As the soy industry descended upon San Francisco Aug. 19-21 for Soy Connext, the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board (WSMB) joined Northern Soy Marketing (NSM) to build connections with the more than 400 international soy customers in attendance. 

“Expanding export markets for Wisconsin soybeans is an integral part of WSMB’s mission to increase farmer profitability,” WSMB Executive Director Adam Kask said. “Soy Connext is a great platform for our message to reach a vast audience.” 

The conference, billed as the Global U.S. Soy Summit, hosted representatives from over 60 countries, including Indonesia, which is a target audience for NSM, and by association, WSMB.  

“While we’re here, we’re encouraging purchasers to buy U.S. soy leaving through the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway, and Southeast Asia is an ideal recipient,” Kask said. “We’re highlighting the quality, consistency and reliability of northern-grown soybeans and soymeal.” 

Traditionally, soybean quality has been based upon crude protein content. However, crude protein percentage alone is only an estimate of the total amino acids based on the level of nitrogen detected. NSM aims to change the language of soybean quality to the critical amino acid value (CAAV). 

“We’re continually working to educate international customers about the advantages of adopting the CAAV, which is a calculation of the sum of the five most critical amino acids – lysine, cysteine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan,” said Katelyn Engquist, NSM market development project manager. “The quality conversations that happened at Soy Connext helped move the needle for northern-grown soy.” 

WSMB knows the value of Wisconsin soybean checkoff dollars and painstakingly makes investments that will benefit Wisconsin producers. Membership in NSM is just one way that WSMB is making sound investments to expand soy’s market, and attending Soy Connext is an opportunity to build relationships. 

“It was a great event for us to continue driving home NSM’s soy quality message,” Kask said. “The more we can get in front of our customers, the bigger impact we can make towards unlocking the knowledge of soybean quality.”