Beans are in the bin, and the checkoff work keeps going
Lee Brooke has the soybeans out. The Page County farmer, in his first fall as president of the Iowa Soybean Association, told KCSI listeners Monday morning that the bean harvest on his place is finished, with about a quarter of the corn still standing. A shower had already moved through, so the rest of the day was chores and livestock, and a little rest before the next dry window.
What the crop did
Beans, he said, were awfully good. Yields were consistent. Not a record, but pretty darn good. Corn is solid, mostly above 200 bushels, but short of the mid-200s he and others had hoped for earlier in the year. He blamed the swing from wet weather to heat. Around Clarinda, some neighbors are done and some still have a ways to go. Another week of weather, he said, would take care of a lot of it.
He also fielded a couple of wildlife questions. A few pheasants. Some hunters near him got their limit over the weekend, which was more than he had been seeing. Deer are mostly small. The big bucks, he said, seem harder to find, with a few still hiding in the corn.
Where the half of 1 percent goes
The checkoff, he reminded listeners, is a federally mandated deduction. One-half of 1 percent comes off the soybean check. Half of that stays with the state association. Half goes to the United Soybean Board. The money is for research and markets, so the bigger crops have somewhere to go.
On the research side he pointed to the Research Center for Farming Innovation, which works on agronomics and conservation. He has been in the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative for two or three years. Iowa State is part of it. ISA administers it. Farmers run multiple nitrogen rates and track them through the year and through harvest, looking for the best use of the fertilizer. The center is also working on waterhemp resistance and soybean cyst nematode. Last year it ran more than 80 dedicated projects with more than 600 Iowa farmers. This year’s board priorities also include fungicides, seeding rates, nutrient and manure work, and cover crops, plus a new Iowa State project on waterhemp that resists glufosinate and 2,4-D.
Anyone can get in. Call the office, or go to the website. Brooke is the District 7 director, and the association has people in every crop reporting district who can point a farmer the right way. The site is iasoybeans.com. Research lives at iasoybeans.com/research.
A seat at the table in Villisca
The fall policy roundtables are on this week. Brooke’s district meets Thursday, November 5, north of Villisca at Mark Clift’s farm, 2945 170th Street. Farmers sit down with the association’s existing policies, say what should stay, what should change, and what is missing. Those conversations feed a December meeting where the new resolutions are adopted. Expected topics this year include water quality, data centers and farmer data ownership, right to repair, and the federal 45Z clean fuel credit.
The official registration date had passed. Brooke said he called Emma, who is handling the district, the night before the interview. She told him anyone who still wants in should sign up at iasoybeans.com, under the fall policy meetings, and pick Villisca. “If you want to come to the one this Thursday, north of Villisca, please still sign up and come. They’d love to have you.” Lunch is included. Check-in is 10:30. The program runs to about 1:30.
The same morning includes a SoyFoam demonstration for the fire department. Clift has been on the department a long time, Brooke said, and the two sides got together on it. SoyFoam is the soy-based foam the association has been promoting as a safer alternative to foams that carry PFAS chemicals. Brooke again called the chemical PFOS. PFOS is one type of PFAS. The developer is Cross Plains Solutions.
Membership, and the trip still ahead
To be a farmer member, market at least 250 bushels of soybeans a year, or every other year if the farm is on a single-crop rotation. Self-verify on the website. There is no extra cost. The checkoff already paid it. An advocate membership is separate, and optional. Checkoff dollars cannot be used for lobbying in Des Moines or Washington, so the advocate dues are what fund that work. Brooke encouraged both.
Trade, he said, is a huge share of the job. A big part of the crop is crushed for meal export or shipped as whole beans. He leaves for the Philippines right after Thanksgiving, for about a week, to meet buyers. The Philippines are the number one buyer of U.S. soybean meal. He was there a year ago at the same time. AGP sells a lot of meal into that market and hosts a Christmas gathering for buyers and brokers. Keeping those friendships, he said, is how the business stays.
He broke the association’s work into five pieces: demand, research, engagement, advocacy, and policy. Prices move on reports farmers cannot control. “We just got to keep going and hope for the best.”
Lee Brooke farms near Clarinda and is president of the Iowa Soybean Association through September 30, 2027. The Villisca roundtable is Thursday, November 5. Learn more at iasoybeans.com. This conversation aired on KCSI and is brought to you by the Iowa Soybean Association and the soybean checkoff.
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