world of
soybeans, covering varioustopics and providing insights to
the soybean industry.
Happy New Year, Bill.
Happy 2025.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
How are you doing?
Welcome to 2025.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Here we go Welcome to 2025.
Here's another year.
This whole thing starts allover again, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yep, yep, yep, excited to be here and heck you
know, back in 2000, didn't evenknow if we'd make it this far
right.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, no, that's for sure.
Yeah, we're all.
Y2k was supposed to end it all,but that was about.
That was a half a quartercentury ago.
So you know, bill, it's uh, newyear's, so we're gonna do a
different episode this year thatwe're now on our spilling the
beans that we haven't, uh,jumped into before, and I think
it's gonna be really interestingand we got a really great
(01:23):
expert that we got coming comingon.
You know, this episode is goingto go beyond the actual and
literal field where we've beenfocusing much of our time on the
G by E by M.
You know we've been talking alot about, you know,
environments.
We talk about managements andgenetics and what's going in all
that weed control, everything.
We're doing it from thatstandpoint.
But you know we're not onlyabout improving and influencing
(01:45):
the yield, helping from there.
But you know, really, ourultimate goal is to look at the
entire return on investment forthat soybean acre and bringing
it to the, to the listeners fromthere.
So it's just another part of it.
So, bill, I'm going to ask youthis question what is the total
impact of soybeans on the U?
S economy?
What?
What impact?
Yeah, the US economy.
(02:05):
What impact is that?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, obviously huge right.
So I don't really really knowthe answer to that.
You know, from the bestresearch I can find for Iowa
specifically, it's about $17billion is the overall impact.
And you know I'm going to havean expert come in here and
hopefully answer that question alittle bit better.
(02:26):
But you know, before I go there, let's go back a little bit.
And you know personally, youknow, when I went to Iowa State
University, you know I didn'tstart off actually in agronomy
and really everything I wasdoing here at Engines and
everything around that.
But then as I progressed,progressed, I ended up getting
(02:47):
my degree actually in, uh, youknow, processing grain and
biodiesel and ethanol productionand basically all that sort of
stuff.
And you know I had severalopportunities and several job
opportunities to go further intothat and that's really you know
my passion around.
You know soybeans it kind ofstems from that.
And when you go back to youknow locally, you know soybeans,
it kind of stems from that.
(03:07):
And when you go back to youknow locally, you know
personally where we haul oursoybeans to.
You know AGP off the farm andthen we, you know we've got a
lot of where I live now.
We've got a lot of my customersand neighbors haul everything
over to Bungie and you know wehave a lot of processing plants
and they continue to grow andevolve.
You know from that perspective.
And then you think about you togrow and evolve.
You know from that perspectiveand then you think about, you
know, biodiesel plants coming upand starting to get more and
(03:27):
more active and more crush goingon and everything around that.
So just think about all theproduction that we have and
everything around.
You know how do we feed.
You know all of our livestockand everything around that.
So there's lots of things goingon really in, you know, in
soybeans and that.
So really you know all of ourlivestock and everything around
that.
So there's lots of things goingon really in, you know, in
soybeans and that.
So really you know.
I'm going to introduce GrantKimberly.
(03:48):
Grant Kimberly serves as theSenior Director for Market
Development for the Iowa SoybeanAssociation.
He's also the ExecutiveDirector of the Iowa Biodiesel
Board.
He's been with ISA for 25 years, you know.
He's responsible for marketingand demand building initiatives
for the Iowa Soybean Association, worked with a lot of industry
partners, including the USSoybean Expert Council around
(04:09):
the world.
So Grant is a world traveler.
You know he's family.
Basically they still farm inIowa.
You know, way back, way back.
We both worked at Monsantotogether many, many years ago.
So you know again continues tofarm with his father near
Maxwell, you know, began farmingin 95, and now he's the sixth
(04:29):
generation to you know, farmthat farm basically in the US.
He's married to Natalie andthey've got two children
together and he's also activebasically in church and youth
sports with his son.
So welcome Grant, welcome tobasically Spilling the Beans.
Thanks for taking time with us.
So so again, looking forward toour discussion.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, thanks, jeff, bill.
Really happy to be with youguys today.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, so so I'll go.
I'll go back to Jeff's questionhere.
You know really if Iowa hasroughly 17 billion in overall
soybean revenue, you know reallywhat's that breakout within
Iowa for production, biofuelscrushing, and then how's that
compared to the overall US.
You know in comparison?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah, so yeah, that's about what the economic impact
is in Iowa when you factor inthe direct and total numbers
indirect numbers that kind ofcome along with that and total
numbers, indirect numbers thatkind of come along with that.
As far as the national numberfor the solar industry, it's
about, on average, about $125billion, and so that's kind of
when you factor everything infrom crushing biofuel, refinery,
(05:37):
you know local elevator, feedmills, delivery, you know
livestock sector that has adirect role there, and food use,
so everything kind of addedtogether, that's kind of where
the total ends up being.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, that's cool, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So, grant, we mentioned you know we've talked
about biodiesels.
It's growing in demand andyou're executive director of the
Iowa Biodiesel Board.
Can you elaborate some on theimpact soybeans are having on
the biodiesel production andwhat more of our listeners can
do to help?
So just give us kind of some ofthat background and the impact
we're seeing from that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, so since I've been working in the soy and
renewable fuels industry in theearly 2000s, I mean we've come a
long long ways.
And when I first started Iremember we were going around
just trying to get people to trya little bit of biodiesel.
I mean, the biodiesel industrywas only I think it was only
(06:35):
about 100,000 gallons in 1998,before I started.
And you know, of course, thenin 2004 is when Congress passed
the first federal biodiesel taxcredit and that's when the
biodiesel industry reallystarted to take off, and Senator
Grassley from Iowa, of course,was the major architect of that,
and that's when we saw theindustry finally get over the
threshold of, you know, got upto about a million gallons, and
(06:58):
today you know that.
And then later on, let's get tothe later 2000s.
And then later on, let's get tothe later 2000s.
President George W Bush signedthe Renewable Fuel Standard
Program 2007-2008 timeframe andshortly after that they signed
the Renewable Fuels II Standardthat Congress passed.
So there's basically two lawsthat came back to back.
(07:18):
The first one mainly dealt withethanol.
The second one dealt with allkinds of renewable fuels,
including biodiesel andeverything else that we're
seeing today and as we've grown,and that program has continued
to develop and move along andyou've got very state programs
that have come into place, likeCalifornia's low carbon fuel
standard.
Here in Iowa we have a veryrobust state tax credits for
(07:40):
biodiesel.
Minnesota has a mandate forbiodiesel.
Missouri has state tax credits.
Minnesota has a mandate forbiodiesel.
Missouri has state tax credits.
Illinois has a sales taxexemption.
All those things have factoredinto moving the needle forward.
And then now we're talking aboutcarbon and climate reduction
and carbon intensity scores, andso the corporate and all the
(08:01):
investor groups in the corporatesector are now starting to look
at this, because they'relooking at their carbon
emissions and ways to reducethose emissions, and biofuels is
the easiest way for them to dothat, the quickest way.
So now our market.
With all that being said andall that backstory, we're
looking at about a 5 billiongallon renewable fuel market for
what we call now thebiomass-based diesel sector, and
(08:24):
the biomass-based diesel sectorincludes and the biomass-based
diesel sector includes biodiesel.
It also includes renewablediesel and it includes a little
bit and probably more so in thefuture sustainable aviation fuel
.
So that's the biomass-baseddiesel sector and I think I
remember back in those days, Ithink the goal American Soybean
Association and others weresaying, oh, if we could just get
(08:46):
to a billion gallons.
We could just get to a billiongallons, that would be great.
You know and see, becausebecause really, if you, if you
remember, the impetus for all ofthis comes back to back before
my time.
But the farmers and the soybeanfarmers, the leadership in the
soybean associations were in theearly 90s looking around the
(09:07):
room and there's a littleproduct known as biodiesel.
It wasn't very well known.
Europe had been dabbling withit a little bit, but we had
excess supplies of soybean oilon the market and we had soybean
oil that was literally goingrancid in storage in some of the
soy crush facilities becausethey didn't have a home for it.
It was so cheap.
(09:27):
They were basically giving itaway and they looked at we had
to develop more markets for thisproduct because that was
holding down the opportunity tocrush more soybeans.
It was limiting farmers sellingopportunities.
And you remember the soybeancheckoff programs.
The national program started in1991.
(09:48):
So you had that now in place.
So you had a mechanism now toprovide the research, the market
development, all that kind ofstuff that you really needed.
You had to pass all the rulesand regulations.
You had to get engine approvalsfrom the different engine
manufacturers.
All that had to happen, and sothe farmers sitting around the
room made some good strategicdecisions and made these
(10:10):
investments, and over time ittook a while, but over time
those things started to grow andpay off into what we are today.
And now this biomass-baseddiesel industry is adding about
13% on average to the net marketvalue of the price of soybeans.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So to follow that up with.
So we've talked about.
You know we were hoping at onetime we could get to a billion
gallons.
You know now we're talking, youmay mention five.
You know five billion gallonsor where we're at with renewable
, what currently in biodieselthat we have going about those
plants.
How many bushel or do you havean estimate of how many bushel
of beans gets positioned intothat specifically through that
(10:54):
standpoint, do you have any idea?
I know that's an awful lot ofquestions.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
That's a tough number to actually give a direct
number on, because we're talkingjust the oil component of the
bushel of beans.
Say, that is roughly 30 to 40percent of the soybean oil right
now that we're currentlyproducing through our soy
(11:18):
processing sector.
The crush sector is going intothe biomass-based diesel
marketplace, and so you know, ofcourse we're talking when you
talk soybeans, we're talkingabout meal and oil.
And I will still say bottomline is the marketplace is still
driven by the demand forprotein and the demand for the
soybean meal.
That still drives it.
(11:40):
But now that we've increased thevalue of the soybean oil, which
was the lower value component,the food market is also the
number one market consumer still, but that's fairly stagnant.
It's not growing that much.
Very small percent, 1% or so ayear.
And you've got so muchcompetition from various
vegetable oils from around theworld the tropical oils of palm
(12:02):
and coconut oil, the other seedoils like canola, sunflower,
sunseed and then corn oil cancome into the into play and some
others as well.
So, um, it's, it's adding a lotof value because it's raising
the value of the price of thesoybean oil and that's improving
the, the opportunity to crushmore soybeans.
(12:23):
Uh, and that's then what it doesin return is it puts more
soybean meal on the market andactually lowers the value or
lowers the cost or the price ofthe soybean meal relative to
what it otherwise would havebeen.
Because supply and demand we'reputting more supply of meal on
the marketplace, so it'sactually helping reduce feed
costs, reduce food costs, reduceprotein costs.
So that's why you know we talkabout how that just adds a lot
(12:46):
of value and that's why we'reseeing more crush plants being
built and so it's using a lot ofsoybeans.
It's a big part of our overallmarketplace, but of course it's
a marketplace that's amulti-segmented place and we
have lots of products that comeoff of the soybean when we crush
it.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, that's something that's.
You make mention of that.
Over here in Nebraska, whereI'm at, that's something that
we're getting.
More soybean crush plants arecoming in, and it's not only a
nice avenue for marketing oursoybeans with, but with the
amount of livestock we have tooin the Midwest, that soybean
meal is a very importantcomponent of that too.
So it's exciting to see what'scoming in some of those avenues
(13:26):
in the next couple, three years.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
So yeah, I mean specifically to talk about that
further.
We have seen something we'venever seen in the industry in
probably 70 years this massiveincrease in the US crush
capacity.
It had been fairly stagnant fora long time.
Seen for the biomass-baseddiesel industry, biodiesel,
(13:50):
renewable diesel, aviation fuel.
We have seen an increase in newcrush plants being built.
There's several that have beenbuilt in the last couple of
years.
There's several more that arebeing constructed now and a few
more on top of that that are onthe drawing board to be built.
But when it's all said and done,probably within between the
(14:12):
last couple of years and thenlooking forward, maybe through
the next three or four years, wecan see roughly a 30% increase
in the U S crush capacity.
Uh, which is pretty, prettyamazing.
And saying that in another way,that's about another 600
million bushels of crush thatwill be added to the US
(14:33):
marketplace and that's going tobe more.
It means better basis for thefarmers in your area.
You're going to get better cashprices because you're going to
have more local delivery pointsthat you can sell your soybeans
to, because you're going to getmore when you can sell it more,
the more local you can sell it.
Typically when you have thesestronger demands, the better the
price is going to be.
(14:53):
And then you know we have toexport the meal.
We have demand for mealdomestically, but that's also
growing at a fairly slow rate.
So a lot of that meal is goingto have to be exported.
A lot of the oil is going to gostill the food sector and then
the growing biomass-based dieselsector.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, grant, just wow .
I mean a lot of exciting timesahead, right?
You put all that together, alot of things going on there.
So last month I sit on theAgribusiness Association of Iowa
board as the certified cropadvisor rep on that board and we
got a great partnership withthe Soybean Association, all the
other associations and we kindof went through all of our, our,
(15:32):
our priorities for the upcomingyear and you know, here we are
in 2025.
So, so, as we think throughbasically all the soybean
production, that that we'refocused on this podcast and
we're thinking about, you know,improving ROI, we're thinking
about everything that happens toall of the producers the
producers, the cooperatives, theelevators, everybody that's
buying and selling soybeanswithin our listenership.
(15:55):
Here we talked about oil, wetalked about protein, but when
you think about the composition,how does that influence our end
users and their profitabilityand then also the overall
profitability of the crushers?
So you think about soybean mealgoing into poultry, swine,
seafood we got some fish and andshrimp that gets used and
(16:15):
obviously we talk about oil andbiodiesel.
So how's?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
that all kind of play together.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Uh, from from a grower perspective, on how they
can, you know, potentiallyproduce better soybeans.
Uh, kind of from yourperspective yeah, uh, good
question.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Um, I would say you, ultimately we have to continue
to grow more soybeans, andthat's the bottom line, and, of
course, as farmers we all knowat this time anyway, we get paid
primarily based off of yield.
Now there is certain valuecomponents and quality
components that are veryimportant, and we want to
(16:50):
maintain that, and that's kindof a function of working through
that discussion with the seedindustry, talking about genetics
and so forth, and so that'spart of it.
Environment makes a difference,weather makes a difference.
Latitude north to south, eastto west can make a difference on
(17:11):
protein and oil content ofindividual varieties of beans,
and so that matters.
And so, you know, farmers, ingeneral some of that's a little
bit outside of their control,because that's more of a
function of where they grow thebeans and what the weather's
like and what the genetics arethat they're getting from their
seed supplier.
But we do encourage farmers topay attention to that though,
(17:33):
and more seed companies arestarting to list kind of the
average protein and oil contentpotential for certain varieties.
Certain varieties tend to havemaybe a little higher protein or
a little higher oil, so there'ssome differences there and that
might be a discussion that youmight pay attention to down the
road if your local soy processoror your local co-op decides
(17:54):
that they might pay a little bitof a premium for higher oil
content or higher proteincontent soybeans, and that might
be a case by case and region byregion kind of situation.
You know, we talk about higholeic soybean oil.
You know those.
That's another nicheopportunity, you know.
So a little bit along thoselines.
Uh, just to monitor, payattention to that, that kind of
(18:15):
thing, um, and ultimately yieldsimportant and we want to, we
want to continue to grow moreand and um, you know, but we've
always talked about, you know,roughly 80% of the bean is going
to be the, the protein and theand the and the carb
carbohydrate portion, and thenthe 20% is going to be oil, and
so we're going to continue towant to make sure that we have
(18:36):
good average oil content andgood average protein content and
I think the marketplace willtell us over time and tell the
industry over time do we need tomake some slight adjustments
one way or the other?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, no, thanks, graham, for that.
I couldn't agree more with whatyou said.
So I'm going to sneak in aquestion here, as you have been
a world traveler here over thepast.
Well, whatever your career,you've been globally with
production, you know, I think,philippines you mentioned
earlier before we startedrecording here and China and
(19:17):
things like that.
So can you speak a little bitabout that kind of what they're
looking at from that perspectiveon oil and protein and kind of
what they're seeing, if they'reseeing some of the same things
that we're doing here in theStates?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yeah, so I'll talk about that a little bit.
In the soy industry we arereally dependent on exports.
We export on average about 60%of the US soybean production.
So you know we're using about40, a little over 40% here
domestically in the variousmarkets that we talked about the
(19:48):
livestock markets and thebiofuel and food markets but
we're using a good share.
The rest of that is goingoverseas because 95% of the
world lives outside of ourborders, in the US.
So we've got to be able to dotrade and that's a major
priority for the US soy industryand the soybean associations
through our variousorganizations and networks.
(20:10):
So we work with an organizationcalled the US Soybean Export
Council.
They're the internationalexport arm of the US soy
industry.
The soybean associations fromthe state and the national, like
us, are members of theirs andsupporters.
We provide funding to do thepromotion, the research, the
demonstration projects and theother trade servicing
initiatives.
But we also work with the USsoy exporters.
(20:34):
The seed industry has been apart of that as well and been
members of theirs.
We're engaged in biotechapproval processes around the
world.
Those things are important inorder to have access to markets.
But you know, the soy exporterswho are also members of USEC
were working together and intotal we have either offices
(20:57):
full-time staff or consultantspart-time consultants working on
behalf of the US soybean farmerand US soybean exporting
industry in well over I thinkthe last numbers I saw was well
over 82 countries around theworld.
Numbers I saw was well over 82countries around the world, and
that's because we've got toexport in the form of whole
beans, soybean meal and evensome soybean oil is going
(21:18):
overseas.
And so, yeah, we go around theworld quite often to meet with
our customers and our buyers tounderstand what's important to
them, understand their market.
Every market's different and,as I've learned over time,
personal relationships meansomething to a a lot of these
buyers some buyers more and somebuyers less, and price in the
(21:39):
end is still what's reallyimportant.
But quality is important,consistency is important,
reliability of a supplier isimportant, and then the
relationships, and so we takefarmers to visit with these
customers overseas.
We bring the customers back tothe United States to visit our
farms, to visit our seedcompanies, to visit our co-ops
and our soy processors and ourexporters and our ports and our
(22:00):
facilities, and so it's a valuechain link that we have to
connect those dots and worktogether on, and we're doing
feed demonstration projects,we're doing market access
programs around the world andthose are the kinds of things we
do.
And so there's many, manyimportant markets and I'll just
take a step and go further onthat.
(22:20):
If you want to look at the wholebean markets around the world,
china by far is our number onemarket.
Most of us know that in theindustry they got 1.4 billion
people.
They have an affinity for pork.
They like their pork, they liketheir pork, they like their
chicken, they like their fish.
(22:42):
They have a high demand forprotein and that's because their
economy has been pretty goodover time.
As they move more people intothe middle class level of an
income, people desire to eatmore meat and more protein in
their diet.
And that's exactly what'shappened in China over time,
which the US soy industry hasbeen operating in China since
1982, well before anybody everthought that they would be there
.
But the foresight of the earlyfounders of our industry has
(23:05):
developed that industry andgrown that opportunity quite a
bit.
But Mexico is another veryimportant market next to our
neighbor, japan's very important, you know the EU as a block is
still a viable and strong market.
Indonesia, taiwan, you know,and I go to Egypt, I go down the
list and those are whole beanmarkets.
And then we look at othermarket segments and you're
(23:27):
talking about soybean meal andthat's as we process more
soybeans here in the US.
Those are other markets, whichhelps us diversify so we're not
only dependent on China, youknow, when it comes to whole
beans, so we can ship more as weget more demand for soybean oil
domestically.
That helps us diversify wherewe can export soybean meal
(23:49):
internationally and other places.
And of course, those soybeanmeal export markets that are
really key for us is thePhilippines, which I visited
here just in December, and youknow that's a key market.
They value the consistency andreliability of US soybean meal.
They're willing to pay apremium for it too, which is
(24:10):
great, and we love that.
They're loyal customers.
Mexico is the same way Veryimportant when you talk about
soybean meal.
Columbia, central Americancountries are important.
Canada is important, and thenyou go down the list, even down
to some other Southeast Asiancountries like Vietnam, growing
dynamic market.
They have a young population, alot of those Southeast Asian
(24:32):
countries they have.
Probably over 60% of theirpopulation is under 35 years old
and they're increasing theirincomes as well.
They're improving their dietsand they're growing and that's
making a big difference.
Morocco, middle East, northAfrica there's some important
markets there too.
So that's kind of a trip aroundthe world there real quick but
(24:54):
very important markets and wehave to continue.
Marketing is never one and done.
It's a constant process,process and people who you're
interacting with are changing.
People are moving intodifferent positions that the key
buyers and customers are goingto be different over time.
So it's a constant process.
So we have to constantly engagein in in when we're trying to
develop and facilitate theseinternational markets for for
(25:17):
soybeans and soybean meal yeah,no grant, that's.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah.
There's a lot of, a lot ofthings behind the scenes that we
just don't realize.
That go on in a lot of thisfrom that standpoint.
So, with that being said, notto get political here, we've
just come through a newpresidency.
We'll be starting here in a fewweeks.
We've been hearing a lot oftalk about tariffs.
(25:44):
We've been hearing a lot oftalks about this and that.
What is going to be the future?
I know you don't have a crystalball for it, but what will the
future for exports and importshave on soybean production in
the US?
We always talk about Brazil fora lot of things, but what their
production do.
(26:04):
But you know, what do we seegoing forward from an exports
and imports on that soybeanproduction in the future?
Anything you can kind of tellus.
I know there's a lot of fluidsituation obviously and a lot of
unknowns, but if you can giveus any insight or foresight
there, yeah, that's a goodquestion and also to think
through.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
And while, while, um, you know, there's lots of
different things going on hereand and I feel like agriculture
sort of is um, and and and extra, we're kind of on the outside
of this, but we're we're tied toit and connected to it, but
we're not directly in the middleof of what what's being talked
about.
Yeah, there's trade challengeswith China and there's some
(26:47):
trade challenges with otherparts of the world and there's
talk of, you know, we've got toprotect our markets and our
domestic manufacturing sectorand that's, I think, driving a
lot of this trade and tariff andrebalancing trade.
And we do have a trade deficitwith China and many other
countries around the world.
We are a major importing nationfrom a big picture standpoint,
(27:12):
overall economic standpoint.
Now, agriculture happens to bethe one bright spot when it
comes to, for the most part, anet trade surplus.
The other way, we havebenefited from growth in export
markets around the world wherewe benefited from free trade
agreements.
We benefited from some of theglobalization that's happened in
(27:34):
trade and and and moving moreof our excessive products that
we, you know, as farmers and asseed industry folks, we've been
really good at developing highvalue, very resilient genetics,
great production practices andwe've continuous improvement,
(27:54):
sustainability, all those things, and we're growing more than we
can consume.
So we're engaging around theworld and when it comes to the
trade side, we can.
We can benefit from that too ifit's done in a certain way.
You know, we sometimes get tradebarriers thrown up against us.
There's a lot of protectionistpolicies and places like India
(28:15):
that don't allow us access tothat market as well.
China will sometimes throw up abarrier if they want to
temporarily slow things down,and so we need and we need more
fair trade, and I think that'swhat this whole tariff trade
debate is about, and we get that.
We understand that.
That's important.
The one thing that does concernus sometimes is then when we
get into these things andsometimes it gets to be, you
(28:38):
know, we have to put tariffs inplace and trying to negotiate a
better deal.
Then the other countries ifthey're not willing to do that
right away, there's retaliationand we get retaliated, and
usually the first thing thatforeign countries like to
retaliate against us because weare so proficient of an export
agriculture export country.
(28:59):
They go after export ag exportsand they go after farmers, and
so we get tariffs put in placeon us, and you know.
So that's the challenge to thison the China side.
You know 2018 we've beenthrough this before.
We kind of know, I think, morewhat to expect at this point.
And you know that trade war wassomewhat costly for us as a US
(29:21):
soybean industry.
During that time, we did loseabout $27 billion in lost
exports markets for USagriculture in general not just
soybeans, but all of agriculturebecause of the retaliatory
tariffs that we had to deal withand, of course, that lasted a
couple years.
On the soybean export side, wesaw our exports decline.
(29:41):
So put this in perspective weexport about 30, had been
exporting about 35 millionmetric tons of soybeans to China
, and we lost about 16 millionmetric tons, so got cut in about
half during that trade war timebecause of the retaliation.
And then China tried to go toBrazil and Argentina to get
(30:02):
their supplies and they did fora period of time.
They couldn't do it all becausetheir demand's so big, but they
did cut it back some.
Now we since then got a phaseone trade deal that was put into
place, that was negotiated andthat turned out to be a really
good deal, and then our exportsreally rebounded and bounced
back for a period of time.
Now they're starting to trailoff again.
(30:24):
I don't think that phase onetrade deal really got enforced
that much by this lastadministration and wasn't paid
attention to as much.
And then you know, china'seconomy, of course, has suffered
.
I think in the news we're allpretty familiar with the real
estate bubble that the Chinesehave gone through and that's
hurt their economy.
Of course, covid, they're still, I think, having a hangover
(30:47):
from that because they didlockdowns for a lot longer than
the rest of the world.
So that's still bothering us alittle bit.
So I think, going forward, youknow what we're going to see.
I think what we would hope as asoybean industry is that we
could use the tariffs as a wayto negotiate some better
opportunities and hopefully bothsides know that everybody's
serious and we can move forwardquicker, not have this drag out
(31:11):
quite as long, and maybe go backto the phase one trade deal,
maybe make it better, maybe geta phase two trade deal in place
and see things rebound.
When it comes to China, mexicoand Canada, those are different
issues.
They've been brought up hererecently.
You know they're very importantmarkets for us too, there are
next door neighbors, so we hopethat we have a USMCA agreement
(31:33):
that was negotiated last timeand we hope that that can be
enforced.
And if there's some tweaks thatneed to be made, and maybe
that's where the, the tariffdiscussion comes in place.
And of course, the, theimmigration issue we all know
about, but again, nothingdirectly related to agriculture,
but we're going to be impactedby it.
So we hope that all the sidescome together quickly and they
(31:53):
can come up with a solution tocontinue to allow access to
markets for everybody involvedand we can continue to move
forward.
And that's going to be thechallenge, the crystal ball.
There's a chance that we mightgo through a little I don't know
a better word to describe itbut a little difficulty in a
short period of time here whenwe first get going on that.
But we're hoping that longerterm that can get resolved and
(32:15):
it can end up being a net better, a net gain for us, hopefully
over time.
But it's a lot of things outsideof our control and as an
industry, a soy industry, we'rejust educating the new
administration and the Congressabout what is so important to us
here and why we need trade, weneed more trade.
We need more bilateral tradeagreements put into place, and I
(32:35):
think the Trump administrationlast time liked to do those.
They want to do more of those.
They don't necessarily want todo the big multilateral trade
agreement with lots of countries, but they'd like to do
one-on-one trade agreements.
That's fine.
We need to do more of those,and that would be great to give
us more market access to othercountries around the world.
And, as I said earlier in mymind, india would be a great new
opportunity because, while thatmarket has potential with their
(32:57):
population, we just don't havemuch access to it right now.
And of course, they don't eatpork, but they do eat chicken
and and so there's stillopportunity there in fish.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
So we'll see what happens.
A lot to be determined here inthe next 12 months.
Yeah, grant, well, well said, Imean that's kind of why you
know we targeted this episodefor the first episode of the
year 2025, because this is socritical for everything we're
trying to do.
And you know, obviously you hitit on the head earlier you know
we've got to increase yields.
You know that's a big piece ofthe puzzle going forward here.
But you know global marketing Imean a lot of things going on
(33:35):
that you know a lot of listenersdon't get to hear about very
often.
So I guess, the final comments,any other areas to discuss.
And then one other thing iskind of you know how do people
get involved?
Get in contact with you ifthey've got more questions or
issues or things like that.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Yeah, I mean I guess I just add on to what I've said
too so what you said as well wehave to grow, continue to grow
and we have to compete.
I mean Brazil and Argentina andSouth America is our
competition, and so we have tocompete.
I mean Brazil and Argentina andSouth America is our
competition, and so we have tocompete with them.
We need to, you know, we needto continue to maintain our
soybean supplies, and while itlooks like we have a lot of
(34:13):
supply of soybeans globally herethis next year, we can't back
down from Brazil.
They're going to expand andgrow, but they have a lot of
challenges too.
We have some advantages overthem.
They have some advantages overus, but one thing that we need
to continue to improve on as anindustry is our transportation
logistics structure here in theUnited States.
(34:34):
That has been an advantage.
Brazil is closing that gap onus a little bit.
So we need to continue to makemore investments as a country,
and so we have to talk to ourand I encourage all farmers to
talk to your, get involvedlocally, talk to your
legislators, talk to yourcongressional representatives
and senators, your governors.
Everybody say how importantglobal trade is, but then how we
(34:56):
need to compete is we need tobe cost competitive around the
world and that's through ourtransportation logistics.
We need to make moreinvestments in our waterways,
our locks and dam structure,port structure.
The soy industry has providedsome funding in partnership with
various entities to dredge thelower Mississippi River up to
(35:19):
Baton Rouge to a deeper depth sowe can bring ocean-going
vessels further up theMississippi, which then reduces
the cost to transport soybeans,load and ship soybeans around
the world.
We've worked with soy crusherslike AGP to provide some funding
and then work to help securesome federal and state grants to
do an additional port expansionat the Port of Grays Harbor in
(35:42):
Aberdeen, washington, where itwill double the export capacity
to ship soybean meal.
That'll be a dedicated soybeanmeal export terminal.
So instead of 3 million metrictons, which is currently
approximately what gets shippedout of that terminal today,
it'll get doubled up to 6million tons and, putting that
perspective, we'd only had beenexporting about 14 million tons
of soybean meal.
(36:02):
So we need and with more mealproduction, with new crush
capacity, we're going to have toexport a whole lot more meal,
probably another eight to 10million tons, and so we need to
increase that capacity.
There's been increased capacityin the Port of Houston with the
Anderson's group has put in, isexpanding that facility and
other facilities around theworld or around the country.
(36:23):
So those things, talk to your.
Get involved as farmers.
Get involved with your locallegislators.
Get involved with yourcongressional delegation.
Tell the importance of trade.
Tell them what you do.
Tell your story.
Tell how sustainable ourproduction practices are these
days.
We've made constant improvementsin how we grow soybeans using
cover crops, using bettertechnology, the seed genetics.
(36:44):
We're growing more with lessinputs.
Those are all stories we cantell.
And then how do we do that?
We continue to grow our biofuelmarket.
We need better RFS volumeobligation numbers that the EPA
can put out every year.
Those are things ourcongressional delegation can do
and as farmers, we can advocatefor.
We need export market access toexport markets.
(37:06):
All those things are importantand that's what we do as a
soybean association, soybeanindustry.
We're advocating on behalf ofof the farmer, and I'm a farmer,
you guys are farmers, we'redoing it.
It makes it as personal for me.
So we're trying to grow theopportunity so we have a better
future for our, not only for ourcurrent operations but for our
(37:27):
future operations in the nextgeneration, and so those are the
things that we will continue todo, and you know we're happy to
talk to people.
Get involved with your statesoybean association and your
other agriculture commoditygroups.
Those are important.
Reach out to us.
We're happy to talk anytime andwant to get you involved in any
way.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Grant, thank you so very much.
Well said so, Jeff.
I'll turn it to you.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, grant, thank you very much, appreciate you
taking the time with us.
Everything you brought intoperspective a whole lot of
things I didn't realize, a wholelot of things that I didn't
know, and some of those thingsmake a lot more sense than they
did before we listened to this.
So thank you for your time andfor spending time with us on
(38:15):
this podcast, and reallyappreciate you giving your
insight.
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Thanks, guys, it's been fun.
Enjoy it.
Appreciate all you do for theindustry as well.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
All right, have a great day.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Thanks again, grant.
Again, happy new year, welcometo 2025.
Happy new year to you.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Thank you, you bet.
Have a good one.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Boom, boom, wow.
Oh man, I could sit and listento that guy for a couple hours,
get a few beers and get going, Ibet you.
It's just interesting, though,how interconnected this whole
world is, isn't it?
It all intertwines together andeverything.
(38:54):
We heard a lot of informationtoday.
What was a couple of the keytakeaways you learned and that
our producers can garner somevalue from?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Yeah, I alluded to it earlier.
Grant grant said it.
Great, I mean, we've gotincreased production right.
That is our number one thing,and that's really what this
podcast is about is.
Everything we've been talkingabout is increased production,
you know, but it's also aboutincreasing roi.
It's increasing everythingaround that.
But, but increased capacity too, and and you, and one that I
hadn't thought about really wasthe infrastructure right.
(39:27):
So that had been our reallyadvantage over Brazil, right,
and everything we're doing.
But we're getting aged.
We got some things that are notas good as they once were.
And you think about theMississippi over there, you
think about locks and dams, youthink about barge traffic, you
think about the rail system, youthink about everything that
we've got going on in the portsand and the.
(39:48):
You know I've had the privilegeto go to some of the ports and
see some of that stuff and it'sjust quite the operation to to
understand how this all isinfluenced.
So one one that I hadn'tthought about was, you know,
dredging the Mississippi so gladto hear.
And again, I think some of ourpractices that we're doing here
in ag, you know, to reduce, youknow, some of our erosion and
hopefully not send as much ofour great soil down that the old
(40:10):
, mighty mess, and take care ofthat perspective.
So that, and strategic globalmarketing.
You know, basically theincreased diet globally which
increases demand, and everythingaround protein, just thinking
about it that way.
But protein and oil, everythingaround that.
You think about the sustainableaviation fuel.
That's a big piece.
(40:31):
You hear a lot about that,going on with that and a lot of
things that are important there.
Really, just everything aroundour discussion today is critical
for everyone to understand.
So again, just getting involved, I think that's a big piece of
the puzzle.
A lot of people don't getinvolved and they take a lot of
what we do for granted.
So I encourage that as well andthat's one of the things that I
(40:52):
do, what I do on that board and, you know, sit and help provide
my insight to you know, tothose people on that board as
well.
So how about you, jeff?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, you know too.
You made a comment aboutincreasing production right,
Increasing what we have and thencapacity.
How many more acres do we haveto develop for farm ground?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
We're losing every year, right.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
It isn't about getting more acres out there.
It's about utilizing the acreswe have and getting better at
producing.
What we're doing on those acresand that's really the premise
behind this podcast has been thewhole time is getting out more
per acre, getting a higherreturn on investment.
I didn't know that around 60%of all soybeans are exported out
(41:39):
of the US.
I thought that was higher thanI thought it would be.
So that was quite interesting.
And then when Grant was talking,you just don't realize all the
marketing that you have to do,and it isn't just once, and I'm
not saying selling, but you haveto keep, you've got to keep
cultivating those relationships.
You know, and he talked about82 countries where they have
(42:00):
offices.
You know where they're doingthat.
So you think about all thisbehind the scenes that's going
on.
You know we think is just assimple as, yeah, take the truck
and you know, go, load the truckor load the barge and ship it
out and life's good.
You know there's so many thingsinvolved there.
And then again you said at theend and Grant really stressed it
get involved with your locallegislation, tell them, you know
what we need to do.
(42:21):
And and yeah, that that thattransportation thing really
caught me off guard and it'slike, yeah, because we have been
kind of neglecting it for along time and we don't have that
advantage anymore.
So we really need to make surethat's flowing smooth to make us
a nice, efficient operation.
So, with that being said, bill,anything else to add before we
sign off for this podcast?
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Nope Again.
Happy new year to everyone,Welcome to 2025.
And hopefully it's anothergreat one.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Absolutely, absolutely, same thing for me.
Again, to everybody listeningand to this podcast, thanks for
joining us today for, again, forthis episode of Spilling the
Beans.
As always, we invite you todownload this Grow Smart Live
app, where you can get a bunchof resources and you have more
resources there.
And Download this Grow SmartLive app, where you can get a
bunch of resources and you havemore resources there.
And, as always, we say hey, ifyou want to share this podcast
(43:09):
with other growers, weappreciate it, because the more
information we can get out thereand help farmers get a higher
return on investment, the betterit is for everyone.
So, with that being said, formyself and Bill, thank you again
for joining us for this episodeof Spilling the Beans, this
episode of Spilling the Beans.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoritepodcast platform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
(43:46):
Hemisphere, liberty Outlook.
Zidua, zidua Pro, ponchivo, tevo, endura, revitec, fastac, elevo
, valtaipeer, rilenia, reaxor,liberty Ultra and Varaxor are
trademarks or registeredtrademarks of BASF.
Citavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
is exclusively marketed by BASF.
Fasttax CS is a restricted-usepesticide.
(44:07):
Enlist E3 is jointly developedand owned by Corteva AgroScience
LLC and MS Technologies.
Enlist 1 and Enlist Duo areregistered trademarks of Corteva
AgroScience.
Always read and follow labeldirections.
Nemisphere, liberty Ultra andBraxor are not registered and
not available for sale.
This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
(44:28):
be based solely on theEPA-approved product label and
any claims regarding productsafety and efficacy shall be
addressed solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF.
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