By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Officials with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) and Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) hope their new strategic plans will help increase consumption of Hoosier-grown corn and soybeans, according to the executive director of both organizations.

With a goal of achieving a more favorable basis for corn and soybeans in Indiana, the plans include a strong focus on looking for new uses for both products, and on supply and infrastructure, Mark Henderson said last week.

“We’re looking at how the industry will look in five years. You can’t look at what’s happening in Indiana without looking at what the nation will look like, and you can’t look at the nation without looking at the rest of the world,” he explained.

Growth in the livestock industry over the next few years could be limited only to increases associated with population expansion, as forecasts show that meat consumption may be relatively flat, he said. This means producers will need to find other outlets for their crops, he added.

“It’s extremely important to increase the consumption of corn and beans in Indiana. Increasing the size of the livestock and biofuels industries is a part of that.”

Despite projections that show production of biofuels in Indiana will increase by a third over the next five years, more corn will be shipped out of the state in the same period, Henderson said.
Indiana’s 11 ethanol plants produce 800 million to 900 million gallons of ethanol annually, and that’s expected to increase to 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion gallons in five years, he noted.

Currently, the state exports about 30 percent to 35 percent of its corn. That number is forecast to increase to 46 percent in five years, he said.

Soybeans will be highly-driven by exports, as soybean oils have lost a significant share of the domestic market to tropical oils, he explained. That loss will probably continue until there’s a new oil profile in soybeans, he added.

The strategic plans hope to take advantage of aquaculture, one of the fastest growing agriculture industries in the world, by promoting a soy protein concentrate to replace fish meal, Henderson said. They’re also looking into designing and implementing sustainable aquaculture systems, he added.

Thanks to Indiana having ports on the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, the state’s corn and soybeans have easy access to markets worldwide, he said.

Even a few cents’ difference in the cost of getting Hoosier products to the ports and to their destinations could make those products more attractive, he noted.

Work on crafting the strategic plans began last summer with more than 100 farmers, organized into focus groups, questioned about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for agriculture. Industry leaders, including those with Purdue University, the Indiana Farm Bureau and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, were also questioned.

The plans take effect Oct. 1, which is the start of the 2011 fiscal year.

As a part of the plans, an environmentalist and economic development staff member were added, he said. A policy reconstruction team has also been created.

“There are more environmental challenges today than ever in agriculture,” Henderson noted. “We’re not going to engage in conflict, but we want to become involved in the regulatory process.”
Because ICMC is funded by the corn checkoff and ISA by the soybean checkoff, officials are prohibited from trying to change or influence policy.

“All the change that’s going to come to agriculture will be through legislation, regulation, rule-making or legal challenges,” he explained. “Checkoff monies can be used to teach, to promote or for research. We can present all the facts.”

The ICMC has an agreement with the ISA to manage both the corn and soybean checkoff programs in the state.