INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) have released a three-year strategic plan on how to best use checkoff dollars from the state’s corn and soybean farmers.

The plan focuses on four areas: market development, sustainability, value creation and producer engagement. Over the past 11 months, six farmer leaders and five staff worked on the plan, said Courtney Kingery, CEO of the organizations. The plan was announced Oct. 23.

As a part of the process, the committee sought input from industry stakeholders, academia, not-for-profits, customers and sister organizations, she said.

“This is not an ‘elf on the shelf’ strategic plan,” Kingery explained. “These four strategic focus areas will be the way by which the farmer leaders will direct, manage and engage the success of the organization. It’s going to be the way by which we communicate out to the growers and producer engagement. It’s going to be the way by which we talk about our programs and projects and talk about our successes. This is becoming the new language of the organization.”

ISA and ICMC are developing programs and activities that bring value back to the state’s 20,000 corn and soybean growers, she noted. “Indiana’s corn and soybean farmers continue to grow the crops that are transformed into food, feed, fuel and industrial products that are used every day.”

Committee members debated the title “market development,” said Mark Legan, an ISA director from Putnam County. “Some of us wanted to call it ‘moving the pile’ because, in essence, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re really good at growing corn and soybeans here in Indiana. From time to time, we can accumulate pretty large carryovers of those stocks. What we’re trying to do in the market development area is move the pile.”

The number one objective for market development, from the soybean standpoint, is to increase meat and poultry exports into targeted countries, he stated. Livestock, particularly pork, and poultry are the top markets for soybeans in the form of soybean meal. The organizations are targeting such countries as South Korea, China, Japan, Mexico and Colombia.

The trade war with China has shown the importance of market diversification, Legan pointed out. Whether meat exports or soybean-product exports, it’s important “we don’t put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak,” he said.

The plan also highlights the opportunities in biodiesel, not only as a fuel for tractors and trucks, but as a heating fuel, Legan said.

The strategic initiatives for corn are to increase market access and grow international and domestic demand in all forms – export demand, ethanol demand and livestock feed, he added.

The sustainability initiative has three tiers – environmental, social and economic – said Josh Miller, ICMC president and Madison County farmer. The organizations hope to see more farmers use cover crops, no-till and conservation tillage, and to become more successful at those practices, he said.

A lot of farmers are using these practices already, Miller noted. “We have a lot of farmers that have a lot of respect for the soil and for keeping the soil healthy. We just want to help bring that forth to the non-ag community just to let them know how successful we already are but we’re also wanting to make it better and improve on ourselves.”

The economic tier focuses on not over applying phosphorus, nitrogen or other nutrients, he said. Over application impacts not only a farmer’s bottom line but is also bad for the environment, Miller said.

Value creation is the “idea that we’re looking for new ways to use our products and we’re looking for new ways to deliver value for our products,” explained Sarah Delbecq, ICMC treasurer and a DeKalb County farmer.

The market development portion of the strategic plan could be a way to drive more demand for our products, she said. Officials hope to continue and expand their efforts with industrial products, food and beverage products, and research into new products that we’ve not thought about, Delbecq stated. Ethanol, for example, was a new use at one time and “we weren’t quite sure what that was going to look like or how it was going to develop and look at what it’s turned into.”

With producer engagement, officials are trying to get Hoosier farmers to understand and recognize what checkoff dollars are, said Kevin Cox, an ISA board member from Parke County. The goal is to see an increase of about 2 percent a year in the number of people the organizations interact with.

Surveys show people are positive about checkoff programs but they may not know a lot about them, he added. “The message that came out of that loud and clear to me is that we’ve got a story to tell and we want to be the resource to help tell that and be able to share that with other producers.”