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Soybean Farmers Share Opinions on Market Issues and Challenges

Posted on: Monday, 12 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Anne Cook, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Jun. 12--MANSFIELD -- Farmers meeting at Ken Dalenberg's Mansfield area farm recently reviewed soybean market issues and challenges.

And there are some big ones.

"The biggest challenge now is how soybeans will compete in the market," said John Reifsteck, who farms in the rural Champaign area. "We have ethanol plants going in everywhere. Corn yields are going up faster than soybean yields. Can soybeans compete with corn?"

"Most of us in the room are struggling with the same question: Why plant soybeans next year?" said Vince Reincke, who farms in the Tuscola area.

Lyle Roberts, head of the Illinois Soybean Association and its checkoff board, said the organization holds about four meetings a year all over the state so farmers can express their concerns and priorities for the checkoff dollars that help pay for soy research.

"These are listening sessions because we need to know what farmers think," Roberts said. "It's a forum to give everyone a chance to talk about what's important to them."

"There's work to be done," said Dalenberg, a member of the association and checkoff boards, which were combined last year. "Should we leave the research to private companies or keep it in the public domain? We spend up to 45 percent of the checkoff budget on research. " Wayne Pedersen, a retired University of Illinois agronomist, said the UI relies heavily on checkoff funds contributed by farmers through the checkoff board.

Pedersen said UI scientists depend heavily on checkoff money for their research, so farmers' concerns help determine what direction that research takes.

"If you look at that research, most if it's defensive," Pedersen said. "We're looking at resistance and breeding programs for traits that help prevent diseases like rust. We don't see a push for higher yields because you're not funding it. We're trying to prevent yield loss."

Pedersen also had some advice for farmers who are worried about devastating diseases like rust, which did a lot of damage in South America and has shown up in the U.S. in Louisiana.

"The probability of us getting rust in Illinois is not good," he said. "There are a lot of sources of resistance and I wouldn't be putting a lot of money into rust work. Wait and see, and if it shows up, put fungicide on it. We're better off here with scouting systems and sentinel plots. Programs studying rust would be better done in Florida, where it's more likely to show up."

"But if it comes, my profit margin on beans is gone," Reincke said.

Ken Baize, a Washington-based consultant, offered perspective on another soy-based product: biodiesel made from soybean oil.

"Biodiesel's a tool to keep stocks down, a niche product," Baize said. "If we took the entire vegetable oil supply in the U.S., we couldn't supply all the country's fuel needs."

"About 76 percent of soy oil goes into human food.," Roberts said. "Our goal is to get 10 percent of diesel use. We have 14 potential production plants going in in Illinois ranging in size from 1 million to 50 million gallons."

He said Danville is one potential location, although Bunge Milling has run into opposition siting the plant near downtown.

The men also discussed new potential for another soy product: the meal.

"It's a huge area of investment, but 90 percent of the growth is outside the U.S.," Roberts said.

Baize said industry representatives are working to show fish farmers in Asia how to fit soy meal into their feeding programs.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News-Gazette

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