Some New England residents are turning to soybeans for heat. It is called bio-heat, and growers say it has become a solid market.
“It’s caught on well, very, very popular. People love it, and there’s a whole industry developed around it now, about what modifications and so forth are done to the heating plants of furnaces, if you will, the boilers, and so it’s pretty neat, and it’s become a nice demand center for our soybean oil. It burns cleaner. It has fewer carbon deposits. It has a lot easier maintenance. It has natural lubricity, which of course, when we took sulfur out of our petroleum-based products, we lost a lot of lubricity, so there’s a lot of built-in advantages and that’s what they like about it,” said Andy Bensend, District One Director, Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.
Bensend says it has been a gradual process. First, homeowners turned to fuels like bio-diesel over traditional heating oil, and from there, bio-heat took off.
The new rule removes prevented-plant buy-up coverage, prompting strong objections from farm groups concerned about added risk exposure.
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Lawmakers and experts react to the Administration’s long-awaited announcement of “bridge” aid to stabilize farms and offset 2025 losses until expanded safety-net programs begin in 2026.
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Read the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s official press release published on Monday, December 8, 2025.
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$11 billion will go to row-crop farmers immediately, with $1 billion set aside for specialty crops.
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USTR Jamieson Greer signals a narrower trade deal with China, adding more market uncertainty. The Farm Bureau also supports reviewing China’s missed trade commitments under the Phase One.
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Southern producers head into 2026 with thin margins, tighter credit, and rising agronomic risks despite scattered yield improvements.
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