The Iowa Soybean Association is celebrating its 45th year this year and a spokesman says the outlook heading in to spring planting won’t hamper the celebration. Ray Gaesser says demand for the crop this year will probably be better than most people are expecting.
"Demand is really strong right now. We’re exporting as many or more soybeans than we did even last year when they expected exports to be down," Gaesser explains. "Production around the world is going to be flat rather than growing, as it appears Argentina and Brazil have had some problems. They’re still going to have a pretty good crop. So I think our future looks good. It looks like soybean acres are going to be up for ’09 by maybe five million acres around the nation."
Gaesser says the current tax incentives for biodiesel are an important investment that needs to continue to help farmers. "It’s really important to have those incentives for a young industry like the soy biodiesel industry to keep it going, to help it get started and get established in the market," Gaesser says. "It’s also so good for soybean farmers. Biodiesel has really helped the price of soybeans. It’s really good for our engines. So it’s just a great environmental product, too."
According to Gaesser, some studies show last year, demand for soybeans caused by biodiesel production increased prices by as much as $2.00 per bushel. For more information, visit: www.iasoybeans.com .