Episode 87 - 100 Years of Arkansas Soybeans

 Arkansas soybeans have shaped the state’s agricultural landscape for the last century, growing from a rotational crop in the 1920s into Arkansas’s leading row crop today. In this episode of Morning Coffee and Ag Markets, Hunter Biram is joined by Brad Doyle, Doug Hartz, and Jeremy Ross to reflect on 100 years of Arkansas soybean production. The conversation explores the history of soybeans in the state, major technological advancements in production, how Arkansas farmers became leaders in soybean yields, and what the future may hold for the industry through new technologies, genetics, and market opportunities. 

Transcript

00;00;00;03 - 00;00;36;13
Hunter Biram
With over $137 billion in the value of cumulative production over 100 years, soybeans have led Arkansas row crop agriculture for decades. Technological advancements dramatically increase productivity, with yield growth increasing from six and a half bushels per acre in 1924 to 55 bushels in 2024. But current farm economics are forcing least-loss decision making. That and so much more on this episode of Morning Coffee and Ag Markets.

00;00;36;16 - 00;00;47;00
Hunter Biram
Well, good morning to you. I'm your host today, Dr. Hunter Biram. And with me, I have a very esteemed panel of guests. And so with me, I've got Mr. Brad Doyle. Brad, how are you doing?

00;00;47;02 - 00;00;48;27
Doug Hartz
Doing fine. Thank you for having me today.

00;00;48;28 - 00;00;52;29
Hunter Biram
Happy to have you. And Mr. Doug Hartz. Doug, how are you?

00;00;52;29 - 00;00;54;27
Doug Hartz
Hunter, doing great. I hope you are as well.

00;00;54;28 - 00;01;01;00
Hunter Biram
Man, I am. This is going to be such a good conversation. And last but certainly not least, Dr. Jeremy Ross. Jeremy, how you doing?

00;01;01;01 - 00;01;05;12
Jeremy Ross
Pretty good. Hunter. I'm glad to be able to be on y’alls podcast this morning.

00;01;05;12 - 00;01;24;09
Hunter Biram
Well, I'm super stoked to have all three of you be on the podcast. You know, we've done a lot of technical stuff, and let's just call a spade a spade and say the economics can be extremely boring, extremely dry, and the economics right now are just really difficult to talk about. But there is one good thing that we're going to talk about today, and that is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of soybeans in Arkansas.

00;01;24;09 - 00;01;32;29
Hunter Biram
So maybe to get us kicked off. Brad, can you just introduce yourself, talk about your business and your role in the soybean industry in Arkansas?

00;01;33;04 - 00;01;58;05
Brad Doyle
Would love to. Yes. Brad Dole currently live in Wiener, Arkansas in West Poinsett County, grew up, born and raised in Crittenden County, where I got my start in agriculture, my love of agriculture, I guess. Scouting cotton was my first job for the Extension Service way back in 1991. I am married to Joyce, Dr. Joyce Berger Doyle. Family business, Eagle Seed.

00;01;58;05 - 00;02;23;04
Brad Doyle
She's a third generation farmer, so I help conduct her ag research and her breeding program, run the family seed business, primarily soybean, rice, wheat and oats that we grow on our farm. We grow everything for seed first and then grain. So we are diversified in that, and we've stepped out into wildlife and cover crop seed as well, serving northeast Arkansas and the rest of the US and even Canada.

00;02;23;04 - 00;02;49;02
Brad Doyle
But advocacy is one of my passions. Highly involved. Former chairman of the American Soybean Association back, I was president in 2022. Now I serve on the state checkoff board as chairman and even actually recently appointed to the United Soybean board. So, highly involved. Work with the Soybean Association, Ag Council, Farm Bureau and others. I think be careful when you volunteer because you'll be asked to volunteer.

00;02;49;02 - 00;03;07;08
Brad Doyle
But I love it. I mean, working with you guys at Extension and my fellow farmer colleagues as Doug, it is well worth it. Someone needs to speak up or educate or else we’ll just get run over by a lot of misinformation. So this is exciting, wanting to talk about soybeans in Arkansas.

00;03;07;15 - 00;03;22;28
Hunter Biram
You know, Brad, I think the problem that you might suffer from, which is one that I also suffer from, is when people seek you out to volunteer. It's kind of like you're actually being volun-told most of the time, but appreciate all that you do for the industry. I've known, guys, I've known Brad. For how long have I known you for?

00;03;22;28 - 00;03;41;00
Hunter Biram
Ever since I was at Arkansas State. Probably about 12 years ago, about 12, 13 years ago. So, known Brad for a long time and have always enjoyed working with him. So Brad, thanks for being here this morning. Doug, let's shift on over to you. Doug, can you tell us about who you are, what you do now, your business and why 100 years is relevant to you in particular?

00;03;41;07 - 00;04;24;03
Doug Hartz
Sure. Well, I'm Doug Hartz. I live in Stuttgart. I currently run a couple of businesses, primarily we have a farm management and real estate company here in Stuttgart, which going on doing that approximately 40 years, we also have another business called HARCO that supplies grain monitoring and aeration control equipment to the grain storage industry. And been doing that since, I guess you might say the mid 90s. You know, grew up here on the prairie and you know, which is an area that's pretty unique to the state of Arkansas, not only from a production standpoint, but, you know, a historical standpoint as well as it relates to the major crops, you know, here

00;04;24;03 - 00;04;53;16
Doug Hartz
in this state, rice and soybeans. But, you know, grew up in a family seed business and production agriculture and, you know, learned a lot of things just being present. You know, they say one of the main ways to be successful in a business is just show up. And so I guess you might say that was me. My first actual paying job in agriculture was chopping cotton on a friend's farm down at Humphrey for $0.70 an hour when I was 13 years old.

00;04;53;17 - 00;04;55;13
Hunter Biram
‘Umphrey, the H is silent, right?

00;04;55;14 - 00;05;13;12
Doug Hartz
Yeah, yeah. And as I heard, VP of agriculture, Deacue Fields, give a talk one time to the Arkansas Crop Management Conference. He had done the same thing. And that that these young folks today need a lot more of that. And I know what he meant by that was it's a character builder.

00;05;13;13 - 00;05;15;07
Hunter Biram
That's it, builds character. Needed.

00;05;15;08 - 00;05;36;09
Doug Hartz
Needed and, and and I always appreciated that comment and told him so. But you know, our family was in the seed business for, for many, many years, which was started by my grandfather and his partner, Mr. A.R. Thorell, and came back to work in that business. We also had a farm management and real estate division that I had exposure in as well.

00;05;36;09 - 00;05;54;20
Doug Hartz
And so when our family decided to sell their business in the early 80s, a couple of years later, that’s when I decided to get out on my own. But, you know, since that time, I guess you might say, you know, kind of going back to what Brad said, you know, paying back what an industry is given has been important.

00;05;54;20 - 00;06;07;08
Doug Hartz
And so just being involved in that, you know, activity both on the, you know, association side as well as the checkoff side. I'm now what they refer to as a has been so so.

00;06;07;11 - 00;06;08;15
Hunter Biram
I'm not sure about that.

00;06;08;17 - 00;06;25;13
Hunter Biram
I'm not sure about that. Well that's, you know, soybeans are a big deal. And you know, not as many people know that as they do other crops, possibly. And Doug, we have to thank your grandfather for that. Yeah, just an awesome story. You guys have been very involved in the ag industry in Arkansas for, I mean, probably over a hundred years.

00;06;25;13 - 00;06;34;14
Hunter Biram
I'm sure that your grandfather was farming before soybeans were introduced. And so for that, just want to say thanks to you and your family and thank you for your time for being here today.

00;06;34;15 - 00;06;43;19
Doug Hartz
You bet. Glad to have participated. And I think I can speak for previous generations. And just looking for those that that come behind us to do the same thing.

00;06;43;26 - 00;06;54;21
Hunter Biram
Yes, sir. And so I do want to give Dr. Jeremy Ross an opportunity just to introduce himself. I'm sure most people who are going to be listening probably know who you are. But just in case, just in case, go ahead and talk to our listeners.

00;06;54;21 - 00;07;16;03
Jeremy Ross
For us. Yeah. Just in case. Jeremy Ross, Extension agronomist for soybeans with the University of Arkansas Division of Ag, been in this position since 2007. Yeah, almost 20 years. It's hard to believe 19 years I've been in this position. You know, I've worked with both Doug and Brad just wanting to, you know, really, you know, voice my appreciation for both of them.

00;07;16;03 - 00;07;39;11
Jeremy Ross
I've worked with both of them in different capacities on different boards and respect everything they have and the advocacy that they have for especially Arkansas soybeans. You know, if you look at the US 15 years ago, a farmer from Arkansas, you know, competing with, you know, the “I” states, Iowa, Indiana, you know, Illinois, you know, what's an Arkansas farmer, you know, know anything about soybean production.

00;07;39;11 - 00;08;02;26
Jeremy Ross
And so, you know, in my career and then working with individuals like Brad and and Doug, I really appreciate their advocacy, not only for Arkansas but soybean production in the US. And proud to say that, you know, we're friends and and I know them and just I wish we had more people in Arkansas as big of advocates for soybeans as as these two individuals.

00;08;02;26 - 00;08;25;12
Jeremy Ross
Plus there's others, you know, we got the good promotion board, Arkansas Soybean Association, has a good representation doing legislative work and advocacy work as well. So we've got a really good. And, you know, if you look at the history, Brad was president, ASA Jim Carroll was USB chairman. So in the past ten, 15 years we've had some good representation from Arkansas.

00;08;25;12 - 00;08;36;01
Jeremy Ross
And I just hope we can kind of keep that ball rolling. And we can have more people like Brad and Doug and Jim Carroll representing Arkansas, the Mid-South, along with the whole US industry, so.

00;08;36;01 - 00;08;37;01
Hunter Biram
Indeed.

00;08;37;01 - 00;08;54;08
Hunter Biram
And it's one thing to grow soybeans, but then to advocate for soybeans in the greater ag industry is a whole nother thing. Right. And so you've got I mean, you're wearing multiple hats, Doug’s wearing multiple hats, Brad’s wearing multiple hats. I mean, it just it just takes that passion for ag and for feeding the world to keep this industry afloat.

00;08;54;09 - 00;09;06;08
Jeremy Ross
It does. Yep. Again, that just like, you know, especially Brad and Jim and a lot of the others that have really been out there pushing Arkansas grown soybeans, you know, to the world, you know, I appreciate that.

00;09;06;14 - 00;09;29;21
Hunter Biram
Absolutely. Well, let's get started. And so I want to start with you, Doug. So we got the introduction. So we know the great panel that we're working with here. So you know Doug, soybeans were first introduced in Arkansas in the mid 1920s. And that was by your grandfather and another gentleman that you mentioned. Can you give us just kind of a brief history of, and maybe the motivation for why in the world would soybeans need to be here when they weren't even here to begin with?

00;09;29;22 - 00;09;30;22
Doug Hartz
Right. Well.

00;09;30;23 - 00;09;55;20
Doug Hartz
Obviously you had rice production that was ramping up during this time and, and cotton production. And this would be prior to, you know, the, or during the advent or whatever you want to refer to of the development of the commercial fertilizer industry. And so crops were depleting soils of, of nutrients and then needed to be some way to help build those nutrients back.

00;09;55;20 - 00;10;20;12
Doug Hartz
And so I guess they just looked at various crops that, you know, maybe, in a situation that had a high adaptability, you know, on various soil types and whatnot, which there are in Arkansas, and there was an extension agent, I'm trying to think of his name. And anyway, that was here locally. And so my grandfather obtained, you know, some soybeans out of Illinois, some Laredo soybeans.

00;10;20;12 - 00;10;44;10
Doug Hartz
And, you know, as you know, the story has it they spread those out. You know, some people planted them for a green manure crop to turn back into the soil. Some people planted them for hay or turned cattle into them, you know, to graze on, because everybody back then, you know, had a livestock enterprise as well and, and on their farms and, and and then some of them, you know, were eventually saved for seed to, to replant.

00;10;44;10 - 00;10;48;29
Doug Hartz
And so that's kind of how the ball got rolling.

00;10;49;02 - 00;10;49;20
Hunter Biram
You know, what's.

00;10;49;20 - 00;11;08;28
Hunter Biram
What's interesting, Doug, is I looked at a, at a graph of acreage over time and the mix of acreage. And we used to have a lot of corn, a lot of corn, which really surprised me, but also rice and cotton. And so can you elaborate a little bit more on this green manure idea? It kind of sounds like it might be a bad word, but what is it in particular that makes soybeans so special?

00;11;08;28 - 00;11;16;22
Hunter Biram
And what about the fertilizer industry at the time, just really just set the stage for soybeans to come and make its emergence?

00;11;16;29 - 00;11;17;17
Doug Hartz
Well.

00;11;17;17 - 00;11;50;28
Doug Hartz
I guess the first time I ever heard that term was back in my years of, you know, high school and college. You know, I heard my dad used the term, I heard Chuck Caviness use the term, you know, when I was taking fiber and oil seeds up there at the university and just, you know, working that biomass back into the soil to help use that to, to build the soil back, not only from a nutritional standpoint, but, you know, from a teal standpoint in all of those type things.

00;11;50;28 - 00;12;12;18
Doug Hartz
But, you know, soybean plant being a, you know, a nitrogen fixating or a legume crop, you know, that all played a part in it as well. And so they could, you know, utilize those qualities of doing those kind of activities to help, you know, build the soil back up. And, you know, as far as, you know, the fertilizer industry and, and all of that, of course, that's probably another topic for a different day.

00;12;12;18 - 00;12;22;12
Doug Hartz
But, you know, because we went through the Green Revolution and whatnot and, and we wanted to do the best we could as far as production is concerned and no pun intended. But one thing kind of fed.

00;12;22;12 - 00;12;23;05
Doug Hartz
Off another...

00;12;23;06 - 00;12;39;05
Hunter Biram
You know, and there's an Arkansas business article that all four of us were quoted in. And at the time, it didn't seem like there were a ton of sources for nitrogen fertilizer. And so that's what made the soybeans, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but that's what made soybeans such a great option to add into a crop rotation.

00;12;39;05 - 00;12;57;02
Hunter Biram
Because what if you couldn't get whatever the source nitrogen fertilizer was at the time? What if you couldn't get it? Well, go ahead and put these beans down. And what's interesting, Doug, is you mentioned livestock and having cattle grazing at the same time. So, I mean, you're able to get proceeds from your cattle that you're eventually going to sell and they're getting, you know, great source of protein just eating those beans right there.

00;12;57;02 - 00;13;22;25
Hunter Biram
But you're also adding nitrogen to the soil. So I think soybeans are such a great crop for that, especially at a time like today that that we're facing these tight crop margins and you don't need nitrogen. I know that you have done research that just shows like, no, you really don't need it. And in a time where urea prices have increased 30 and 40% because of what's happening in the Middle East, I think soybeans can help partially insulate them from economic hardship right now.

00;13;22;25 - 00;13;24;07
Brad Doyle
The timing of,

00;13;24;07 - 00;13;24;28
Brad Doyle
Of the introduction.

00;13;24;28 - 00;13;49;00
Brad Doyle
Of soybeans to Arkansas and when the Haber-Bosch process was made, I want you to write this down, The Alchemy of Air, a wonderful book written about, I think, Carl Bosch and struggle and eventually success of developing the Haber-Bosch process of making nitrogen fertilizer. Back in the day, it was bat guano and bird guano like off the coast of Peru.

00;13;49;00 - 00;14;00;20
Brad Doyle
It's a fascinating story. Post World War II and all the struggles they went through. But they finally did it. And I mean, to your point, in 1926, that process.

00;14;00;20 - 00;14;11;24
Brad Doyle
Wasn't available. So they were very limited on, on Nitrogen fertilizer. So I'm, that's very fascinating, Doug, that that they did they were the first regenerative farmers. They just didn't know it, right?

00;14;11;26 - 00;14;14;24
Doug Hartz
You know they were sustainable when sustainability.

00;14;14;25 - 00;14;15;23
Doug Hartz
Really probably.

00;14;15;23 - 00;14;17;23
Doug Hartz
Wasn't even in the vocabulary.

00;14;17;27 - 00;14;18;05
Hunter Biram
Yeah.

00;14;18;06 - 00;14;35;21
Hunter Biram
And farmers really have been I mean, farmers want to take care of the ground. They want to continue to farm the ground, and they've always been that way. So thanks for sharing that, Brad. You know, Brad, to be honest with you, you have shared that book with me before then I just haven't done my homework. It is... I'm not a big book reader, but that one just grabbed me and I just couldn't put it down.

00;14;35;21 - 00;14;53;22
Hunter Biram
It's pretty. It's amazing. Well, I'm adding it to my list. Next time I see you, Brad, I'm going to I'm going to at least I've read the introduction. Well, so let's let's fast forward a little bit into the 50s. Soybeans became the most planted crop in the 1950s. Took over cotton, which cotton dominated acres there for a little while to and has held that position for nearly 70 years.

00;14;53;22 - 00;15;03;04
Hunter Biram
So, Brad, the question I have for you is why have soybeans remained Arkansas's most valuable crop despite being an unsung hero in Arkansas road crop agriculture?

00;15;03;11 - 00;15;23;00
Brad Doyle
You know, I've lived in two adjoining counties in Arkansas. Eastern Crittenden County was, at the time when I first got into agriculture, was primarily cotton farms. Right. You walked into a farmer's house. He had all things cotton on the wall. They're very prideful of the crop they grew. I'm in west Poinsett County now, and it's rice, so a lot of that is dictated by the soil type.

00;15;23;00 - 00;15;23;29
Brad Doyle
And they were, or

00;15;23;29 - 00;15;24;08
Brad Doyle


00;15;24;08 - 00;15;34;06
Brad Doyle
are, can be, when prices are fair, they are the dominating crop. They bring in the largest gross revenue for those farms. So they're the pillars. And soybeans were.

00;15;34;06 - 00;16;04;15
Brad Doyle
Always a great rotational crop and especially at lower prices. Right. They were put on the less productive ground. They had lower risk. But we've come a long way from varieties, right? A variety of development we have varieties that really stand out that are more adapted to those riskier type soils. So, you know, with a decent price and the right varieties, you know, now we've got farmers focusing on planting their soybeans first because the revenue potential is there.

00;16;04;15 - 00;16;27;29
Brad Doyle
And you know, we're in a great year. Jeremy can tell me 3.1 to 3.3 million acres, that’s substantial in comparison to cotton, corn, rice. You know, any other crop, peanuts, throw that in there. But it's just very versatile. Lower risk, lower input cost. You know, you could you could almost squeeze back to just a little bit of potash and get away with it if you really put the pencil to it.

00;16;27;29 - 00;16;38;18
Brad Doyle
But as you show, Hunter, it’s still a loss and our current conditions. But we have successfully crept up our state yield average at 52, 53, Jeremy?

00;16;38;19 - 00;16;39;09
Jeremy Ross
55 last year.

00;16;39;16 - 00;16;58;17
Brad Doyle
55. So you know what? What does that tell me? And I know some of the guys, you know, at 80 plus. But that means there's still some around 30 or less, you know. And that could be yeah, that's the ground you really don't want. But maybe you have to take because it's, you know, part of, of land of others.

00;16;58;17 - 00;17;19;23
Brad Doyle
And I mean, if you're young farmer trying to start out, you want acres and you think you want them more than, you know, the hardships at that ground, low productive ground might have. But I'll just take for instance, this morning, I'm on very flat ground at my house. I have soybeans out of the ground, bedded up. My neighbor planted flat last week and, you know, and it kind of made me scratch my head.

00;17;19;23 - 00;17;43;13
Brad Doyle
Why did he. Why did he not plant on beds? Well, this morning he had, you know, water standing. And he’ll probably have to come back and replant where my beans, you know, are up and out of the water. I think that's just a, you know, part of to Jeremy's credit, you know, and the university research and the Checkoff, what it does, it shows better improved methods of farming.

00;17;43;13 - 00;18;03;11
Brad Doyle
And we have put soybeans, you know, they've crept up in their ability to maintain and sustain the farm. I don't know many 100% soybean acre farms in Arkansas. I don't think you know, that is the answer. But you could do it. A one man show, part time job, you know, soybeans would allow you to do that.

00;18;03;12 - 00;18;26;02
Doug Hartz
You know, Brad, I want to quickly just interject something. You know, you talk about the yield and where we were and where things are and, and the different management practices and things. I'm reminded of the gentleman that was our farm manager who saw after the day to day farming operation, you know, when we were up and going in the seed business, hot and heavy back in the 60s and 70s.

00;18;26;02 - 00;18;52;16
Doug Hartz
And anyway, he won the Elanco Soybean Yield Contest, in I believe it was ‘71 with a yield of nearly 74 bushels per acre with the Davis variety soybean. And Jeremy, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't that developed by the university? I believe it was. Yeah. And a lot of the cultural practices, things that he did to win that contest were things that Extension, you know, recommended.

00;18;52;16 - 00;18;56;13
Doug Hartz
But a yield like that back in the early 70s, really pretty phenomenal.

00;18;56;14 - 00;19;17;12
Hunter Biram
That's amazing. Well, Jeremy, you have been so good. You've been sitting here so patiently, quietly. And we're we are singing your praises and your programs praises. So Jeremy, how have technological advances talk about, you know, types of seed, production practices? You know, Brad brought up the beds versus flat. Just talk about some changes over time and how that has led to increased yields.

00;19;17;13 - 00;19;38;03
Jeremy Ross
Sure. You know, and I think Brad kind of hit the nail on the head. You know, you used to talk to farmers and they were either a cotton farmer or rice farmer. Nobody ever said they were a soybean farmer. And then kind of corn, you know, came in, you know, 20 years ago. And every once in a while you'll hear somebody say, they were corn farmer, but you never heard anybody say they was a soybean farmer.

00;19;38;04 - 00;20;04;10
Jeremy Ross
And so when I, you know, took over this, this position, you know, I think you were starting to see soybeans kind of come into the forefront. And so through funding, through USB, the promotion board, we were able to do research, you know, to demonstrate, you know, the proper agronomic practices to help farmers increase yields. And so 30, 40 years ago, you know, you kind of heard, you know, soybeans was kind of the red headed stepchild.

00;20;04;11 - 00;20;25;07
Jeremy Ross
You know, it was just what we planted after everything else got planted. And we hoped, you know, get something out of it. A lot of non irrigated acreage back years ago. But times have changed. We've gotten I think the biggest stride has been genetics. If you look at the trend over the last 50 years we're gaining about a half a bushel per year per acre.

00;20;25;07 - 00;20;47;14
Jeremy Ross
And so a lot of that is the genetic gain that, you know, breeders are always looking for the next best variety. And then you had improvements on the production practices. So Brad mentioned beds, you know, where majority of the acreage is planted on beds. If we have a rain like we had last night, you know, to get them out of the water, to give them a little bit more air, you know, to the roots a little quicker.

00;20;47;15 - 00;21;09;17
Jeremy Ross
Fertility practices have improved. You know, planting dates have improved. You can see that. You know where this this year, 2026 is the fastest year we've ever planted the soil bean crop. I think the numbers came out Monday were 64%. If you look at the five year average, it's usually 38%. So we're really moving this year. And that's been a trend for the last five years.

00;21;09;19 - 00;21;43;16
Jeremy Ross
And because of that, if you kind of look at the planting dates compared to the ten year average, four out of the last five years, not including this year, were double digits ahead of where we typically are looking at the ten year average. But we've set new state records four out of the last five years, too. And so, you know, I think it's just accumulation of good genetics, good production practices that, you know, all of our researchers look at and, you know, because we're really trying to help the farmers improve their return on their investment, you know, to make the most money they can without breaking the bank.

00;21;43;18 - 00;22;07;20
Jeremy Ross
Another thing, I think a big thing, and this is the reason we can compete with the Midwest is irrigation. You know, we're probably 90, 95% irrigated. There is some non irrigated still out there and some of those fields you just don't have any water access to. But if you look at the irrigated versus the non irrigated yields you know the non irrigated still coming in that 35, 40 if you're lucky.

00;22;07;20 - 00;22;47;07
Jeremy Ross
And then you know irrigated. As Brad mentioned you know we've got farmers consistently busting you know 70 plus bushels any given year. We've had 46 I think now, it’s either 42 or 46 individuals, break 100 bushels in our yield contest over the last 12 years. And so we can do it. And if you potentially look and Brad may know a little bit more about this, but you know, the genetic, you know, talking to Larry Purcell, who's a former physiologist that worked in soybeans, you know, I think the potential yield for soybean plants like 350 bushels, but a plant, a modern day plant just can't maintain that, that kind of yield.

00;22;47;07 - 00;23;05;04
Jeremy Ross
So we've got a lot of potential that we still can gain. It's just figuring out, you know, the architecture of the plant and then really trying how to get the nutrients to that plant to use those. But you know, you know, talking about genetics, some of the bigger things that, you know, in the last several years, Roundup Ready was a game changer.

00;23;05;04 - 00;23;30;08
Jeremy Ross
It revolutionized herbicide control into soybeans. Up until that point, we had conventional herbicides, and they needed rainfall to activate and cultivate a lot of them in just to get good incorporation, to get good activity. But Roundup revolutionized. And so that was in the 90s. And then, you know comes along LibertyLink and then now dicamba and 2,4-D resistance in our soybean crop along with some of the other crops.

00;23;30;08 - 00;23;58;00
Jeremy Ross
But with the multiple applications of Roundup over the years, you know, we started getting some resistance on some of our weeds. And so that's that's kind of becoming a problem. But we've got good genetics. You know, we've got our breeders at the University of Arkansas always looking for that next best variety along with the private companies. And so with the increase in genetics and, you know, with the more focus on actually producing a good soybean crop, I think that's the reason we're seeing such good yields.

00;23;58;00 - 00;24;07;27
Jeremy Ross
But it takes a village to grow a soybean crop. And so we've got a lot of good researchers in the university doing a lot of good research to try to answer a lot of these questions that our farmers have.

00;24;07;28 - 00;24;26;13
Hunter Biram
Takes a village and takes it takes time. It really takes time. I mean, we're talking about six and a half bushels in 1924. Yeah, 55 bushels, a near tenfold increase, but took 100 years to get there. And to our listeners, especially if you're not a farmer, I just want to highlight the comment that you made, Jeremy, about the architecture of the plant.

00;24;26;13 - 00;24;38;22
Hunter Biram
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I've got into gardening a little bit. Guys, I, you know, I grew up on a farm and I do have to scratch that itch. And so I got a garden and I got to grow stuff. And I tried to do a little bit of landscaping. Again, nothing crazy.

00;24;38;23 - 00;24;53;04
Hunter Biram
Y'all do not be impressed. Like, I'm just I'm just trying to get my hands dirty. And when you say the architecture of the plant, I'm sure people just drive through on highway 67 or highway 57 now, whenever they're driving on that they're just looking at fields and they're just seeing a crop. They don't even know if it's rice.

00;24;53;05 - 00;25;10;01
Hunter Biram
They don't know if it's soybeans, they don’t know if it's corn, they don’t know if it's cotton. They don't know if it's grass. They just don't know the difference. But thinking about, you know, how you said there's a lot of potential? I mean, folks think about this. I mean, if you have got this stalk growing out of the ground and there's beans coming off of it, at some point, there's going to be too many beans to where it's just going to start breaking.

00;25;10;01 - 00;25;16;22
Hunter Biram
Let's think about a tree that gets too many fruit. The branches start to weigh down. Soybeans, I would say probably are no different. Right, Jeremy?

00;25;16;23 - 00;25;39;22
Jeremy Ross
Right. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, if you look at a soybean plant, it'll lose about, you know, 50 to 60% of the flowers it puts on. So, you know, it has the potential of putting on more yield. It's just just, you know, you hear of fruit orchards and fruit producers saying, you know, they'll have a peach tree and then they need to go off and knock off, thin the peaches that are on the trees, just because if they don't, it's going to break those limbs.

00;25;39;22 - 00;25;57;08
Jeremy Ross
And it's the same with soybeans. You know, we just we just don't have the architecture. You know, the, the mass there of the soybean plant to withstand that much weight and then also to be able to take up enough nutrients and water to really fill out that, that kind of yield potential.

00;25;57;11 - 00;26;00;02
Brad Doyle
So back to what Jeremy talked a little bit about. And it's on our list. But Roundup Ready

00;26;00;03 - 00;26;00;18
Brad Doyle
Soybeans.

00;26;00;18 - 00;26;22;16
Brad Doyle
The 90s were some really exciting times. We saw the introduction of Roundup Ready soybeans and BT cotton. I mean, those are some huge, huge technological advances. But I remember scouting soybeans in that ‘96, ’97, you had to know the difference between a teaweed and the velvet leaf or whatever the first, the very smallest leaf that popped out of the ground, or you were going to miss it.

00;26;22;17 - 00;26;42;15
Brad Doyle
You know, we had very limited conventional herbicides. They had nowhere near the activity that Roundup, you know, Roundup in a wick bar would take down a four foot tall pigweed over cotton. I mean, like it was nothing. And it was, you know, Roundup, glyphosate, was a, is still is a great herbicide, but it killed everything back then.

00;26;42;15 - 00;27;03;15
Brad Doyle
And we became so reliant on it that we got away from a lot of residuals. And, you know, that was a whole nother story. But it was a game changer. As Jeremy mentioned, I think it took a while for the genetics to catch up and have the yield, but it was from now, you know, now you could scout weed spraying at 55 miles an hour because you saw anything green between the rows.

00;27;03;15 - 00;27;10;02
Brad Doyle
It was time to spray. Whereas before you better know what weed complex was in each individual field.

00;27;10;03 - 00;27;34;06
Jeremy Ross
Well and, and it also you know some of those conventional herbicides had damage to the beans and it was almost to the point you almost had to kill the soybeans to kill the weeds in the fields. When Roundup came around, you didn't see that injury. And then when we had to kind of go back to looking at more conventional pre-emerges and herbicides to help with some of the resistance issues, you started seeing more of that burn and damage.

00;27;34;06 - 00;27;59;29
Jeremy Ross
And so there was a generation of farmers that had never seen, you know, injured soybeans to herbicides because their whole career up until that point, had been just Roundup. And Roundup doesn't really cause any kind of, you know, visual injury to Roundup Ready beans. And so there was a learning curve there, oh, ten years ago when we really had to start using more conventional herbicides in the program to battle some of the resistance stuff.

00;27;59;29 - 00;28;11;01
Jeremy Ross
And so that was interesting to see, you know, some of these farmers, you know, thinking their soybean crop was done, but really it was just a little bit of cosmetic damage due to the herbicides to try to combat the weeds.

00;28;11;02 - 00;28;14;21
Hunter Biram
Wow. So you're telling me that we need to know the science behind this Jeremy? [laughter]

00;28;14;22 - 00;28;16;26
Jeremy Ross
Oh yeah, there's a lot of science behind all kinds of stuff.

00;28;16;27 - 00;28;32;12
Hunter Biram
That's right, that's right. Well, guys, as we wrap up here, would love to hear from each of you. So we've talked about the past and kind of how we've got to where we are today. What about the next generation? What about the next 100 years? Like, what should we be on the lookout for? What do you think the industry might look like?

00;28;32;12 - 00;28;54;13
Hunter Biram
What does a beginning farmer, what's some good advice for them? And looking ahead, we'll start with Doug. Let's start with you.

00;28;54;15 - 00;29;12;26
Doug Hartz
You know, none of us know what tomorrow is going to bring. You know, it’s a big question mark. Obviously the changes in technology that I’ve seen in my lifetime, we’re blessed in our family that my mother is still living at 100 and she’s closer to 101 than she is 100 and still has her mind for that. And that was one of the things we talked about at her 100th birthday back in August, was the changes that she's seen in technology. But anyway, to go back to your question, you know, I think that we still have to, you know, we've got to embrace new technologies. But by the same token, I'm not sure that we need to forget where we came from.

00;29;12;26 - 00;29;38;10
Doug Hartz
And I'll use a grand example of this, and Jeremy, you can agree with me or not, but who has a soybean cultivator anymore? Not very many people, but the people that I know on the prairie that are successful, particularly who have participated in the grow for the grain type contest and those type of things, where is that if they've got a situation or maybe they've gotten a heavy rain and they need to aerate those, you know, middles and the roots and whatnot, they'll do that.

00;29;38;10 - 00;29;57;18
Doug Hartz
And certainly maybe not on every acre, but they certainly have that capability. It's a cheap tool and it's going back to old technology. So let's don't forget where we came from. But you know, we've got to obviously do things like my grandfather did, who only had a sixth grade education to embrace new things and to move forward and try to survive. And obviously, we’re definitely in survival mode right now.

00;29;57;22 - 00;30;24;04
Hunter Biram
Indeed. Brad?

00;30;24;06 - 00;31;03;02
Brad Doyle
So I’m going to look at it a little differently the next 100 years. I think we need to reach out to our, you know, the end users and really explain to them or show them why Arkansas soybeans are better in particular compared to our our largest, by far largest competitor, South America, we have advantages within the United States to the Midwest. We're closer to New Orleans. So there's a lower logistical cost of getting them downriver to the ports. We don't freeze up in the winter. If you look north of Saint Louis, there's a lot of that barge traffic really goes to almost a trickle, if any. Our protein’s higher in the South, in particular Arkansas versus Minnesota or Dakotas. I think we just really need to start focusing in on those quality traits that make a better oil or better soybean meal than maybe they don't require as many synthetic amino acids, because you can take soybean meal out of South America and add synthetic amino acids made mostly in China.

00;31;03;02 - 00;31;20;14
Brad Doyle
And it would, you know, come out on paper, you know, as equal to the best quality. Why would you not want it? You know, from from the source with the best of the best. So, you know, it's going to take some work. It'll take granaries and crush mills coming into our area to be able to capture that market value.

00;31;20;14 - 00;31;40;21
Brad Doyle
But I think it's there and it's easy sell for for the farmers of Arkansas to go abroad or have foreign visitors come here and explain to them why we have a better product and more reliable that that irrigation that Jeremy mentioned. You know, that that's what that means reliability. We are not as effective as a lot of the states are on drought because of our irrigation.

00;31;40;21 - 00;31;59;09
Hunter Biram
Yeah. We may not have time for cattle and other things on the farm during the summer because we're busy irrigating our tail off, but it does give us a more sense of reliability in our crop. But I think that's where we got to go for is push out the story that Arkansas soybeans are high quality, reliable, and why they are better than South American.

00;31;59;10 - 00;32;00;20
Brad Doyle
to be honest.

00;32;00;23 - 00;32;02;02
Hunter Biram
Appreciate that, Brad. Jeremy?

00;32;02;03 - 00;32;25;26
Jeremy Ross
Well, I'm going to echo kind of both topics. And like Brad said, you know, we're pretty good at producing soybeans now. But there's always room for improvement. And you know, if we can just find some more end uses for the beans that we had and be able to use them up. And Brad may be able to chime in a little bit on some of this, but soybeans are in just about everything and a lot of industrial uses.

00;32;25;26 - 00;32;45;25
Jeremy Ross
If we could get more biodiesel produced, you know, more products that you know are currently using, you know, oil, crude oil, you know, if we could get them to use soybeans. The more we can get used in that, the more soybeans, you know, we can sell and then, you know, have the reserves down. But then, you know, on the production side, you know, there's the way things have changed over the last, say, 50 years.

00;32;45;25 - 00;33;08;00
Jeremy Ross
I think it's just going to be a lot quicker. New technologies and things like that are just going to come quicker. You're seeing, you know, individuals looking at robotics to go through and scout fields and then actually maybe pulling weeds. So farmers may have the army of these robots running through the fields. You know, there's a lot of drone technology over the last, you know, just in the last five years.

00;33;08;00 - 00;33;29;16
Jeremy Ross
And then now you hear people, you know, these swarms of drones that could go out and spot spray and do different things. So farmers are always going to be needed. There's always going to be somebody that needs to be boots on the ground out there looking at the crop. But I think, you know, with this autonomous and driverless tractors and things like that, there may be more hands off.

00;33;29;16 - 00;33;47;25
Jeremy Ross
But we're always going to need somebody, you know, farmers out there. Somebody is going to have to maintain that equipment and actually look at the crop and know what needs to be done. Are we, you know, is there really a problem out there? And then working with, you know, satellite imagery and drone imagery and things like that, trying to identify problem areas?

00;33;47;26 - 00;34;07;05
Jeremy Ross
Then we can go out and fix a one spot in the field as opposed to having to you know, broadcast across the whole field. And it may be 20% of the field needs additional fertilizer or needs application of a pesticide. And the whole field doesn't do it. And so that's just, again, a cost savings. And then, you know, the genetics of the beans, you know, or who knows.

00;34;07;06 - 00;34;30;09
Jeremy Ross
Our breeders and other breeders are always looking at new innovative genes to improve yield, improve nematode resistance, disease resistance, drought tolerance, you know, all kinds of things. And so, you know, I'm excited. I mean, I think things are going to move quicker in the future than they have in the past. And, you know, I don't think I'll be here in the next hundred years.

00;34;30;09 - 00;34;47;29
Jeremy Ross
But but, you know, for the rest of my career, for the next, you know, ten, 15 years, you know, I'm kind of excited to see what soybeans, you know, not only soybeans, but other crops have coming down the line. But we're going to have to find uses because our farmers, you know, Brad indicated our soybeans in the US are phenomenal compared to other countries.

00;34;47;29 - 00;35;02;23
Jeremy Ross
And we just need to be out there really marketing those and trying to get those out as much as we can and just find some additional end uses to try to get them, because our farmers can really produce a really good crop, but just need to find a way to, to use that up.

00;35;02;23 - 00;35;04;02
Hunter Biram
So what I'm hearing is don't

00;35;04;02 - 00;35;22;21
Hunter Biram
forget where you came from, which I've been told myself from my family, but I think that that can apply here. Don’t be afraid to adopt new technology. And technology has gotten us that tenfold increase in yield, different practices. And then, better demand and expanding markets. I think that's, that's what I'm hearing from you guys. I think those are great.

00;35;22;21 - 00;35;32;21
Hunter Biram
Three great takeaways to end on. So with that, I want to say thank you so much for your time today, guys. This has been so much fun. And yeah, everyone else you all stay tuned for the market report. Thank you.