Transcript
Speaker: Hello, my name is Stephen Kilger. I'm the managing editor of Feeding Grain Magazine and the host of the Feeding Grain Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive deep into the issues affecting the feed manufacturing, grain handling, and allied industries.
Speaker: Today's episode is brought to you by the Binwhip from Numat Systems. The powerful dual impact Binwhip removes the toughest buildup and blockages in industrial storage silos without hazardous silo entry.
Speaker: Learn more today at binwhip.com. Today, my guest is Jeff Frazier, Marketing Development Manager for Schooler at their Goodland Crush facility in Northwest Kansas.
Speaker: Jeff is helping drive an impressive expansion of cannoli production in the High Plains region, where acreage has grown from 15,000 to nearly 50,000 acres across Kansas and Oklahoma in just three years.
Speaker: We discuss how improved seed genetics, weather resilience, and a strong market demand for renewable diesel are making cannoli a profitable alternative to traditional winter wheat rotations.
Speaker: I hope you enjoy the interview. If you want to help out with the podcast or are listening to this in a podcasting app, please rate us and subscribe. If you're listening online, sign up for the Feeding Grain newsletter, Industry Watch, to see when new podcasts drop and stay up to date with news from around the industry.
Speaker: Now, on to the show. Hi, Jeff. Thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Stephen. Appreciate you having me. Happy to. Well, Schooler came out with a press release about the canola ah harvest down in Kansas, which is, I will admit, crop that I didn't know grew very much in Kansas, and it seems like that's a relatively new thing. But before we get into all of that, why don't you introduce yourself and tell me what you do at Schooler?
Speaker: Yeah, again, my name is Jeff Frazier, and I am the market development manager for Schooler in the Goodland Crush facility. The Crush facility is located just a few miles to the west of Goodland, Kansas, on the northwest part of the state.
Speaker: I was born and raised in the Wichita, Kansas area, so I'm very familiar with South Central Kansas as well as North Central and West Central Oklahoma. Began my career in risk management through crop insurance and brokerage and kind of leading myself to the current role as we help to redevelop canola acreage in the High Plains.
Speaker: My role at the Schuyller Company is really centered around building long-term opportunities for the growers while helping connect agriculture to emerging demand markets. Big part of that focus is developing canola acres throughout Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Texas, even into parts of Northeastern Colorado.
Speaker: and creating reliable market access for the growers through our facility in Goodland, Kansas. Yeah, well, you guys have already expanded in the press release, it said from 15,000 acres to almost 50,000 acres in Kansas and Oklahoma over the last just three years, which is really impressive.
Speaker: And it seems like this year is a really good year to kind of prove its viability as a crop for this region. Can you tell me a little bit why you guys are driving that expansion?
Speaker: Yeah, there's really several factors that are kind of converging all at once. I think from the growers' aspect, first and foremost, it's going to be profitability. Growers are seeing that can look and compete very favorably in traditional winter crop rotations from a revenue standpoint.
Speaker: Also improving farm economics through rotational benefits. Second is market certainty. Historically, growers sometimes have hesitated because they weren't sure if there was going to be a local stable buyer.
Speaker: And with the Goodland facility providing a dedicated crush demand, farmers now have clear delivery points and long-term market structure. So that changes the conversation. Also, rapid improvement in genetics. The canola today is definitely not the canola that producers may remember from earlier experiences.
Speaker: I know seed companies have made tremendous advancements in winter hardiness, stand establishment, drought tolerance, I mean, especially pod shatter tolerance. And even with some of those weather extremes that we have experienced this year in particular, with temperature swings, wind, drought stress, and freeze events, growers are seeing surprisingly minimal impacts compared to older varieties. And that's built a tremendous amount of confidence in the growers.
Speaker: They mentioned that harvest is going to be a little early this year because of bunch of just weather factors. I mean, like you said, weather's been really weird across the United States this year.
Speaker: seems like that's going to continue going forward with this giant El Nino that they is forming out in the Pacific. So can you tell me a little bit about what is happening specifically in your region ah weather-wise and why it's unexpectedly pushing this harvest a little earlier than is originally supposed to be?
Speaker: Absolutely. I think the joke throughout kind of the high plains is always, if you don't like the weather, you know, wait 15 minutes and it's going to change. This year we saw a combination of of incredibly warm spring temperatures early on with periods of accelerated heat accumulation followed by just a short couple days later.
Speaker: lower than normal moisture as well as freeze events. And those conditions really sped up the crop maturity across Kansas Oklahoma. The interesting thing is that despite some of the stressful weather patterns, the crop has really held together remarkably well.
Speaker: um In past years, extreme conditions could have caused major winter kill concerns or significant pod shatter. But again, to throw an attaboy at the newer genetics. I mean, it really handled those stresses much better than growers expected.
Speaker: In a lot of cases throughout the high plains, we're hearing from a lot of the growers that the canola yields are going to far exceed a lot of the wheat yields in the country. And that's one of the big stories right now is just having the resilience of a modern canola crop, even under weather volatility.
Speaker: We're seeing in stable stands, strong pod retention, earlier harvest timing can actually create operational advantages. So that's something to definitely take into account. And harvesting canola earlier opens up the flexibility for double cropping opportunities and and out some of that workload management and earlier cash flow.
Speaker: Compared to wheat is a really good example because I've been seeing some numbers out of that region. It's looking at like 50% less yields than they were planning from the weather this year. so That's a big difference in reliability, especially as like things continue to be really weird weather-wise and continue to change weather-wise. Just having that having a crop that's more likely to grow is a big advantage, which you know sounds very basic.
Speaker: But you said seed genetics have really kind of made this possible and made this an option for producers out there. What kind of traits have been coming out? What are people planting in your area?
Speaker: The timing is great. I just here last week drove over a couple thousand miles, but not about 10 grower meetings with some of our seed partners, if you will. I think the advancements have just been enormous. Many producers, again, when they think back to older canola experiences, you know, they remember the concerns about winter survival and stand loss, pod shattering. And the industry has made major, major strides in all three of those areas.
Speaker: To me, the big thing is winter hardiness. It's improved substantially. Today's genetics are a lot better equipped to withstand the rapid temperature swings and harsh winter conditions, which again, if there's ever a year to really test that theory on some of those advancements that have been made, you know, I think within a four or five day window, we broke both the high and low temperature record in many areas from a Monday to Friday. So and I don't want to say that all of the fields came in unscathed. I mean, even the wheat, you know, which is traditionally known as having nine lives, if you will,
Speaker: They really came through with minimal winter injury despite those weather events. So pod shatter tolerance is another major breakthrough that we are incredibly excited about. I know historically growers think that winter kill is a bigger issue or the biggest issue when looking at canola.
Speaker: where many growers that have many years of experience would say that pod shudder is probably one of the bigger challenges that they faced. And historically, high winds or delayed harvest can create significant shudder losses, but these newer varieties are far more durable and give growers an opportunity to have a wider harvest window, and that reduces that risk substantially. So, you know, and on the grower side, one thing that that we've seen is is farmers are also getting more refined recommendations are around fertility, plant timing, residue management,
Speaker: and disease control. And producers now understand that canola fits into those wheat rotations and how it really helps break up pest cycles and really improves that soil health and moisture utilization throughout the growing season.
Speaker: I always say, I mean, we have the best agriculture technology in the world. And the entire time where there was all that pushback against genetics and crops, you're like, no, this is how we do it. This is how we continue to have the harvest that we have year after year, despite conditions that 50 years ago would have decimated a region.
Speaker: And for you guys at school, you also have your crush facility in Goodland. that number one is a ready market for these growers, right?
Speaker: But it looks like it can even support way more than that, up to 400,000 acres. So there's still plenty of room for this to grow in that region. The opportunity i think in front of us is enormous for expansion and canola acreage.
Speaker: The demand infrastructure is already there. And now it's just about continuing to grow the grower competence and acreage adoption. The biggest piece to us is education and firsthand success stories. You know, when producers see neighbors successfully grow canola, seeing strong yields and profitable returns, you know, adoption really accelerates quickly.
Speaker: So we need to continue to collaborate across the industry, whether it be seed companies, agronomists, elevators, processors, et cetera. We all need to work together to support that expansion. And fortunately, that collaboration is stronger today than it has been in the past.
Speaker: One of the key factors to continuing to demonstrate that the ease of reentry into that market is many of the growers already possess the equipment and management capabilities needed to succeed with canola. And once they understand how much the genetics and agronomic support have improved, hesitation tends to decrease rapidly.
Speaker: Profitability is going to continue to drive the acres and as growers continue seeing strong return potential, you know, along with the rotational benefits and earlier harvest timing. We believe that the acreage growth is going to continue to accelerate.
Speaker: seems like it and no no brainer. It's tough always moves slow, right? It's always it's hard and then it's a domino effect all of a sudden and everyone's a plant in it. You mentioned too in press release about how the renewable fuel standard, what that's translating to when it comes to opportunities for canola and crush facilities like yours in Goodland.
Speaker: Can you explain a little bit about how you see that market continuing to advance? Absolutely. So the renewable diesel industry, it's creating tremendous demand to pull for low carbon intensity feedstocks and canola is exceptionally well positioned to benefit from that.
Speaker: Canola oil has become one of the most desirable feedstocks just because of its fuel characteristics and and sustainability profile. As that RD capacity continues expanding across North America, crushers and biofuel producers need more supply and that demand is flowing directly back to the growers.
Speaker: So what's important for the producers is that it isn't just a short term trend. You know, we're seeing structural demand growth tied to long term energy policy. And that's going to help create that confidence for that acreage expansion.
Speaker: And there's also growing opportunity around carbon intensity programs and sustainability incentives. Farmers who adopt practices that reduce carbon intensity programs may be positioned for additional value stream in the future, which is something that we're definitely looking at. And that's where we see exciting potential.
Speaker: Growers not only benefit from the crop profitability, but also being tied to new renewable fuel markets, opening up that that new market for those growers. And at the farm level, producers recognize that it can look and be both an agronomic win as well as a market-driven profitability opportunity.
Speaker: One of those things where you hear biodiesel and you assume soybeans, right? But there are tons of other crops and stuff that can go into these fuels and these markets to get away from some of that monocrop dependency that some regions end up getting just chasing profits.
Speaker: ah Not to say that you shouldn't chase profits. We all need to eat. But it's great that you guys are really... That schooler is stepping forward and being like, here we have the facility, we built it, we're also going to help you get into growing this.
Speaker: When you're talking to a producer that's kind of on the fence, what are your kind of go-to sales? How do you convince them to get them over that 10-yard line? No, that's a great question. and I think that's kind of the beauty of with this program.
Speaker: You know, the whole motive behind our program, and I've been very blessed. The team, I think the team behind us, because I'm the one that is fortunate I get to see here on podcasts and I get to have interviews and visit with the growers. But really, it's the team behind us that really makes everything work.
Speaker: And going back to that, the team behind us knows that this is an education effort. It's not a sell. I think we first and foremost have to put the grower in the right position to make the decisions that are best for them and their operation.
Speaker: And some of those discussions that we've had are difficult. We want 400 plus thousand acres of canola, a you know, to be able to feed this facility. I know you know our team and I, we truly believe that if there's some tough discussions where you know it might not be the best option for the growers, that's the beauty of this entire deal is we want to grow it organically.
Speaker: We want it to grow the right way because at the end of the day, but for any reason, if we have a tough year, we want it to be because, well, maybe the weather didn't cooperate with us. And then they sit back and they think, hey, Schooler really was there to help support us along the way. It wasn't to their fault or anybody else's, but To be able to have that organic growth, as well as having a good profitable crop, which right now growers, it's one of the few crops that's really penciling a good return right now.
Speaker: That's what's really exciting about this. And we're still in the early stages. So we have the crushing capacity, the market demand, and improved genetics in place today. now it's about scaling production to meet what we believe is a long-term growth opportunity for the region.
Speaker: and I mean, I think that's always kind of a false narrative that gets put out there that, you know, the grain elevator, the feed mill, the crushing facility is against, you know, it's either us or them. But in reality, we all succeed together, us and producers. We need each other.
Speaker: So it's nice to see companies continue to put forward that effort. So thank you so much for coming in and talking about this. This is really interesting what you guys are doing out there. I hope you'll come back on when you guys hit that 400,000 acres.
Speaker: I hope to be back on. I know we're excited to see it and and look forward to all the future growth that we have. Also, just side thing, beautiful crop. Love putting pictures up of it related to to articles.
Speaker: Beautiful yellow fields. I mean, what's not to love? Yep. I have a nine-year-old girl. I call her my mini crop scout or agronomist out there that we get pretty busy doing some road trips out in the country and taking as many photos as we can. so I'm sure it's fun. Well, Jeff, thank you so much for being on. I really appreciate it. Hope you come back soon.
Speaker: Appreciate you having us on and look forward to continued success of the program and being back on to visit here in the future. Yeah, no problem at all. Love having you. And for everyone out there listening, until next time, stay safe.
