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.
Kerry Hartwig from Sukup Manufacturing previews the grain management solutions they plan to share with producers at the upcoming Commodity Classic in San Antonio.
February 19, 2026 02:36 PM
·
The USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum highlights modest price support from tighter supplies across cotton, grains, dairy, livestock, and sugar into 2026.
February 19, 2026 01:48 PM
·
Farm Bureau Economist Faith Parum discusses the latest Farm Bill proposal and the path ahead for Congress and U.S. agriculture.
February 19, 2026 01:28 PM
·
The Ranger Road Fire spreads from the Oklahoma Panhandle into Kansas as high winds and red flag conditions persist
February 19, 2026 01:01 PM
·
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week to accelerate domestic production of phosphorus and glyphosate, signaling that farm input availability is now treated as a national security risk.
February 19, 2026 11:18 AM
·
The global rice surplus outweighs tighter U.S. supplies, pressuring prices.
February 19, 2026 08:00 AM
·
