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The Top Producer Frontier Study Tour is designed to explore developing areas of competition and market access for U.S. producers. The 2nd Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, March 12-24, 2010, in Panama and Brazil will examine how the Panama Canal expansion project will benefit U.S. farmers and how the infrastructure developments in Brazil may lead to further development there. The tour is sponsored by United Soybean Board (USB)/Soybean Checkoff and co-sponsored by the Soy Transportation Coalition.
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| 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour |
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The 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour hopes to educate U.S. soybean farmers about the potential and the challenges of shipping channels throughout the Western Hemisphere. USB farmer-leaders recently determined that market access is one of two priority issues that the board should address. Market access remains crucial to the long-term viability of U.S. soybean production and the future profitability of U.S. soybean farmers. The Top Producer tour includes stops in Panama and Brazil. The government of Panama recently announced plans for a major expansion of the Panama Canal, which will open the waterway to larger ships. This expansion will increase shipping efficiency for some Midwestern soybean farmers to international markets. Additionally, it will open new shipping lanes for Brazilian producers, thus creating potential competitive challenges. U.S. farmers will meet with international farmers to examine production, land ownership, new markets, inputs and other challenges and opportunities. For additional information, visit the Frontier Study Tour pages at Top Producer or the Soybean Transportation Coalition. Click here to read the latest 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour Press Release. Listen to the latest BeanCasts®, audio news reports and AgriTalk interviews regarding the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, sponsored by the United Soybean Board (USB)/soybean checkoff - March 16 BeanCast® - USB Communications Chair Vanessa Kummer, a soybean farmer from Colfax, North Dakota, and USB Director Bob Metz, who serves on the USB Global Opportunities and International Marketing committees and farms near West Brown Valley, South Dakota, share their thoughts on visiting Panama and Brazil.
- March 22 BeanCast® - USB Audit and Evaluation Chair Vicki Coughlin, who also serves on the national checkoff board’s International Marketing Committee, and farms near Watertown, Wisconsin, is part of the group visiting Panama and Brazil and shares her findings on Brazilian agriculture.
- March 25 BeanCast® - Listen to participants, Mark Mueller, an Iowa soybean and corn farmer who participated in the first study tour nearly 10 years ago and found changes in Brazil, in his words, “shocking” and Joshua Lloyd, a north central Kansas soybean farmer who practices continuous no-till on his farm and was a bit surprised not seeing that practice taking place in central Mato Grosso, the state that produces 30 percent of all Brazilian soybeans.
- March Audio News Report Parts 1, 2 and 3 – USB Directors Vanessa Kummer and Bob Metz discuss what they’ve learned about some critical transportation infrastructure projects in Panama and Brazil. Panama continues work on expanding the Panama Canal, an important avenue for Asia-bound U.S. soy. Meanwhile, Brazil continues to make improvements to its system of roads, bridges and railroads, which could make Brazilian soybean farmers more competitive.
- March 22 AgriTalk Interview - USB Communications Chair Vanessa Kummer, a soybean farmer from Colfax, North Dakota, shares her thoughts on the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour in Panama and Brazil.
To view the slide show from the tour, click on a picture below and use the arrows.
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 U.S. farmers taking part in 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, sponsored by the soybean checkoff, found road, bridge and rail improvements continue to take place in Brazil. But, some U.S. farmers now farming in Brazil told the group some planned infrastructure improvements have not started or have not been completed as originally scheduled. Traveling unpaved, dirt roads in much of the Brazilian countryside is a way of life in the major soybean-producing state in Brazil. |  John Carroll, 29, of Carthage, Ill., represents one of many U.S. pioneers who have assembled investors over the last 15 years to break virgin land in the “cerrados” or savannah-like sections of Brazil. Carroll, shown here in one of his fields with U.S. farmers participating in the Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, already has plans to grow more cotton and fewer acres of soybeans when the 2011 crop season starts in Brazil. |  Tyler Bruch, 30, a native of Emmetsburg, Iowa, shows USB Director Bob Metz (left), a soybean farmer from West Browns Valley, Minn., and Todd Dittmer, a farmer from Oelwein, Iowa, how to use black light to determine the quality of the cotton he grows. One U.S. farmer who also grows cotton near Luis Eduardo Magalhaes (LEM), in the east central part of Brazil called the area the “Silicon Valley of cotton production” and had one field that consisted of 20,000 acres. |  Matt Kruse, a native of northwest Iowa, helped assemble a group of investors to purchase 22,000 acres of farmland in the northeastern state of Bahia, Brazil. Here he shows U.S. soybean farmers participating in the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour the housing he must provide for the employees who work on his soybean, corn and cotton farm. |  Brazil’s poultry production continues to rapidly expand. U.S. soybean farmers participating in the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour visited new poultry processing plant under construction near LEM, Brazil. The plant will process 150,000 chickens during its two shifts each day. The chickens will come from one farm in the state of Bahia in eastern Brazil. |
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 The soybean growers association in Mato Grosso, Brazil says most of the best land in the largest soybean producing state has already been converted to cropland. Officials with the group expect land in the north eastern states closer to some major ports to be the next new frontier for agricultural growth in Brazil. Pictured here is the canyon that borders the states of Goias and Bahia in east central Brazil. |  Dean Campbell (far right), Chairman of the checkoff-funded Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) and other U.S. soybean farmers met with farmer-leaders and staff of Aprasoja, the organization of soybean farmers in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Farmers in the state pay a 17 percent tax on soybeans and other commodities for long-term infrastructure improvements such as paved roads and housing for agricultural workers. Mato Grosso farmers also invest in soy research and promotion through a checkoff program, the only state to do so. Dean Campbell (far right), Chairman of the checkoff-funded Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) and other U.S. soybean farmers met with farmer-leaders and staff of Aprasoja, the organization of soybean farmers in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Farmers in the state pay a 17 percent tax on soybeans and other commodities for long-term infrastructure improvements such as paved roads and housing for agricultural workers. Mato Grosso farmers also invest in soy research and promotion through a checkoff program, the only state to do so. |  Ricardo Silva (left), a Mato Grosso, Brazil farmer and official with Aprasoja, an organization of Mato Grosso, Brazil soybean farmers, has a farmer-to-farmer discussion on biotechnology and sustainability with Vanessa Kummer, USB Communications chair and soybean farmer from Colfax, North Dakota. Farmers in Mato Grosso have a soybean checkoff program and Silva expects soybean farmers in other Brazilian states to enact one as well within the next 3-5 years. |  Growth in the Brazilian animal agriculture industry has skyrocketed in the last decade. U.S. soybean farmers on the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour visited a brand new JBS beef processing plant near the city of Cuiba in central Brazil. Officials with Aprosoja, a state soybean association, told the U.S. soybean farmers that Brazilian broiler production has increased more than 210 percent, pork production nearly 130 percent and beef production more than 75 percent since 2004. |  Northern Brazil’s network of deep water rivers allow ocean vessels to travel far inland without the need for locks and dams. This ship traveled on the Amazon River to Brazilian ports to the northeast ports of Brazil. Aprasoja, a soybean farmer association in Mato Grosso, Brazil, expects soybean production to increase more than 300 percent in northeastern states of Brazil between now and 2020. |
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 This busy, road deep in to soybean country in north central Brazil is busy now with trucks hauling 2010 crop soybeans to market. |  Most soybeans grown in Brazil end up in foreign countries, but it’s animal agriculture sector continues to expand. This is a market in the city of Minaus in northern Brazil. |  U.S. soybean farmers on the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour visited the Weisul Agricola farm near Diamantino, Brazil in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The company’s director of production said yields have run around 47 bushels/acre rather than the expected 51 bushels an acre this year. |  USB Audit & Evaluation Chair Vicki Coughlin, a soybean farmer from Watertown, Wis. gets ready for a turn at the wheel on this combine harvesting soybeans in Brazil. Coughlin talked with farmers and company employees at the operation, which consists of four farms in four different Brazilian states totaling 150,000 acres. |  U.S. soybean farmers found you cotton plants among soybean stubble from a soybean crop already harvested this year on this farm in central Brazil. Company officials told the group that soybean yields have been a bit disappointing on this farm, blaming intense cloud cover during the peak of this year’s growing season. They also said some of their soybean fields had to be treated with a fungicide five times to limit high yield loss caused by soybean rust. |
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 Brazil continues to slowly improve its transportation infrastructure. This bridge crossing the expansive Negra River is under construction near the northwestern city of Menaus, Brazil. |  Brazil’s massive Solimoes and Negra Rivers span two states and can be up to a mile and-a-half wide. They prove to be an efficient method of transportation as is exhibited here as a tug carries truck trailers near the northern Brazil town of Itacoatiara. |  USB Directors (l to r) Bob Metz, Vanessa Kummer and Vicki Coughlin inspect the Brazilian soybean harvest as part of the Top Producer Frontier Study Tour on the Weisul Agricola farm near Diamantino in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. |  Gustavo Weisheimer (right) serves as Director of Production for the Weisul Agricola company, in Brazil. The company operates four farms in four different Brazilian states. |  Combines fill the air with red dust during harvest on the Weisul Agricola farm. These combines cut soybeans a mile-and-a-half before turning to return to unload on to trucks. Brazil still relies on bumpy, clay-compacted roads for a good part of its transportation infrastructure, which is improving with the construction of paved roads, bridges and a new rail system. |
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 Sixteen U.S. soybean farmers and others attending the Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, sponsored by the United Soybean Board (USB)/soybean checkoff, received a briefing from Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC) in Panama City about the state of the U.S. transportation system. Steenhoek said two locks on the Ohio River failed over the last year, disrupting grain and oilseed shipments. He said the STC plans to conduct a study to quantify potential impact of the failure of other U.S. river locks and dams given their aging functionality. |  The USB Communications program sponsored the Top Producer Frontier Study Tour to Panama and Brazil. Making a stop to receive a briefing at the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal were (l to r) USB Communications Chair Vanessa Kummer, a soybean farmer from Colfax, N.D., USB Director Bob Metz, a member of the USB Global Opportunities and International Marketing Committees and a soybean farmer from West Brown Valley, S.D., and USB Audit & Evaluation Chair Vicki Coughlin, also a member of the USB International Marketing Committee and a soybean farmer from Watertown, Wis. The group learned on Saturday what the expansion of the Panama Canal could mean to U.S. grain and oilseed flow, that bulk vessel commerce on the canal is outpacing container shipping, and that river and ocean shipping remains cost efficient. |  The 2010 Top Producer Frontier Study Tour, sponsored by USB/soybean checkoff, examined how far oilseed transport and processing have progressed in 10 years. Here, Iowa farmer Mark Mueller (center left) and USB Director and South Dakota farmer Bob Metz, talks with A. Maggi Company officials Paulo Ferreria, (far left) administrative supervisor and Jander Santos, (far right) loading supervisor of the A. Maggi Company Hermasa soybean terminal near Itacoatiara, Brazil a decade after the U.S. farmer first visited the facility. Mueller found the Brazilian company has significantly expanded its soybean export, storage and processing capacity. |  Joshua Lloyd, (right) a Kansas soybean farmer, viewed the A. Maggi Company soybean transportation infrastructure with Victor Vital, loading master of A. Maggi Company’s Hermasa soybean terminal near Itacoatiara, Brazil. Lloyd and other U.S. soybean farmers passed through tight security to view the Maggi soybean terminal and processing facility. A tanker moored in the background was being loaded with soybean oil while the two viewed new crop soybeans from the state of Mato Grosso being unloaded in the facility located on the Solimoes River, which connects to the Amazon in northern Brazil. |  A group of U.S. soybean farmers fall in line to review the A. Maggi Hermasa soybean terminal near Itacoatiara, Brazil on Mon., March 15. Maggi company officials told U.S. soybean farmers participating in the 2010 Top Producer Frontier Tour, sponsored by USB and the soybean checkoff, that the terminal opened along the Amazon River in 1997 to speed up the transport of Brazilian soybeans from the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and other areas to export markets. It now has a payroll of 800 at this northern Brazil terminal. The company has since built and operates a soybean processing plant at the same location and helped export 103 million bushels of Brazilian soybeans in 2009. As Brazil harvests an anticipated record harvest in 2010, A. Maggi company officials expect that to increase this year. The privately-held A. Maggi soybean empire in Brazil includes 10 farms in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso as well as soy processing plants and export terminals that now employ 3,000 Brazilians. |
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