Not everyone could look at a five-gallon bucket of northern-grown soybeans and be starstruck. But during Northern Soy Marketing’s (NSM) 2024 Crop Tour, participants – which were identified and selected with the U.S. Soybean Export Council’s help – couldn’t help but ogle over the high-quality soybeans in front of them. 

“They’re beautiful,” said Doan Thuong, director of Van An Trading Company in Vietnam. 

The NSM Crop Tour, which took place Oct. 7-11, brought attendees to multiple farms across the Upper Midwest before ending the tour in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) with visits to the Port of Seattle and AGP’s export facility at Grays Harbor.  

A visit to Wisconsin United Soybean Board Director Tony Mellenthin’s Eau Galle farm kicked off the tour, where the group got an up close and personal look at grain bins and storage technology. 

“Our storage facilities allow us to make sure we optimize our harvest schedule,” Mellenthin said. “We’re never waiting in an elevator line, and we can harvest in a timely manner, maintaining the quality that our customers expect.” 

Many soybean growers in the Upper Midwest opt to store at least a portion of their harvest over the winter months. Though they’ve unloaded and dumped their soybeans into steel grain bins, technology still allows growers to keep an eye on their stores to ensure that the beans don’t get too warm. If the temperatures do start to rise, farmers are able to blow air, which is cold because of winter’s cold temperatures, through the bins to cool down the crop. 

It was a perfect time of year for participants – which included five stakeholders from Vietnam and five from Indonesia – to visit the Upper Midwest. Not only was the foliage at peak fall colors, but it was also the middle of soybean and corn harvest. At NSM Chair Glen Groth’s farm near Ridgeway, Minn., attendees got to ride in the combine and grain cart while he wrapped up soybean harvest. The next day at NSM Director Patrick O’Leary’s farm in Danvers, Minn., the delegation experienced corn harvest. 

“These are our fields,” Groth said to the group, stressing the importance of family farms in NSM’s member states. “We are with our crop every single day. We watch it every day and make sure it’s in peak condition by controlling pests and weeds.”

And soybeans grown in the Upper Midwest have a direct route to end users in Southeast Asia. 

“We can quickly and efficiently transport our product to the PNW to head to Vietnam and Indonesia,” Groth said. “The U.S. government has made investments in order for us to provide that avenue to export our product, and I think that is one thing that differentiates us from many other soybean growing regions in the world.” 

The tour also visited soybean research facilities at the University of Minnesota with Dr. Seth Naeve. In South Dakota, they stopped by South Dakota Soybean Research & Promotion Council Director Chad Schooley’s operation in Castlewood and toured the South Dakota Soybean Processors plant in Volga. 

“Participants got to talk with farmers and tour farms in the Upper Midwest all at various stages of harvest,” said Katelyn Engquist, NSM’s market development project manager who helped lead the tour. “And then tour a processing plant to see where some U.S. farmers deliver their crop, followed by where soy is exported from in the PNW. It was truly a full circle visit.” 

The PNW was the last stop on the NSM Crop Tour. While at the Northwest Seaport Alliance at the Port of Seattle, the group learned more about exports from the area, including soybeans and hay.  

To make the trip even more memorable than it already was, while touring AGP’s Terminal 2, the group witnessed a ship on its maiden voyage bound for Vietnam with soymeal. 

“We all enjoyed being able to see soybean meal being loaded onto a vessel headed to some of the participants’ home country,” Engquist said. “Some participants made comments about how little dust there was as the meal entered the hold of the ship. I think that’s just another ode to the great attention and strict processes everyone involved in U.S. agriculture follows to make sure end users receive the best product.” 

AGP’s expansion at Grays Harbor, which will allow for more efficient and increased amount of soymeal exports, was also a hot topic while visiting. 

As the 2024 harvest season wraps up for Upper Midwest soybean growers, NSM is looking forward to continuing its outreach through trade missions to Indonesia and Thailand in early 2025.