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.
Transportation challenges are mounting as droughts lower Mississippi River levels and push freight rates higher.
September 25, 2025 04:54 PM
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Listen to Alex’s Dirt Diaries episode today on all podcast platforms or tune into Rural Radio SiriusXM Channel 147 to listen, weekends at 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET.
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Waiting could risk leaving next year’s crop unprotected.
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Michigan corn farmer and NCGA Vice President-Elect Matt Frostic will lead the task force. He joined us on Thursday to share his insights on the escalating corn crisis.
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U.S. soybean farmers are growing increasingly frustrated by Argentina’s gains in Chinese grain contracts and Trump’s pledge of economic support for the South American ally.
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Midwest corn and soy producers are monitoring for disease and lower yields due to the ongoing drought over the last 30 days.
September 24, 2025 04:38 PM
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