-Photo courtesy of Joclyn Bushman, Iowa Soybean Association
ROBB EWOLDT, District 6 DIrector for the Iowa Soybean Association and soybean farmer from Davenport, is excited about the many new possibilities for soybean products, including 100 percent recycled asphalt made with high oleic soy oil.

Robb Ewoldt says there are a lot of reasons to be excited about soybeans. Not only for soybean producers, but for those who will benefit from new ideas and new products coming down the pike that will involve the use of American soybeans.

Ewoldt is the Iowa Soybean Association’s District 6 director (USDA’s Crop Reporting District 6), which includes 10 counties in East Central Iowa along the I-80 corridor.

Part of his responsibilities during his tenure over the last seven years has been to travel the world to meet with foreign buyers of U.S. soybeans to help find new markets for them; lobbying in the legislature on behalf of soybean producers, deciding where and how to spend checkoff dollars; and spreading the word about new ideas, projects and products that are being funded by those dollars, among other responsibilities.

And he takes that responsibility seriously.

“It’s been important to learn that what’s happening globally is important to us and how it affects our markets,” said Ewoldt. “When we sit in this board room, I always think about how this improves the profitability or sustainability for the Iowa soybean farmer — for every decision we make.”

WHAT’S NEW?

Ewoldt said the biggest innovation right now that involves the ISA is the asphalt project, seen at this year’s Farm Progress Show in Boone. He said it’s 100 percent recycled asphalt made from using high oleic soy oil and making a “binder” out of it to make asphalt.

Research on this project, done by Iowa State University, has taken the last dozen years to become reality. ISA checkoff dollars were used to help fund that research.

“You have renewable oil, which is the soybean oil — and recycled asphalt, so what a way to make a new product and have a new use for our soybean oil,” said Ewoldt. “That’s the hottest thing in-state right now.” Ewoldt said on the conservation side, the ISA owns a for-profit company called Soil Water Outcomes Fund, which rewards farmers up to $40 per acre for using specific farming practices considered “environmentally sound.”

Some of those practices include (on corn): multiple-pass nitrogen fertilizer application, strip tilling, no-tilling soybeans into standing corn stalks, cover crops, etc.

“These are practices that a lot of farmers are already doing, and they might be able to get some extra dollars to help pay for that technology,” he said, “because some of these practices can get expensive on the equipment side when you switch over. This is a good way to help fund it.”

ISA will receive a “sizable” grant from the federal USDA that will allow that company to expand into other states. It’s already in seven other states.

“We think we’re doing good things showing farmers how these practices can help water quality and capture carbon, and how we can increase yield and soil health,” said Ewoldt.

He said ISA is constantly funding research with ISU on the supply side and working to figure out disease issues, new technology in seed, better yields and changing crop protection practices and products, and trying to get that information out to their members, since it’s their checkoff dollars being invested into this research. “That’s one reason that asphalt project at the Farm Progress Show was so cool, because we actually got to walk on that asphalt, and know that our checkoff dollars went into the research that developed this binder to make improved infrastructure for the roads we drive on, or it creates demand,” said Ewoldt.

He said walking on that asphalt made him proud to be part of the ISA, also knowing there are other big projects coming from the national side — including renewable diesel.

“That’s a whole different ball game,” he said. “We have biodiesel in Iowa, and it was a great use for oil and it built demand 25 years ago when we developed it. Now we’re looking at the next generation of technology coming in in renewable diesel, and it’s here now.”

If this market matures according to projections, Ewoldt said it will use all soy oil production domestically. Currently, all renewable diesel is going to California to help with the low carbon fuel standards.

“That’s huge, and this technology and the dollars invested are taking our soybean prices to the next level,” Ewoldt said. He said the soybean is made up of 80 percent protein and 20 percent oil.

“When you look at the value in the whole soybean, 45 percent of the value is in the oil itself,” he said. “That’s an important thing to understand, and why we’re doing some outside-the-box thinking right now.”

He said petroleum companies are purchasing soy oil to produce renewable diesel, and it’s 100 percent “drop-in-the-tank” ready.

“It’s a game-changer — it’s huge to our industry,” said Ewoldt, adding that technology could take this product one step further and turn it into sustainable aviation fuel. “That is really where it’s at because they are never going to be very efficient in putting batteries in (or making) electric planes because the batteries weigh so much.”

He said on a personal note as a soybean producer, this technology and new uses of soybean oil could put an end to depending on other countries to buy/use U.S. soybeans, because the U.S. would have complete control over the demand of its own soybean production.

“In 10 years, China could be a secondary customer because most of our customers would be here domestically,” said Ewoldt, adding that there are many crush facilities going up in the Midwest — including Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.

He said the biggest boost coming out of this is that instead of exporting whole soybeans to China, soybeans would be processed domestically and create new jobs, and two products would be sold — soybean meal and soybean oil. He said new users would need to be found for the extra soybean meal, in direct relation with the added soy oil demand, which will be a challenge in the next five years.

Ewoldt said that meal should be cheaper for livestock producers because of the expected surplus supply. He said ISA is on the trail working to protect farmers from more government regulations, and are starting a new initiative in order to help that.

“Three or four times a year we take a third or a quarter of our board and go on lobbying trips to visit with lawmakers and the people who make the rules to enforce the law — those rule makers are the people we want to be in contact with,” he said. “The ISA are great resources when it comes to understanding how we move commodities and surface transportation, or conservation practices that work and make a farmer more profitable.”

He said ISA serves as a resource to the USDA as they make their regulations. He said ISA and its checkoff dollars — in cooperation with the U.S. Soybean Board – were active in getting the port of New Orleans dredged from 45 feet to 50 feet because it would help farmers upstream. “Studies showed it could improve basis up to 12 cents per bushel on soybeans because of the efficiency and how much more we could put on those ocean vessels,” said Ewoldt.

EWOLDT’S

INVOLVEMENT

Ewoldt said he wanted to get on the ISA board to be involved in the education and conservation experiences, to make a difference and to both gain and give insight. He travels the world to visit with foreign soybean buyers, saying those trips are not vacations. He said they visit various embassies, stay in different hotels each night, and don’t do a ton of sight-seeing.

Ewoldt himself is a soybean producer, farming near Davenport in Scott County. His operation includes no-till and strip-till, planting cover crops, reducing the use of crop protection products and implementing innovative conservation practices — including the installation of the first bioreactor (underground water filtration system) in eastern Iowa. He and his wife, Jennifer, have been recognized for their commitment to conservation and agricultural advocacy, and were the recipients of the “Wergin Good Farm Neighbor” award, River Action’s “Eddy” award, and the “Iowa Farm Environmental Leader” award.

Last January, the couple was presented the ISA “Advocate For Agriculture” award for their efforts in sharing the story of agriculture. They conduct an annual “Open Farm Day,” where they invite the public to come onto their farm to see farm equipment up close and start discussions about farming and its practices.