Ohio elevators offering premiums for low-lin beans in ’08

DES MOINES, Iowa – Ohio growers now have more opportunities to market their soybeans for a premium. A select group of Ohio elevators is offering growers expanded options to earn special premiums for soybeans during the 2008 season.
More than 40 locations throughout the state are offering up to a 60-cent premium per bushel for low-linolenic soybeans from Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business.
In conjunction with the premium program, the Bunge DuPont Biotech Alliance is marketing TREUS low-linolenic soybean oil, produced with Pioneer-brand low-linolenic soybean varieties, to help meet increasing consumer demand.
Expansion. In its fourth year, this contracting program has expanded its geography into seven states for the 2008 growing season. In addition to Ohio, participating elevators are located in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
High-performing varieties in Ohio have included Pioneer brand soybean 92M82 (Roundup Ready), a late Group II variety that features excellent yield potential along with resistance to Phytophthora root rot and tolerance to frogeye leaf spot.
In field trials, 92M82 outperformed other soybean varieties by 2 bushels per acre on average.
Another variety that has shown excellent performance this year is 93M20 (Roundup Ready). This early Group III low-linolenic variety has shown resistance to brown stem rot and good Phytophthora field tolerance along with very good field emergence and harvest standability.
In field trials, 93M20 outperformed competitive soybean varieties by 0.6 bushels per acre on average.
Premiums. As part of the Alliance program, participating elevators in Ohio currently offer a 60-cent-per-bushel premium for on-farm storage; many also offer a harvest delivery option that pays a 55-cent-per-bushel premium to growers who sign up to deliver Pioneer-brand low-linolenic soybeans.