Iowa Soybean Association - Ankeny, Iowa

5/19/2014 Iowa Soybean Association, Ankeny, Iowa

Grant Kimberly (ISA Director of Market Development) giving us an overview of how the soybean market has grown in Iowa over the past few years.

A group photo in front of the ISA headquarters in Ankeny, Iowa.

Soybeans are big business here in Iowa! Today we visited with the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) and met with a number of different divisions within the association.  ISA is a commodity group funded by the soybean checkoff program.  The checkoff program is funded by a portion of the receipts from each bushel of soybeans sold in the state.  ISA employees over 60 people and has numerous programs to promote soybeans and soybean products.  It is involved in everything from on-farm research, data collection and management, environmental services, policy making and market development.  

I was surprised to learn that only three percent of soybeans go for direct food consumption with the other 97 percent going to other markets such as animal feed and bio-fuel.  Over half of the soybean production in Iowa is exported to other countries.  As demand for soybean meal as an economical animal food source in other countries increases, so does the potential for the ISA to help expand these markets.  Considering about 70% of Iowa is covered in corn or soybeans in a given year this association is an extremely entrenched part of Iowa farmer’s lives. 

-        -  Julie