Soy at Play with Dr. Dirk Maier, the Iowa Cubs and Agronomist Troy Deutmeyer

It's the start of summer in Iowa—the fields are growing, the ballparks are full and soybeans are doing more work than most people realize. 

Dr. Dirk Maier of the ISU Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex kicks of this episode by walking us through a first-of-its-kind university facility that trains the next generation of feed professionals—and is now piloting a high oleic soybean project tied to a major dairy expansion coming to central Iowa. 

We then head to Principal Park where the Iowa Cubs are showcasing the connection between America's favorite pastime and agriculture. Elly Simpson takes us on a tour of Principal Park, where soy shows up in the seats, the outfield wall, the paint and every fryer on the concourse. 

Rounding out the episode, Pioneer Field Agronomist Troy Deutmeyer joins us remotely from east-central Iowa with a real-time read on field conditions and why a record number of farmers are running on-farm trials this season.

The Bean Scene is brought to you by the Iowa Soybean Association and the soybean checkoff.

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About the Iowa Soybean Association:

The Iowa Soybean Association was created by Iowa's farmers in 1964 and is driven to deliver increased soybean demand through market development and new uses, farmer-focused research, timely information and know-how and policy initiatives enabling farmers and the industry to flourish.

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Transcript

Maxwell Schaeffer 0:02

Welcome back to Tthe Bean Scene. Brought to you by the Iowa Soybean Association and the Soybean checkoff. I'm your host, Maxwell Schaeffer, and I'm glad you're here. Summer in Iowa has a way of hitting all at once. The fields that were underwater in April are now growing. The ballparks are full. Field research is running. And somewhere between the feed mill and the foul line, soybeans are doing more work than most people realize. We'll start this episode with Dr. Dirk Maier, director of the ISU Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex at Iowa State University. He's gonna walk us through what's happening at the feed mill, what high oleic soybeans have to do with dairy nutrition, and why a new processing plant in Boone has a lot of people paying attention. Then we'll head to Principal Park in Des Moines for a conversation with Elly Simpson, Director of Marketing, Promotions, and Communications for the Iowa Cubs. Ellie is going to help us connect two things Iowa does better than just about anywhere else: growing soybeans and bringing people together at the ballpark. And finally, we'll check in with Troy Deutmeyer, field agronomist for Pioneer, covering five counties in east, central, and northeast Iowa. Troy will give us a real-time read on what's happening in the fields right now and what farmers should be thinking about as we move through the growing season. Let's get into it. Here's Dr. Dirk Maier of the ISU Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex.

The ISU Kent Feed Mill

Maxwell Schaeffer 1:38

Dirk, I want to understand what the ISU Kent Feed Mill actually is. Now, you know, I see some numbers of output and what you're doing here. Does this qualify as a big production facility or explain its purpose in its most basic form?

Dr. Dirk Maier 1:55

Well, thanks for the opportunity. Uh its primary purpose is really for teaching and training students. And that was the original vision to have a facility at Iowa State University that represents the industry in terms of the state of the art of the facility so that uh we can attract, recruit students, make them aware of the kinds of career opportunities that exist in this larger grain and feed industry that involves equipment and making feed and technical sales and the business off and so forth and so on. So that's all part of it. But there is output from this feed mill. Absolutely. And the output primarily is thanks to a partner client that we were able to attract, we're able to run every day, Monday through Friday, for about thirteen or so hours and produce about 200 tons of what we call a pathogen-free feed that goes into the genetic poultry layer industry, supporting the egg industry here in the state of Iowa on being.

Maxwell Schaeffer 2:53

Trevor Burrus, Jr. 200 tons, I mean, you know, as a layman, that seems like an awful lot for just an educational facility, right?

Dr. Dirk Maier 3:00

It is a good size. We're the only such facility on any university campus that makes uh commercial production on a daily basis.

Maxwell Schaeffer 3:07

Well, I want to kind of walk through the basics here because you know when we talk about soy in a dairy ration, what does that actually look like?

Dr. Dirk Maier 3:16

Well, soy is a relatively smaller component in a dairy ration, right? Uh you have your roughage as a as a key aspect, and then you have to supplement that with proteins, amino, oil, and and uh minerals and other ingredients. And so soybean meal is certainly part of dairy rations, but then also for improved nutrition uh in ruminants, you also have a so-called bypass protein, and that can be generated with uh soybeans that's been specially treated.

Maxwell Schaeffer 3:48

Well, there's yeah, that special kind of soybean with the oleic acid, right? Tell us about that. What's special about that soybean and as it applies to this meal that you're creating?

Dr. Dirk Maier 3:58

This high oleic soybean oil has few unsaturated fatty acids, and so it was primarily developed for human food consumption as a beneficial oil, right? And there's only a few facilities in the U.S. where they actually extract that oil for human food use. But at the same time, some of the dairy producers, researchers in other states have identified that that oil in particular also has a benefit to dairy production, what it does to the fatty acid profile in the milk and the products that you make from that.

Maxwell Schaeffer 4:31

Well, I know that you're actually growing this high oleic soybean at Iowa State, you know, as a part of a pilot project with the Iowa Soybean Association. Uh tell me about that project and you know, what are you testing and what are you hoping to learn from that?

Dr. Dirk Maier 4:45

First, we work very closely with our animal nutritionists who are primarily the ones that will be doing the livestock feeding trials. Uh so right now, those high oleic soybeans are being planted at uh one of the ISU research farms uh between Boone and Ames. And then in the fall, uh it will be harvested and then it will be stored at the feed mill as an identity-preserved uh soybean because of its high value. And then uh we will uh we're in the process of acquiring uh roasting or toasting equipment by which we can handle those soybeans, and they will then be toasted and ground, and then they will be incorporated into the dairy ration.

Maxwell Schaeffer 5:24

And you said toasted?

Dr. Dirk Maier 5:25

Yes.

Maxwell Schaeffer 5:26

Toasted and roasted. I mean, are we talking soybeans like coffee beans here, sort of?

Dr. Dirk Maier 5:32

You don't want to get them quite that black, but essentially that's what we're talking about. Yes.

Maxwell Schaeffer 5:37

Really? So what what does the roasting process, the toasting process, do to these hyalic soybeans and and then how does that translate into what that cow's eating every day?

Dr. Dirk Maier 5:47

Well, first uh soybeans contain some anti-nutritional factors that inhibit its uh digestion, right? And so any time you process soybeans even into soybean meal, you have a roasting slash toasting process involved that basically deactivates, for example, these trypsin inhibitors. And uh that's for example why soybean meal has the kind of caramelized color that you have as a as a soybean. In this case, you're doing that with a whole soybeans without taking the oil out. So it's basically fully uh full fat or full oil toasted soybean.

Maxwell Schaeffer 6:24

Okay. And so in the digestive process, then it allows more nutrition to come from the bean to the cow, is basically what you're saying. Exactly.

Dr. Dirk Maier 6:33

Yes.

Maxwell Schaeffer 6:34

That that's really cool. I when you think about this Kent feed mill up at ISU and this grain science complex that you've been running now in the first two years. How many years did it take you to develop this?

Dr. Dirk Maier 6:46

Well, uh I came to Iowa State in 2015 for this particular project. Okay, so this was your focus. That's a long time to build something. Well, it's a long time to uh get the idea developed, get the funding in place, and then we had the COVID period in between, and so it took a while to pull all together. Of course, it was a huge team effort at the ISU, including uh other colleagues in the College of Agriculture and Life Science, as well as very generous donors.

Maxwell Schaeffer 7:16

What has surprised you the most about uh your first two years? Anything that comes to mind that w made you go, wow, we did that.

Dr. Dirk Maier 7:24

Well, the the primary thing is to see the benefit to the students. You know, we uh again w right now we're graduating students uh in in our first traineeship program cohort. They all have uh jobs, excellent jobs, offers. Wow, that's a big plus. Yes. And then we have another 15 students that are going into summer internships with a number of different companies. So only being in the second year has been uh uh very uh uh positive and satisfying.

Maxwell Schaeffer 7:52

I also learned about this daisy brand plant that's coming to Boone. Uh what is the target for that, the trajectory for that? Uh they're gonna need a lot of milk, and so how is that eventually going to help grow uh Iowa's dairy cattle industry?

Dr. Dirk Maier 8:08

So from what I understand, you know, this uh dairy plant will go into uh boon primarily making uh sour cream and other type of uh milk-based products, and it will require something like twice as many dairy here in central Iowa to supply that plant on a daily basis. Aaron Powell Wow.

Maxwell Schaeffer 8:27

So that's major growth. That will be major growth, yes. And and how are the farmers responding to that? Are you seeing some uh people taking action there already?

Dr. Dirk Maier 8:36

Well, yes, there's a high interest uh not only in the dairy producing uh uh groups of farmers, but also in those growing feed crops such as uh soybeans, Ohio Lakes, soybeans in particular has a great opportunity in this context.

Maxwell Schaeffer 8:52

One of the things that really stands out here about this story is, you know, you have the Iowa rooted process here, you know, soybeans grown here, processed here, fed to cattle that are raised here. You know, is that intentional?

Dr. Dirk Maier 9:08

Well, it's basically needed, right? And so you need uh soybeans as a major ingredient. We have been using soybean meal in and soybean hulls in our feed that we manufacture on a daily basis as a primary protein source, and so it's all Iowa soybeans that are also processed into the type of feed that we make.

Maxwell Schaeffer 9:26

Well, we have our Iowa soybean farmers listening to this. Maybe they're not thinking about growing hyolic soybeans, but you know, what would you tell them about where this market is headed and what advice would you give them kind of moving forward as they're making their plans?

Dr. Dirk Maier 9:41

Well, I would certainly uh explore the possibilities, inform yourself. I know the Iowa Soybean Association is providing great leadership, uh, brought this opportunity to us, is giving us some funding in order to do some applied research demonstration trials with there. We're also looking at extending that into some of the other species again with colleagues in animal science. And uh I think it's definitely worth uh continuing to work on that because uh this plant is coming, this plant is being built, and so the demand for uh feed and uh ingredients is increasing in this particular part of uh Iowa.

Maxwell Schaeffer 10:17

What do you see in the next uh two or three years uh, you know, from your work there at the Kent Feed Mill and Grain Project there?

Dr. Dirk Maier 10:26

Well, we expect to continue to grow not only the student numbers in terms of gaining the type of experience that the students are getting through the traineeship program, which is uh supported by the industry in terms of companies recruiting students and hiring them for internships and employment. We see a further expansion and making rations for our animal science farms at ISU with regard to meeting the various needs, which we've been only able to implement because we recently uh had uh uh uh received a bulk trailer for feed delivery. And then the other big aspect is we continue to work very closely with Iowa Soy Association and uh U.S. Soybean Export Council, bringing international visitors here to Iowa, including some that are coming here for courses to be trained in our facility to build our markets, expand our markets, defend our markets overseas.

Maxwell Schaeffer 11:16

Fantastic. Well, kudos to you and your team up there. It's a pretty amazing story.

Dr. Dirk Maier 11:22

Thank you so very much for the opportunity.

Maxwell Schaeffer 11:25

That was Dr. Dirk Maier, director of the ISU Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex at Iowa State University, where Iowa-grown soybeans are fueling the next generation of students, supporting a third of the world's commercial egg genetics, and now helping lay the groundwork for a major dairy expansion right here in central Iowa. Now we're headed to the ballpark. Elly Simpson is the Director of Marketing, Promotions and Communications for the Iowa Cubs here in Des Moines. She grew up in a farming family, four generations of soy and corn in central Iowa, and she spent her career finding ways to bring people together. What she didn't fully realize until recently is just how much of that ballpark experience is quietly powered by the same crop she grew up watching in the fields. Here's Elly Simpson of the Iowa Cubs.

Soy's Homerun at Principal Park

Maxwell Schaeffer 12:21

All right, so uh here we go. Headed into summer. Principal Park is on fire. How's the feel uh season feeling so far for you?

Elly Simpson 12:31

The season's been feeling really good so far. Uh we have some great events coming up here on the books, a lot of great baseball ahead of us still. Uh the weather has not really been in our favor, but I think that's starting to turn, and we're about to see some beautiful 80-degree weather days, perfect for a ball game.

Maxwell Schaeffer 12:44

Early in the season, the baseball fans, you know, they're willing to brave that, but it and when the heat of summer comes, boy, this just place this place is on fire day and night. You know, uh, and you run marketing, you run promotions, communications for the Cubs. You know, I want to kind of get a sense, you know, what's your philosophy when it comes to the fan experience at the ballpark here?

Elly Simpson 13:07

At the root of it, it's finding ways to make memories for fans. We can't control what happens on the field as much as I wish I could. Uh, I can't prefer can't uh control the outcome of the game. So uh we come up with ways to create those moments, if you will, for fans, whether it's bringing in mascot characters, a band, a giveaway item, a theme night where you feel immersed in what's going on around you. Um that's really the heart of it all.

Maxwell Schaeffer 13:31

I'm sure the players and coaches will tell you, though, that a great fan experience motivates the players, right? And sometimes you do have an effect on the outcome of a game. Talk about some of the special promotions that you do here. And I know you uh Savannah Bananas has been so big for you, but there's another kind of form of baseball that's coming, right? Yeah.

Elly Simpson 13:51

Yeah, we're hosting cosmic baseball this summer. Uh so think baseball under black light. So if you've ever been to a bowling alley when they dim the lights and they turn on the black lights and everything's glowing, take that framework, but put it into baseball. Uh you will have some singing and dancing and uh some fun being had, but it's still the form of baseball too, in a new way.

Maxwell Schaeffer 14:09

And almost every game has sort of a theme promotion. What are some of your favorites that you like to do for the fans?

Elly Simpson 14:16

Yeah, one of our more popular ones is Star Wars night. So we're bringing that back this year for a third season that is June 5th. So it's coming up here really fast. It's honestly one of my favorites that I look forward to just because I am a Star Wars fan. Uh and I get to have my hands deep in the planning process of what this night looks like. Uh, so it's really fun for me on my end.

Maxwell Schaeffer 14:33

Absolutely. Well, this is something that I didn't know about you till we decided we were gonna have this conversation with you is you grew up in a farm family.

Elly Simpson 14:43

I did!

Maxwell Schaeffer 14:44

Tell us about that.

Elly Simpson 14:44

Yes, I believe I have three to four generations of farming uh in my lineage. And so uh my farm is smack dab in the middle of central Iowa. We've primarily done soybean and corn, actually. Uh, I still have uncles that farm the land today, and we've downsized over the years, but it's still in the family.

Maxwell Schaeffer 15:00

Well, this is then the perfect soybean connection here because so many people are learning now through this podcast and just from Iowa Soybean Association how soy is in every part of our lives, and it's in every part of this ballpark. Tell us about that. Give us some insight into that.

Elly Simpson 15:19

I guess personally even, I knew soy was in a lot of things, but didn't realize how deep it actually went. It's almost everywhere that even fans touch. So it's in the seats, it's um it's in the materials the seats are made out of, it's in the wall pads along the outfield wall. I believe our paint also has soy in it, too, the paint that you see on the field. So it's kind of sprinkled throughout everywhere, and as well as in our concession stands, too.

Maxwell Schaeffer 15:40

What's cooking in the high oleic soybean oil here at the ballpark?

Elly Simpson 15:44

With our concessions this season, we've actually redone several concession stands on the concourse. And so, for example, we have now this concession stand called 515 tenders, and it's all dedicated to chicken. So baskets of chicken, specially food items, unique things here and there. So it's all chicken, all french fries, all the goods.

Maxwell Schaeffer 16:02

Funnel cakes, hello!

Elly Simpson 16:04

Oh, yeah, we got those still in the concourse. Of course, we got hot dogs, and I think we also now have mini-corn dogs, which was new to me. I was so excited when I saw a fan with those earlier this week.

Maxwell Schaeffer 16:14

Okay, that's great.

Elly Simpson 16:16

A lot of good things in our concourse right now.

Maxwell Schaeffer 16:18

Uh but this notion that soy exists in the paint, that's a whole new thing. And it's the soy oil replaces petroleum-based products, so it makes it more safe. And I know there are some big companies that are actually doing that. It's the Sherwin Williams and Rustoleum. That's pretty cool. So even the foul poles have soy in them. And that's that's fascinating to me. So tell me about the seats. And I understand that that's such a big part of it, but tell us how the seats work and what that all means where soy is infused into the plastic.

Elly Simpson 16:52

Yeah, so our ballpark capacity at the ballpark is a roughly 9,500 seats, give or take, a few here and there. Um, and I also want to say, correct me if I'm wrong, someone, but these seats are the original from when the ballpark was created.

Maxwell Schaeffer 17:07

So we can get specific about that outfield wall. That is soy as well. And can you tell us a little bit about the products that make that outfield wall?

Elly Simpson 17:20

Yeah, so our outfield wall is does use a soy-based laminated plywood, uh, which you I don't think anyone would know when you look out to the outfield, right? Because there's some padding, there's actually with our outfield, there's two layers. So the bottom layer has that padding to protect the players if they're about to run into the wall trying to make that catch. And then the upper layer uh is solid, so there's not an additional layer of padding, but uh it's all of that internal plywood as well. And and then our behind home plate also has elements of that plywood.

Maxwell Schaeffer 17:48

And I love that it's an investment with soybean farmers with Columbia Forest Products, and so that's you know something people can put in the back of their mind, maybe research that a hundred million panels of this plywood are used across venues all across the country. That's amazing to me.

Elly Simpson 18:04

When you think about how many ballparks, softball fields, different stadiums there are. Yeah, that's a a ton of plywood right there.

Maxwell Schaeffer 18:12

I love it. The wall, the ball hits, the padding that catches it, and the wall that the players run into when they're catching a making a great play of the outfield. I love that. That's fantastic. So, what it you know, what does it mean to you as uh coming from a farm background, how these two worlds overlap here at Principal Park? What kind of message do you want to send out to the farmers that are listening right now who may not understand just how far reaching the soybeans that they're growing go? What does that connection mean to you?

Elly Simpson 18:43

Yeah, coming from a farming family, I grew up on our family farm when I was much younger, no pun intended, but I've always felt connected and had the roots back to farming. I didn't spend a ton of time personally in the fields, but I've always felt connected to it. In my professional career, I've touched farming in several different ways, working at a marketing agency for an ag client to now working here at the ballpark where there is soy incorporated in several different areas. Um, it kind of tells me I'm on the right path with my life of just still feeling rooted and grounded to where I started and to where I'm going.

Maxwell Schaeffer 19:12

What kind of advice would you give to uh young people that want to get into the ag business and all the various facets of it?

Elly Simpson 19:20

Uh I would always just say just remain curious about everything. I think curiosity takes you a lot of different ways in life and asks a lot of questions.

Maxwell Schaeffer 19:27

The uh summer is here, and of course the park is open, and you have a lot of big nights ahead. Give us a preview of some of the stuff that people can put on their calendars that you want to come out and experience here at the I-Cubs.

Elly Simpson 19:39

Yeah, the first that come to mind, we've talked about Star Wars night already. Uh, we are also doing a 2016 World Series celebration. Uh it's the 10-year anniversary of the Cubs, and we're doing everything to celebrate. We've got a World Series trophy replica giveaway for the first 1,000 fans. We're bringing in Clark the Cub, um, the Chicago's mascot, and then bringing in artifacts from that year from directly from Chicago. Oh, and also the World Series trophy itself will be here. And then the last one is we're hosting Backyard Baseball Night.

Maxwell Schaeffer 20:07

That's such a great throwback. I just loved that idea. So obviously, Iowa is known for farming. We have the Field of Dreams. You know, baseball is a prominent part in the summer here in Iowa. We're so lucky to have the Iowa Cubs here, and that that means a lot to baseball fans around here, particularly Cubs fans as well. But the two worlds overlap farming and baseball. How would you put that in terms of your philosophy of approaching what you do and also what your family does in the field?

Elly Simpson 20:37

So, of course, baseball has been America's pastime for decades, and farming runs deep in the state of Iowa, but so does baseball. I hear stories all the time about families growing up listening on the radio to the Chicago Cubs games with their grandparents growing up, whether it was on the farm or at the dinner table after hours, just right before bed, they're all sitting there listening. Hear so many stories from fans growing up that way. And it just takes you back to your roots and where you're from and how people are exposed to the Chicago Cubs. And then, of course, we have the Field of Dreams that all really just truly ties it all in together, too, because we are the heart of America with our farmers here, and baseball is heart of America as well.

Maxwell Schaeffer 21:17

That was Elly Simpson of the Iowa Cubs at Principal Park, where the seats, the walls, the paint, and the fryers are all doing their part for Iowa soy. And if you haven't been out to a game yet this summer, Cosmic Baseball is coming to Principal Park on July 18th. Look it up. It's exactly what it sounds like. Now from the outfield to the farm fields. This year marks Pioneer's 100th anniversary, a century of agronomic research on farm relationships and adapting to whatever the growing season throws at farmers. And this season has thrown plenty. Troy Deutmeyer has been a field agronomist with Pioneer's. For 19 of those hundred years, covering five counties in east, central, and northeast Iowa. He also farms his own 400 acres, continuous no-till, covered crops, and a couple of hog buildings he'll tell you about himself. We caught up with Troy over Zoom to get the latest, most timely update on field conditions. Here's Troy Deutmeyer, Field Agronomist for Pioneer.

A Seasonal Update from the Field

Maxwell Schaeffer 22:25

I want to get a little background from you, Troy, who you are, you know, uh what your day-to-day looks like as a field agronomist. And I and I want to also talk about your 400-acre farm that you work. So uh let's get into it. What does your day look like as a field agronomist?

Troy Deutmeyer 22:41

You know, the the interesting thing about being a field agronomist, one of the things that I love is every day is different. While it's seasonal, it just really varies. Every time you pull out the driveway in the morning, you never know quite what you're gonna encounter. And so, like this time of year, you know, we just wrapped up planting a lot of our uh genetic plots, helping farmers with getting, you know, planners set properly, making sure things are operating correctly there. And then as we get into the growing season, it's a lot of evaluating fields, looking for issues like weeds, insects, diseases, and things like that. And next thing you know, it's fall and we're harvesting and looking for the results to come out of all those trials. And then all of a sudden you kind of turn into a statistician where you start doing data analysis. Then you kind of turn into an educator where you turn around and you bring that information that you learned from the previous growing season and you give that out in agronomy meetings to our customers, uh, put it out on social media, then you start planning for the next year and all starts all over again. So that's kind of uh the day-to-day, I guess, of a field agronomist. It really varies a lot, and that's probably why so many of us enjoy being a field agronomist, is the variety that we get, as well as then all the great people we get to deal with every day.

Maxwell Schaeffer 23:50

You're out in East Central and Northeast Iowa every day. You know, what are you seeing right now and what do farmers need to pay attention to as we head into June?

Troy Deutmeyer 23:58

You know, right now we're actually, even though it's the almost the 20th of May, we're just wrapping up planting here. We had a pretty wet March and April, and so we just have crops just starting to emerge. And I really encourage customers to or even you know, any farmer to get out there and evaluate their stand. And the one thing that we have learned here over the past 20 years is if we want to achieve these high yields, we have to have very uniform emergence and spacing within plants, not just in corn, but soybeans as well. And so I think there's there's low-hanging fruit there for just about every farming operation to improve their tillage and planting passes to get a better stand. And that's one thing we can't fix. You know, we can fix a lot of things in season. We can add more nitrogen, we can control weeds and diseases and insects, but we can never go back and and uh improve that stand. So that's one thing that I really encourage you guys to do. And then with that wet spring that we've had, you know, also let's evaluate our nitrogen program, especially any nitrogen that maybe got put on last fall or before the rainfall was it stabilized, what form was used, and what's our chances of how much we lost during that during these recent heavy rainfall events. So and then the next thing is gonna be that ever-challenging weed management component that we have currently in managing resistant weeds and just remind growers that the best time to control a weed is before it emerges, and that means keeping those soil residuals in the programs.

Maxwell Schaeffer 25:26

You told us that you'll see a record number of on-farm trials this year. So I'm I'm curious about the you know, what's driving that and what what are the farmers actually testing?

Troy Deutmeyer 25:36

Yeah, what's driving a lot of the on-farm testing is just the fact that we've had some pretty awful tight commodity uh prices here, tight cash flows here over the past several years. And I just get a lot of questions from customers saying, hey, does my planter nutrition pay? Or, you know, what's my optimal seeding rate? And you know, we can kind of give recommendations to keep guys, you know, in the road ditches, but if we're gonna keep get them down that center line, they have to do on-farm trials. And the only real way to know, hey, what's the most economic rate or input for me is is to give it a try on your own farm. So some of the things that we're really focusing on is like I mentioned, corn and soybeans, seeding rates, uh, nitrogen rates, you know, using your normal rate, plus or minus 30, doing some trials there. Maybe it's corn root worm insecticide on top of the trade, or maybe you don't need that. Um, and then you know, really looking at that nutritional component where we're taking soil tests in some of these high-yielding areas and low-yielding areas and comparing, okay, the amount it's gonna cost us to change the soil fertility, are we gonna get enough yield to make that make that profitable and test that, you know, over multiple years to see on any of those components, you know, where the profitability lies. And that's really what's driving a lot of farm research is if we're gonna be competitive and um tight margins like this, we've got to make sure that we're scrutinizing every input.

Maxwell Schaeffer 26:59

Uh so Pioneer celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year, that's quite a milestone. And uh, you know, you've been there for a fifth of that. How do how does that make you feel? What does that longevity say about what Pioneer has built?

Troy Deutmeyer 27:12

Sometimes being there for a fifth of it makes you uh proud, but then also makes you wonder, man, that's uh that's a lot of years. But it's interesting if you look at the amount of companies that make it 100 years in the United States, it's actually less than one half of 1%. So it's something that we're pretty proud of, but I think it shows uh the ability for you know Pioneer that we continue to adapt and innovate and bring products, product and services that you know meet the challenges of our customer in a very dynamic industry. You know, if you go back and look at what agriculture looked like in 1926 when Henry Wallace founded Pioneer, things are are drastically different. But I think no matter how much agriculture changed, that that personal connection is always going to be there.

Maxwell Schaeffer 27:55

So that is a question, you know, for a farmer listening who hasn't done on-farm trials before, where do they start?

Troy Deutmeyer 28:02

Yeah, well, you know, the biggest thing is to keep it simple, just use one variable at a time. And I think it's also very important that they go and talk to someone that has done on-farm research. And a great example of that is the Iowa Soybean Association has the Research Center for Farming Innovation. You know, they've done a lot of excellent research over the past years. They could talk to the local pioneer sales rep uh on how you know we implement some on-farm research. But I think that's the biggest thing is to get involved and bring people in that have already done it. Make sure that it's not just research coming from your farm, but your neighbors and maybe those in your community. And if all of a sudden you can turn those two or three locations into 20 or 30 locations, you can feel really good that the management decisions that you're going to make from that research information will be profitable and you'll stand a good chance of choosing the right inputs to use.

Maxwell Schaeffer 28:59

That was Troy Deutmeyer out in the fields of East Central Iowa, where the crop is in the ground, the trials are running, and the work of figuring out what works best for each individual farm really never stops. Today, we covered a lot of ground, a feed mill built for students that's quietly supporting a third of the world's commercial egg genetics, a ballpark in Des Moines where soy shows up in the seats, the walls, the paint, and the fryers. And a field agronomist who goes home after a full day of advising farmers and does the same work on his own 400 acres. What ties all three together is something that Iowa soybean farmers already know. The crop they grow reaches further than most people ever see. Into the feed mill, into the ballpark, into the dairy ration, into the research plot, and so much more. Before we go, here's your fun soy fact. The list of everyday products made from soy might surprise you: upholstery, crayons, newspaper ink, siding and shingles, biodegradable cleaning products, candles, paint, insulation, foam, even beauty products. And that's just a few. Iowa farmers aren't just growing a crop, they're supplying raw material for the world around us. Thank you for listening to the Bean Scene, proudly brought to you by the Iowa Soybean Association and the Soybean Checkoff. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow the Iowa Soybean Association on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or YouTube. We'll catch you next time where Iowa Soy Meets Life. Until then, keep growing.