By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite planting fewer soybean acres this year, in favor of corn – like much of the Midwest – Ohio wants to be on the front end of the planning and promotion of soy-based products through the next 13 years.

“Ohio, as a state, can either lead the industry or follow,” said Greg Hargett, deputy director of policy and marketing for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, as he addressed a roomful of soybean farmers and policy wonks in Columbus two weeks ago. “We choose to lead.”

Part of that choice is Ohio Soy 2020, a new spinoff of the national Soy 2020 program.

Soy 2020 began as a collaboration between the United Soybean Board (USB) and Monsanto.

According to USB, it was initially Monsanto’s idea to create a vision for the future of United States soybean production “that would ultimately drive success for soybeans despite what the future may hold.”

Funded by the national soybean checkoff, USB, Monsanto, Deere and Co., Farm Credit Council and the National Oilseed Producers Assoc., Soy 2020 began a year ago with a steering committee that, among other things, commissioned a study of the national soybean industry from ABG of Indianapolis, Ind.

“We did not want the end result to be a binder that sat on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust,” said John Becherer, CEO of USB. “We wanted a living, breathing vision.”

The Ohio Soybean Council (OSC) decided it wanted something similar, said executive director John Lumpe, and voted in June to commission a statewide study – also from ABG – presented in Columbus on Aug. 9. This study, said John Demerly of ABG, has a “shelf life” good for about a year.

New ideas

For at least the past few years, Ohio has consistently ranked sixth in U.S. soybean production – including projected bushels recently announced for 2007 by USDA – and in 2005 it was the state’s top agricultural commodity, placing ahead of corn, dairy and hogs.
Soy 2020 and Ohio Soy 2020 presume the demand for soy oil will push increased need for the beans into the future. Current speculation usually focuses on its role in domestic biodiesel – fair enough, given that Demerly pointed out in 1999, there were only one million gallons of soy biodiesel produced nationwide, compared to 250 million gallons last year.

Demerly, a business development manager whose family grows soybeans and corn in northern Indiana, said between now and 2020, it’s easier to estimate soy production for the next eight years than after that.

“Beyond 2015, it gets a little fuzzy,” he admitted. “There was a time you could look out 3-5 years and have a pretty good idea where you were going. That’s not possible today; it’s kind of fuzzy.”

He explained the point of the Soy 2020 initiative is to plan for possible scenarios in soybean production and consumption. “You plan for the things you know are going to happen,” he said – such as the growth of the middle class worldwide, a population segment likely to demand and be able to pay for more soy.

Hargett cited ways in which Ohio government is fostering renewable fuel usage, including funding fuel cell development for businesses, universities and nonprofits and requiring state agencies to purchase vehicles capable of burning renewable fuels when possible.

According to the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), as of June, Ohio had six active biodiesel plants, four of which are exclusively supplied by soy oil (the other two are multi-feedstock). Only three other states have more soy-only plants.

NBB also listed two Ohio plants under construction, but according to OSC, there are 13 additional soy facilities proposed. The four online have a total capacity of 67.5 million gallons, or nearly 5 percent of the nation’s soy biodiesel production capacity. (It should be noted capacity is not necessarily the same as output.)

“Ohio was quick to realize the potential of soy biodiesel, and invested in research,” Becherer said.

This summer, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill to create a statewide task force to help promote agriculture in polymers production. It is expected the state Senate will vote similarly this fall.

In fact, this year’s Ohio State Fair included a display – sponsored by four state ag-based organizations – of the new Ford Model U concept car, which uses ag-based polymers for basic components from seats and carpet to tire filler. Ford is also using soy/petroleum foam on a larger scale, in the seats of its 2008 Mustangs, and has stated it may use the foam in other models.

‘Sexy’ soy

More than one farmer commented on the importance of capitalizing on the “sexy,” or popularity, of interest in soybeans for these previously-unorthodox uses, to drive soy’s future. But they also acknowledged more old-fashioned concerns such as eating.

“At the end of the day, livestock still use 90-some-odd percent of your product,” Bart Johnson, a farmer and publisher of Ohio’s Country Journal, said. His point was that soybean growers should continue to focus on key clients even as they’re courting new industries.

ABG’s study pointed out because of growth in renewable fuels, feed prices have “risen dramatically” in the past five years. Nationally, ABG’s research shows poultry consume the bulk of soy meal and this has increased slightly since 2000 – in Ohio, poultry is the fastest-growing part of the state’s animal agriculture. Statistics from the American Soybean Assoc. state nationwide, soy meal accounts for approximately 90 percent of all livestock oilseed meals.

Though Soy 2020 is attempting to bring together several states and companies, Demerly said there is still competition among them.

“I think a major factor of all this is that it’s kind of hard to implement strategies nationally,” he said, advising local farmers it’s also good to think of one’s own future in the grand scheme of things. “Other states are jealous of what Ohio has; use it to your advantage.”