(upbeat country rock music) (music ends) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag".

My name is Rob Sharkey, I'm your host.

I'm also a farmer, and I also grow soybeans.

But when I sell 'em, I don't really know who buys 'em.

I put 'em on a semi, and they leave.

Well today's guest is gonna help me with that.

We're gonna be talking with Mark Read from Putnam.

How you doing, Mark?

- Great.

It's great to be here, great to finish harvest early.

- Yeah.

You know, when people say they're from Putnam, you never know if they're actually saying the town of Putnam or just the county.

- That's correct.

Putnam's a pretty big town.

The sign says 100, but I think that's the minimum number you need to get a sign probably.

- Is 100?

- I think it's 100.

- You guys are fudging your numbers to get- (Mark laughing) You know, if we add in the Reads when their kids come home.

(both laughing) Do you live in the town?

- No, I live on a farm outside of Putnam.

- [Rob] Okay, all right.

- Near the Illinois River, actually.

- The Putnam County, is it the smallest county in the state?

- It's the smallest county in the state, and they used to be the largest county years ago.

- What happened?

Did y'all get a little?

- I guess we got smaller.

- So somebody somewhere- (Mark laughing) Thank you, Mark.

(both laughing) You farm there.

Are you a multi-generational farmer?

- Yes, I think I'm a fourth generation farmer, and my kids and my brother's kids and sister's kids all decided not to farm, so we're kinda semi retired, helping the people that we've got farming it now, so.

- So you rented out the ground?

- Rented out the ground, and then basically I'm helping in the fall a little bit, and I know my brother does the same thing on his share, so.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So yeah, so we're into a new generation that doesn't care to farm I guess so much.

- Yeah.

I rented a farm like that once where the landowner wanted to help.

(both laughing) - He hasn't kicked me off yet, so.

- Okay.

I hope it's going better for him.

(Mark laughing) After the show, I'll tell you who it is.

You'll go, "Oh."

- Oh.

- Oh yeah.

- Oh.

(both laugh) - You're just raising corn and soybeans?

- Corn and soybeans, and planted some wheat this year.

- [Rob] Okay, why?

- Well, I've got some very poor ground, and it came out of CRP, and we're not raising cattle anymore, so that where that was gonna be some, was some alfalfa pasture, we planted that into wheat, so.

- So CRP, was it a conservation program?

- Yes.

- Where you had, like, I don't know, grass or something there?

- Well, yeah.

And weeds.

And trees.

(Rob laughs) Undesirable species, and I was not aware that you can't put it right back in, so we kinda got it cleaned up, and then we raised corn on it, and then we raised soybeans.

And now we've got wheat on it.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And we had good rains, and actually yielded good for the worst soil type in Illinois, anyway.

- Nice.

- So.

- [Rob] Take 'em where you can get 'em.

- Yeah.

- You got an Aggie Con degree from U of I.

- Yes.

- [Rob] That's your, well you don't even have a mascot anymore.

- No, that's true.

Chief Illiniwek is gone, so.

- [Rob] I don't think we can talk about that on video.

- No, that's probably not, so.

(Rob laughing) I try not to wear the shirts with that Indian on it anymore, you know?

- Yeah.

- So.

- Did you go right back to the farm?

- No, I worked in commercial bank for five years as a farm manager.

So just down the street from here, actually.

- [Rob] Oh.

- So I managed like 10,000 acres, in mainly Tazewell, Mason, some up in DeKalb County, so.

- [Rob] Mm-hmm.

- So I came back to the farm when my father retired, was wanting to retire, so that's how that happened.

My brother was already farming with my father.

- So back in the day, 10,000 acres was, that was probably quite a bit to manage.

Maybe not so much anymore.

- Quite a few.

Maybe about 35 farms.

- What would it be now, two?

(both laughing) - Yeah, it could be.

I'm sure there's larger acres now.

- Did you see that while on your farm, too?

I mean, if you remember when you went back to farm with your dad and your brother, and the difference between when you retired, the size difference, how much you could get done.

- Yes.

Quite a difference, you know, in just a few years, as far as, we had kind of the smallest combine about to do like 2,500 acres with, and two 12 row planters, and a lot of people, we had a lot of sand, so we had four, 500 acres done before everybody got rolling.

So we farmed with probably smaller equipment than what you would normally have for that amount, and now the guy that's farming for me now has really good equipment.

He could have better, he's got green equipment instead of red, but- - Okay.

(Mark chuckling) All right, okay.

All right, I didn't know we were doing this today, but.

(both laugh) You guys are, well in your area, though, you're in a very red area, just because of the dealerships- - Dealerships.

- Down there and that.

And then, you know, now as things improve, thankfully, some green has entered the neighborhood.

- Right.

(both laughing) - Why did you get involved with the Illinois Soybean Association?

- Well, one thing, I had time since I kinda was retiring.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Before, working with my brother just wasn't fair to him if I took off as much time as what I've taken off now, so.

- [Rob] That's true, yeah.

- And I've been able to get involved in giving back to agriculture, and I've learned a lot.

I've got on a national committee for Soy Excellence Centers, which I'm vice chairman of, which is, I think, a good way to get started in some developing countries, and grow our demand where the population is increasing.

- Soy Excellence Centers?

- Yeah.

It's a workplace training program for entry level and mid level people in these other countries.

Like, we've got them in the Americas down in Honduras area, we've got one center in Egypt, one center in Nigeria.

We just opened one up in India.

And it's, really there's maybe not a center there, it's an area that we're servicing.

And since a lot of it can be done with a digital platform type thing over the internet, it's fairly cost effective, reaches a lot of people.

In fact, we've educated over 28,000 people since 2019 when it started.

- What are you teaching them?

- We're teaching them aquaculture, feed milling, poultry, human foods, soy in human foods, and that would be the main one.

Also swine.

But a lot of the countries we're in, they're Muslim, and so they don't eat pork.

- Yeah.

- So we're- - Feeding pigs probably wouldn't go over so big over there.

- And most efficient for feed efficiency is your aquaculture and your poultry.

And that's the most efficient as far as feed conversion rates, and these countries need protein in their diets, so it's kind of like, kinda like a mega mission for me, because you're doing a lot of good promoting soybeans in their diet, whether it be aquaculture, or whether it be fish, or it be pork, or whatever.

They just need more protein in their diet.

- So would your theory be, all right, we're gonna teach them how to use soybeans, our soybeans, to raise fish, and then whatever they're doing now, whatever food they're eating now, they will start supplementing in some fish raised with our soybeans?

That's kinda the overall thought?

- Yeah, overall thought is to, well, our overall is to sell them more soybeans.

But to do that- - Oh, you can't just- - We've gotta educate them.

- Yeah, you gotta sell that stuff.

- And the feed miller has to know how to blend it, and what's recommended rations, and be educated, and right now they don't have training programs basically for their workers.

And so this fills a void for them, and we're getting good publicity out of it, and hopefully making friendships.

I know when I went back, I know several people now, and we're friends, and I think that'll help.

And we also promote the advantages of our soybeans.

We usually have a higher quality than Brazilian soybeans and Argentina soybeans.

Less heat damage, and so forth.

So we're teaching that, and the digestibility is better.

Crude protein, we're usually a little bit lower on than Brazil, and that's what originally a lot of things were bought on, was crude protein, and we're trying to educate them that there's more important things than that, the amino acid content of the soybeans, and so forth.

So that's all included kinda in the course content mixed in, you know, where it's relevant.

And so it's just a great program.

The Illinois Soybean Association is supporting that, and a lot of other soybean associations are also supporting that.

- How do you even get started in another country?

I mean, you're talking different languages.

I mean, anytime you're trying to change things, you're gonna annoy people, and you've got the politics of that.

How do you even go about getting started with this?

- Well, that's exactly right.

Right now, most of our courses started in English and Spanish.

And now we're in Arabic.

That's all in Egypt.

It's all Arabic.

And Egypt's one of our largest customers of whole soybeans buying right now, when four years ago, they were our third largest customer, and then they had inflation, and a lot of money problems could not really buy as much as they wanted.

But still, they're in our top 10, as far as customers.

- Egypt?

- Egypt.

- I didn't know that.

- And Egypt is a fast growing country.

Nigeria's a fast growing country.

Supposedly by 2025, Nigeria is supposed to be the third largest populated country, which is amazing.

- Is it growing, is it population, or are you talking about wealth?

- Population is growing.

- Okay.

- Hopefully, their wealth will be growing also so they can buy more soybeans from us.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But yeah, and like Nigeria, the average age expectancy is 55 years old.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yeah, that's pretty, hits you pretty hard when you're 70, you know?

It's like, ooh.

(Rob laughing) I'm doing pretty good.

But they're all thin over there.

It's amazing.

You know, they all have scooters that they go around on everywhere, and they can get about four people on some of those scooters, 'cause they're so thin.

It's amazing.

- Well why are they dying so early?

- Lack of protein would be one reason.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yeah.

- Huh.

So who gave you these?

- Yeah.

- These awards?

- A lot of times, you get a gift from them, and this is one of the more popular type of gifts that they give.

And I'm not sure what they represent.

I tried to figure that out by taking a picture on my Apple phone, and then trying to see if it could come up with the landmark- - Oh, the image search and that.

- The image, yeah.

- Yeah.

- So these two aren't well known images on these two.

- That's empty, you could put like, what, your Jelly Bellies or whatever.

- Oh yeah.

- You could put anything in there.

- Yeah, I thought maybe you'd have some of those for me to take home, so.

- You know, the budget here is, eh.

Yeah.

- Yeah, I realize that.

Things are tough.

- Things are tough.

Anyway.

I mean, that's not your usual.

Usually, when you're soybeans or whatever, you get like the wood plaque, and thank you for your service.

These are kinda cool.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- But sometimes you get a certificate.

(both laughing) I got some of those.

I didn't know how they'd fit on your desk.

- Tell us about the one that you said was taken.

At the airport.

- Oh, yeah.

Well, when we travel, at least with the United States Soybean Export Council, usually we just carryon everything, so we have our clothes, and we get there, and we have a meeting the next day after we arrive usually.

- Yeah.

- It's all planned.

So a lot of times, this one, I guess, was in Egypt, gave a pretty nice one, and it was heavy, and so kinda wrapped up, and when we got to the airport, can't remember where we were flying to after that.

But anyway, they took it away, 'cause it was heavy as a hammer, you know?

So.

(Rob laughing) So you have to check a bag to get it back to the States, so.

- You went out to the Soy Connext, that's how they say it, in San Francisco.

Tell me what that's all about.

- Well, it's bringing buyers and sellers together of soy.

And there's a lot of business transacted at that.

There's a lot of good meetings, specialized meetings, and then actually after that meeting, we had a Soy Excellence meeting also that involved all the countries and a panel there too, so next year will be on the schedule at Soy Connext, so.

Yes, it's- - Well, like when I'm listening to the markets in the morning, right?

They say, oh, I don't know, Japan bought how many metric tons of soybeans, so that's why we're saying the market's up a half a cent, or whatever.

I'm like oh, great.

Fine and dandy.

I never know what that means.

Who's actually in Japan buying it, and this is who you're actually talking to, is the people that are making the decisions.

Hey, we're gonna buy US or Illinois soybeans compared to Brazil, Argentina, something like that.

- Right.

Right, exactly.

It's trying to differentiate our soybeans, elevate and make more sales.

And basically, a lot of the soybean checkoff money goes to support events like this, to promote our soybeans, so.

- Do you ever do the deals like, well, you know.

You think about buying our soybeans, but we do have another guy coming in this afternoon to look at 'em, so I'm just gonna say, you might wanna buy 'em now.

- We're not invited, or we're not involved in the actual selling.

We're getting the people together to- - Maybe you should be.

- To discuss that.

- You old farmers are tricky.

- Well, I could be.

- You could sell- - I don't know about that.

- Ice to an Eskimo, you know what I'm saying?

- It'd be nice if we could.

(both laughing) - Is it neat though to actually meet the people that are gonna be your end customer of what you're growing?

- It is neat, and for this Soy Connext, we had a group come to our farm before the meeting, and they were from India and Southeast Asia and different places.

Well, they were at Soy Connext, and so we talked with them there, and when I went back over to a meeting in Vietnam, and then also India, saw some of the same people.

And just, you got that relationship, personal relationship going already, which I think is valuable.

At least it gives you a good indication that we're interested in what you're doing, and here's why you need to buy our soybeans, and we would be glad to service you, and we talk about our transportation system in the Illinois River down to the Mississippi, and the advantages of getting things to our buyers on time.

And that's kind of an issue sometimes.

And we're worried about that right now, we just had good rain in Illinois to help our transportation system, as far as the Illinois River, getting it up where we can take full loads now.

- It was getting a little low, wasn't it?

- Yeah, getting real low, so.

- We went up to Chicago to meet some of the Taiwanese buyers.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

I learned that humor such as mine does not translate well, or at all to the Taiwanese.

I blame the translator.

- That could be.

- Yeah.

At the Soy Connext, it is more than just kind of a sit down between the sellers and the buyers.

I mean, you're building longterm relationships.

- Right.

Yeah.

It's the type of thing that they look forward to coming to that every year.

- [Rob] Oh, I bet.

- And it's in a different city every year, so it's kind of a destination for them, and a sales opportunity for us, so.

- How important is it, like the face to face?

'Cause I mean, everything's Zoom and social media.

- I think it's important because you can't get that relationship on a Zoom meeting.

In fact, you're talking about the Taiwanese.

I had a Zoom, I guess a call, with Taiwanese, and we're talking back and forth, it's kind of a program.

And then they knew me 'cause they saw my picture and stuff, so at this Soy Connext, one guy said, "Hey, glad to meet you, Mark."

And it was kinda one of those things that I had no idea who this guy was, but he was definitely not American, and thanking me for what I do.

And I thought I really don't- - [Rob] You're welcome.

- Yes.

(both laughing) - Plus you kinda learn about them, because I remember when we went up there, the people that were in charge, they were like, you know, we're gonna get a chance to ask each other questions.

Maybe not bring up China, because Taiwan and China right, when they were doing this.

And so it came time for questions, and they all raised their hands.

Every question was about China.

(both laughing) So it kinda really makes you understand that it's really for these people.

There's pressure on them to get good quality soybeans so they can feed their own people.

- Oh yes.

And China does still buy from us.

And they're our largest customer by far, so what we're trying to do is diversify our sales to other countries, because we get a lot of political rhetoric, and we've just been through an election that ended today.

So- - [Rob] Yeah, who do you think wins?

- I don't know, but a lot of it isn't good for agriculture, in my opinion.

When you talk about tariffs, that's the worst thing for a farmer, because we're exporters.

We're globalists.

We need to sell our product overseas.

I mean, Illinois exports 60% of their soybeans.

That's a large amount.

Well China gets over half of those soybeans.

And here we're trying to raise tariffs on China.

How do they retaliate?

Against agriculture, mainly.

And that's the first thing, so.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- We're not excited about all the talk.

- Really looking forward to the emails you're gonna get sent into our show.

(all laughing) Thanks, Mark.

No, that's right.

And that's what I love, is people that will literally, you're not supposed to talk about it, right?

You're not supposed to say this, or if you're a farmer, you're supposed to vote this way or that way.

I love talking to people like yourself that have a global view, because in agriculture, and I do this myself, we have a tendency to not really look outside our farm.

You have had the opportunity to travel the world, interact closely with people like that.

It changes your outlook.

- It changes the whole outlook.

Before I got on this board, I didn't really know where soybeans went.

I just barely knew that you get, when you crush a soybean, you get oil, and you get soybean meal.

- Yeah.

- You know?

I had no idea.

- There's more than that?

- (laughing) Yeah, much more.

So I woulda been one that maybe didn't know for sure if the soybean checkoff was worthwhile, and now I'm a big promoter of it, after I've been involved with it, so.

- Uh-huh.

Do you wish you woulda got involved earlier?

- Yeah, probably woulda been a good idea.

- [Rob] Your brother would've handled stuff.

(both laughing) - Well, he's involved with stuff, too.

He was in Farm Bureau, and- - He was corn, too, wasn't he?

Didn't he get involved with corn growers, or- - Well he's a member, I know.

I don't know if he was an officer, or a board member.

- Yeah, I was on a Farm Bureau board with him.

- Yeah.

- Long time ago.

Back when everybody was fighting.

The good old days.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - Illinois Soybean Association also is involved with WISHH.

I know that you're not directly involved, but can you explain what that is?

- Yeah, WISHH is World Initiative for Soy in Human Health, and it was actually started by Illinois Soybean Association.

Now it's a world class organization working in very underdeveloped countries, and promoting our product, and also teaching them how to fish, how to feed, and so forth.

So we're trying to bring them up economically.

We're in Ghana right now, and in Nigeria.

And I am on the WISHH committee also.

I didn't say that, but it's a very good program.

Both WISHH and United States Soybean Export Council.

WISHH kinda handles the very underdeveloped countries, and then as they grow, then they turn into a program that United States Soybean Export Council handles, so there's kinda certain countries that are WISHH countries, and those are the more underdeveloped countries.

- So are these checkoff dollars that are funding WISHH, and what was the other one?

The Soy Excellence Center.

- Yes, there's checkoff dollars, and both these organizations are both funded by the government too in certain ways, and that has helped.

Basically how the Soy Excellence Centers got started is in 2019 when the tariffs were put on by President Trump, we got information to put a grant together, and that's what started this.

They said, well, we need, the soybean growers said hey, we need to expand our exports if we're gonna be putting tariffs on China.

And came through with some money to get that started.

So we're still using some government money involved, and we're also using checkoff money, and probably part of the reason we're getting good money from the government is because we're putting our own money in there with it, so they know it's, well, you're willing to put money in, we're gonna put money in too, so.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- We have got cooperation, and then everything you hear about China is bad, and yet we're trying to do our majority of business with them, but we're trying to expand it to other countries so that we're not so reliant on China.

And China's population is decreasing due to their one child rule before.

- Mm-hmm.

Still a billion people, isn't it?

Plus?

- Yeah, it's fairly large.

Actually, India's passed them in population right now.

So that's one reason we're in India.

- You know, I grow soybeans, which means I pay checkoff dollars.

- Right.

- And you look at it, and it adds up.

- Oh yeah.

- I mean, you're paying some money.

This is what I like to hear, because all right, you are, overall, what you're trying to do is sell our soybeans, make a market for them, but I mean, you're also feeding people.

And that's what we do as farmers.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- That's gotta make you feel good.

- It does.

It's a very useful purpose for the world, an American farmer.

Just something to be proud of.

- Is there a place where people can learn more about the Illinois Soybean Association?

- Yes, you learn a lot online.

There's usually stuff.

And you can get on a list if you're not already.

You can get about as much information as you want.

- Yeah.

I forget the website.

It's like Ilsoy.something.

- Yeah.

- That's where they put it down there.

It's really cool.

- Right.

(both laughing) Or you could just Google it, and it'll get you there.

(both laugh) - Well Mark, I've enjoyed having you on.

I mean, you're a neighbor.

I've known you for, I don't know how many years.

But this is what I really enjoy about what we do here at PBS.

We should just get a sit down, and I would never just sit down and have this conversation with you, and all the great stuff that you were doing, not just for agriculture, but for the world, and feeding people.

I'm glad people get to hear it.

- Yeah, well I thank you for bringing it to the public.

That's one thing farmers don't do very well, is talk about it.

- I know.

- What they do.

- I just wish somebody watched this show.

(Mark laughs) - Maybe I feel better now, if nobody's gonna be watching it, so.

- Do you get WTVP in- - Yes.

- Putnam?

- Yes, I do.

- I don't get it at my house.

- Well, actually, I've got the internet on top of my leg, so I get basically free internet, so I've got it on Hulu, so I can watch it, so.

- Well la-dee-da.

(both laughing) Mark Read from Putnam.

Mark, I really appreciate you coming and talking to me.

I really appreciate what you're doing for agriculture.

And everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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