News

Farmer confident industry can back soy crush boom

A soybean farmer says the industry is ready to meet demand from the expansion of soy crushing capacity in the US.

 Lance of Rezac of Kansas says farmers should support a 30 percent increase in crushing capacity in the next five years. “If the demand really gets there for all of the oil that we’re talking about, I think we’ll step up and be able to grow more beans.”

He tells Brownfield there will be opportunities to increase the US market share for soybean meal exports. “Europe and Southeast Asia – they each import 20 million metric tons and we don’t have any that can go there right now.”

But, Rezac says, transporting byproducts to ports could be a major challenge. “During harvest, transportation gets pretty tight trying to get the grain moved alone.  If you’re trying to move bean meal along with the grain during harvest, that might be a bit of an issue.”

He says processors have been asking farmers in his area to plant additional soybean acres in an effort to meet demand.