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Nebraska soybean farmers visit Seattle

A group of Nebraska soybean farmers is in Seattle this week to see where the majority of their soybeans go to be exported.

It’s called the “See For Yourself” tour and it’s sponsored by the Nebraska Soybean Board (NSB).  NSB farmer-director Ron Pavelka of Glenvil says the main purpose is to show farmers how their checkoff is working for them.

“It also lets us expose a myth that we have as ag producers,” Pavelka says. “A lot of times we ask producers who our final customer is and they’ll say ‘well, the local elevator that we deliver our crops to’.  But that’s so far from the case and this is just one step in that international marketing aspect of production agriculture that we get to highlight.”

AUDIO: Ron Pavelka (4:04 MP3)

The group will tour Grays Harbor and the newly-expanded AGP shipping facility in Seattle.  NSB farmer-director Mike Korth of Randolph says it gives Nebraska soybean farmers a marketing advantage.

“For us, it’s a perfect area to rail our grain into here because the grain that does leave the Pacific Northwest can flow at a much cheaper rate to the Pacific Rim area,” says Korth.  “It doesn’t have to go through the (Panama) canal—and it cuts the days of travel and the cost of going through the canal.”

AUDIO: Mike Korth (2:15 MP3)

The tour also includes stops at a biodiesel refinery and an aquaculture facility.

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