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High oleic soybeans provide opportunity for growers

Central Indiana farmer Mike Beard has been a fan of high oleic soybeans since they were first launched.

But, he says, this is the first year he’s planted them.  “High oleic soybeans were in a way an afterthought this year because my corn crop wasn’t getting in the ground quick enough,” he says.  “I elected to shift some of my corn ground to high oleic.”

He tells Brownfield there were several factors that lead him to try high oleic soybeans this year.  “The processor is really close to me, there was a nice premium built in to raising these and a premium built into the market,” he says.  “I decided it would be a really great time to try about 20 percent of my crop in to high oleic.”

And, Beard says there is no significant difference in yield.

With tighter margins, he says any added value helps.  “At $16 beans- a fifty-cent premium probably doesn’t mean that much,” he says.  “But at $8 and $9 beans – that fifty-cent premium is a much higher percentage.”

Beard says he plans on increasing his acres of high oleic soybeans in 2016.