Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Intern, Maci Carter, had the opportunity to visit with Rick Reimer, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Soybean Board last week at the 2023 Annual Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association Convention and Trade Show. Together, they discussed what is next for the Soybean Board, where the industry stands, and how they are looking to continue growing the industry.
“The Soybeans Spectacular, we will bring elementary, even middle school and some high school teachers to Stillwater, put them up for the night, and they will have all day with the curriculum that we teach them how to use the curriculum, and then give them about $200 worth of supplies to take back to their classroom,” Reimer said.
This Soybean Spectacular program, Reimer said, is designed to educate teachers with an agricultural curriculum that they can implement in their own classrooms.
“Those are new uses of everything from biodiesel, soy ink, soy paint, so plastics, and a new uses for the soybean meal,” Reimer said. “It’s almost endless. We call it the miracle crop of many uses.”
Riemer said half of the money collected at the Oklahoma Soybean Board is sent to the national organization, allowing them to participate in and support projects beyond Oklahoma. This allows for new partnerships and uses for soybeans.
“As long as we can get a rain sometime in August, when the soybeans bloom, and blooms turned to pods and pods have the seeds, then we’ll have a good crop,” Reimer said. “So, farmers are the ultimate optimist.”
While Oklahoma is smaller in terms of the soybean industry, Reimer shared Oklahoma soybean production will be between half a million and a million acres this year. He said he is still optimistic the crop will be good this year, especially compared to last year with the drought.
“We have decided that the best way for us to reach customers and our producers is through digital social media and our website,” Reimer said. “So we have spent additional funding and beefing up our website, putting more information on there, and then using Facebook and Instagram to drive traffic to our website. And we feel like that’s the way we’re going to reach people in the future.”
Changing times are called a change in tactic, according to Reimer, with old media ways not having the same impact they once did, the soybean board is trying to evolve its outreach to keep soybeans in the conversation.
“We have quite a few trade shows coming up, the Soybean Spectacular, and then we’ll have some additional educational outreach meetings in the fall,” Reimer said.
