FROM THE BOARDROOM CHAIRMAN Steve Pitstick, Maple Park District 2 VICE CHAIRMAN Ron Kindred, Atlanta District 9 SECRETARY Elliott Uphoff, Shelbyville District 10 TREASURER Dwayne Anderson, Lynn Center District 3 ASSISTANT SECRETARY-TREASURER David Wessel, Chandlerville At-Large Director GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIR Brad Daugherty, West Union District 14 MARKET DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE CHAIR Scott Gaffner, Greenville At-Large Director UTILIZATION COMMITTEE CHAIR James Martin, Pontiac District 6 DIRECTORS Ryan Frieders, Waterman | District 1 Buck Hill, Grand Ridge | District 4 Mark Read, Putnam | District 5 Bryan Severs, Potomac | District 7 David Niekamp, Coatsburg | District 8 Matt Murray, Paxton | District 11 Brock Willard, Pittsfield | District 12 Ed Murphy, Farmersville | District 13 Jeff Parker, Belleville | District 15 Brian Atteberry, Carmi | District 16 Nick Harre, Nashville | District 17 Rick Rubenacker, McLeansboro | District 18 AT-LARGE DIRECTORS Betsey Emerick, Vandalia Brady Holst, Plymouth Jeff O'Connor, Kankakee Tim Scates, Carmi UNITED SOYBEAN BOARD (USB) Gary Berg, St. Elmo Dan Farney, Morton Lynn Rohrscheib, Fairmount Doug Winter, Mill Shoals AMERICAN SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION (ASA) Stan Born, Mahomet Daryl Cates, Columbia, ASA Vice President Jered Hooker, Clinton Ron Moore, Roseville Bill Raben, Ridgway Rob Shaffer, El Paso Roberta Simpson-Dolbeare, Nebo Bill Wykes, Yorkville STAFF CREDITS Editor | Rachel Peabody, Illinois Soybean Association Assistant Editor | Betsy Osman, Illinois Soybean Association Staff Writer & Advertising Coordinator | Claire Weinzierl, Illinois Soybean Association Staff Writer | Brynna Sentel, Illinois Soybean Association Staff Writer & Photographer | Stephen Sostaric, Illinois Soybean Association Digital Edition & Circulation Manager | Heather Atkinson, Illinois Soybean Association Editorial Intern | Olivia Key OTHER ISA STAFF Chief Executive Officer | John Lumpe Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer | Brian Hansen Director of Operations | Dustin Scott Director of Market Development | Andrew Larson Director of Agronomy | Abigail Peterson The Illinois Soybean Growers is owner of Illinois Field & Bean, a publication for Illinois soybean farmers, designed and written to provide timely and useful industry information. Illinois Field & Bean is published by the Illinois Soybean Association, 1605 Commerce Parkway, Bloomington, IL 61704. For address corrections, contact Illinois Field & Bean at 1605 Commerce Parkway, Bloomington, IL 61704. Phone 309-663-7692. Web address: www.ilsoy.org. Email: [email protected]. Comments and statewide news articles should be sent to the above address. Advertising space reservations must be made by the first of the month preceding publication. In consideration of the acceptance of advertisement, the agency and the advertiser must, in respect of the contents of the advertisement, indemnify and save the publisher harmless against any expense arising from claims or actions against the publisher because of the publication of the content of the advertisement. FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION Rachel Peabody Director of Communications Phone: (217) 825-7654 Email: [email protected] Let’s Talk Carbon STEVE PITSTICK | Chairman and District 2 Director | ILLINOIS SOYBEAN BOARD As I look back over my four decades of farming, I’ve realized that I strive for constant improvement and found that building soil structure has made a positive impact in many ways. That doesn't mean I haven’t had my fair share of setbacks and failures, but I am always looking over the horizon for the next improvement to make, whether it be a new technology to adopt or a new practice to implement. As an organization, it is essential that the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) looks toward continuous improvement of our own, particularly in the ever-evolving carbon market space. We have only grazed the surface thus far, but are committed to diving deeper and providing you with comprehensive, di- gestible information to help Illinois farmers make the best decisions. We've taken efforts to fulfill this commitment through various projects like the scale-up of the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund (SWOF) pilot program, a non-industry avenue to the carbon and water quality markets. Our support here provides terms not found in industry offerings such as payments in the year of enrollment, one-year contracting, and increased data privacy. The Precision Conservation Management (PCM) program is another effort we pride ourselves on through a partnership, now in its second year, with IL Corn. PCM provides expert advice to farmers with regards to adoption of conservation practices, and helps with the acquisition of support funding to implement planned changes. We’ve also established a new program through our ILSoyAdvisor platform called CarbonSense, which provides unbiased information to Illinois soybean farmers and Certified Crop Advisers surround- ing the “carbon conversation,” including basic information on carbon sequestration, carbon credits and available carbon market/bank opportunities. Also, in the works this fiscal year is a Carbon and Data Guidebook which will serve as a tool to nav- igate emerging outcome programs. We know successful participation in conservation cost-share pro- grams or environmental outcome market programs, such as carbon markets, requires Illinois soybean farmers to both understand program availability and requirements from the jungle of offerings, and be prepared to organize and share their farm data. Be on the lookout for the Guidebook on ILSoyAdvisor. com later this summer. To share a little about my own experience, I had the opportunity to participate in SWOF last year. I looked at various carbon market programs and that was the first one I dove into with 215 acres. It was a learning experience for me to see what it entailed because the carbon space can be a bit daunting and confusing to navigate. My experience was overall a positive one. They made it a painless procedure. I completed the conservation practices that I would typically do, and I got paid for water outcomes as well as no-till practices. After my first year, I didn't hesitate to sign up again. What drew me into this program was the fact that these are practices that I believe in and had already implemented on other parts of my operation, so being able to capture the actual value made it worthwhile. On the other hand, I signed up for another carbon program but withdrew because it just didn’t seem worth it between the low payments and lack of flexibility. I evaluate my operations yearly and see if there are new technologies that can improve the way I'm doing things, and if so, I find the best way to implement them. As I reflect over my decades of farming experience, the changes that agriculture has made in the way we do things has constantly improved and tackling the carbon space may just be the next step in that evolution. 4 June 2022
