Producers see for themselves how checkoff dollars are spent
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 02/18/2010 11:24 AM
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Twenty-five people from Minnesota followed the path soybeans may take after they leave the farm on a "See for Yourself" mission organized by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.
The participants left Minnesota on Jan. 25 and returned Jan. 29 after visiting the Port of New Orleans and the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta.
Visiting the port was eye-opening for Fairmont, Minn., corn and soybean grower Lawrence Sukalski.
"I've never got to go to a port and watch them unload the barges," he said.
They visited a CHS facility where 250 million bushels of grain a year are unloaded from barges onto ships and a Bunge facility where 360 million bushels a year are unloaded and loaded, he said.
The infrastructure was unbelievable, Sukalski said, with cameras going while the barge is emptied, recording everything. Everything was weighed and quality was monitored, he said.
The barges are unloaded with a system similar to a giant grain leg, said Claremont corn and soybean grower Bruce Schmoll. When most of the cargo is out, a skid loader is put into the barge by a crane to push the grain closer to the leg's huge buckets. Finally, the barge is broomed out.
A barge carries 600,000 bushels and that can be unloaded in an hour, Schmoll said. A Panamax vessel carries 2 million bushels, which is equal to 50,000 acres of soybeans, he said.
They also toured an area where they were loading and unloading containers, said Bruce Peterson, a Northfield farmer.
In the last couple months, the volume going through the port has been 90 percent soybeans, he said. Normally, it's closer to half corn and soybeans, Peterson said.
Paynesville dairy producer and Minnesota Turkey Growers Association ag program specialist Lisa Reeck said she knew international markets were important, but she didn't know the specifics before the trip.
"I learned that China is the No. 1 export market for U.S. soybeans, with almost 25 percent of the entire U.S. soybean crop going to China," Reeck said.
As late as 17 to 18 years ago, China was exporting soybeans, Peterson said.
The Minnesotans met with a delegation of 20 Chinese feed buyers at the Port of New Orleans. China is the world's No. 1 poultry producer. It also has growing aquaculture and pork industries.
As income rises in other countries, they can afford and want more protein in their diet, Schmoll said. That bodes well for U.S. soybean producers.
"We can't use all of our soybeans here," said Schmoll, who is secretary of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.
See for Yourself participants saw the demand for feed for poultry production at the International Poultry Expo.
Sukalski said he heard 12,000 to 18,000 people attended the Expo.
Each room was about the size of the Metrodome, Schmoll said. One room contained feed handling equipment and the other room, production equipment.
Peterson said he spent one day just going through the grain handling room.
While at the Expo, each person took a turn at the United States Soybean Export Council booth. They were also able to meet with trade teams from Egypt, Turkey and Iraq.
They were supposed to meet with the trade teams for 90 minutes, but the discussion ran to two hours, Sukalski said.
One of the Egyptian buyers asked Schmoll if he could buy direct from him. He buys 200,000 metric tons of soybeans a year for his wife's poultry facility. That's 7.3 million bushels of soybeans, he said.
National Agricultural Statistics Service numbers say 264 million bushels of soybeans were grown in Minnesota in 2008.
The foreign visitors asked a lot of questions, said Jeff Tank, a farm manager from Hayfield, Minn. They wanted to know farm size, how farmers make decisions, if farmers are able to decide what crops they plant and how they insure their crops.
They also wanted to know about equipment size, number of employees and where the price of soybeans is headed, said Bill Zurn, president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and a Callaway, Minn., farmer.
Working at the the USSEC booth was also interesting, Sukalski said. People from China, Egypt, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates stopped by during his hour in the booth. People who spoke those languages from USSEC were able to communicate with them.
The USSEC benefits producers by reaching out and finding markets, Schmoll said. Buyers don't come to the United States without outreach efforts like those of USSEC, he said.
Learning about how the checkoff is spent is the reason behind the trip. The Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council pays for the trip, with a goal of teaching farmers how their checkoff is invested and spent.
The soybean checkoff is one half of 1 percent of the sale price of soybeans. Half of the money collected stays in Minnesota and half goes to the United Soybean Board. USSEC is also funded through checkoff dollars.
Tank applied to go on the trip to learn more about the checkoff.
"I made the trip to get a better idea of our soybean checkoff dollars at work and to see first-hand some of the things that are being done with our soybean checkoff dollars," he said.
The checkoff does add up and it is fairly complex in how the money is handled, Peterson said.
"I was impressed with what I saw and the broad scope of activities they're doing," he said.
The MSR&PC sponsors three See for Yourself trips per year. One is an international research trip, another is a domestic marketing and new uses trip and the third is international marketing.
"I commend Minnesota Soybean for sponsoring a well-run program that lets people see how their checkoff dollars are being invested," Reeck said.