The annual Prairie Grains Conference brings out the brightest and best ag to provide updates on their latest research in the small grains world of wheat, barley and soybeans in the Northern Plains. It’s also been known to bring out the coldest temperatures and most blustery winds in the region. Safe to say no one was let down again as the conference returned Dec. 11-12 to the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D.
Bright and early on the second day of the Prairie Grains Conference, the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) hosted a Soybean Reporting Session, which provided an opportunity for soybean farmers to receive updates on some of the research projects they’ve helped support via their checkoff dollars.
“It amazes me that it’s -12 degrees at seven o’clock in the morning and by the end of the first session we had nearly 100 people in the room, most of which had to drive a little ways to get here,” said MSR&PC District 1, 2 & 3 Director Corey Hanson, who moderated the session in place of recently retired Director of Research David Kee.
Hanson, who was elected to MSR&PC earlier in 2024, said the packed audience proved that soybean growers understand the importance of staying up to date with research and that they understand the importance of knowing how their checkoff dollars are spent.
“It’s a way for MSR&PC to showcase how farmers’ investments are being made and how those checkoff dollars can be utilized to help those farmers be more profitable in the future,” Hanson said.
Presenting at the Soybean Reporting Session were researchers from both the public sector, such as Angie Peltier and Lindsay Pease from University of Minnesota Extension, and private sector, including Andrew Lueck and Jenna Whitmore from Next Gen Ag.
“We’re unique in this space in that we’re not a university of government institution, so that allows us to bring industry together, see new products coming down the pipeline first and provide data to growers the next year and not three years down the road, so we really pride ourselves on that,” said Lueck, owner of Next Gen Ag. “We’ve had a great partnership with the Council over the last several years and look forward to working with them more down the road.”
Peltier used the session to provide awareness of frog-eyed leaf spot and debut new wallet-sized ID cards for the disease that were created through checkoff support.
“Farmers should start keeping an eye out for this because it’s a newer disease that we’re seeing a little bit farther north than we’ve seen in the past,” said Peltier, who works out of the Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston. “One of the reasons to be concerned about frog-eyed leaf spot is that it is resistant to our QOI fungicides.”
Connecting the counties
In addition to soy checkoff-funded research, the Prairie Grains Conference provided an opportunity for representatives of their local county soybean organizations to reconnect, receive updates on the upcoming legislative session and learn more about upcoming promotional campaigns during Minnesota Soybean’s County Update Meeting.
Next summer, the Council will work with its county soybean organizations across the state to distribute pails of soy-based firefighting foam, specifically SoyFoam TF 1122, to their local fire departments. SoyFoam is a PFAS-free foam that is biodegradable and environmentally friendly, benefiting firefighter’s health.
“MSR&PC is always looking to find new uses and products with your soybeans and then educate people about those products, that’ll be a big part of this campaign,” said Bailey Grubish, MSR&PC marketing and communications specialist who works on behalf of more than 20 counties in southern Minnesota. “It’s just a really great product that’s healthier for our firefighters because it doesn’t contain chemicals that have been known to cause cancer, and it’s better for the environment because it’s biodegradable.”
Along with the county program, Minnesota Soybean has teamed up with the Minnesota Gophers basketball team to donate five-gallon buckets of SoyFoam to a fire department throughout the state every time the Gophers “extinguish a run” by the opposing team during their game.
Bill Zurn, who also represents District 1, 2 & 3 on the Council and is a member of the Becker-Mahnomen County Soybean Growers, said both farmers and first responders are excited about the campaign.
“I’ve been chatting with firefighters from Detroit Lakes, who uses about 150 gallons of foam a year, and firefighters from Vergas, who uses 150,000 gallons a year,” he said. “They can’t wait to get their hands on this SoyFoam.”
