Northern Crops Institute expects visitors from Asian markets in 2016

Director Mark Weber was interviewed by Mark Dorenkamp from Brownfield News during the 2016 Minnesota Ag Expo.

The director of the Northern Crops Institute says trade teams from southeast Asia and possibly China are expected to visit later this year and learn how to put U.S. northern crops into practice.

“We will have the opportunity to promote the higher feeding values of the soybeans grown in this region.  Through the excellent work of the University of Minnesota they have discovered that our soybeans in this region have greater feeding value than other parts of the world.  This is something that we will help promote.”

Mark Weber tells Brownfield the Institute was founded in 1983 with a mission to promote the primary crops grown in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

He says the Institute works closely with commodity groups from the region, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sunflowers, peas and lentils.

“What we do is we host trade teams.  We bring in users of the crops from around the world.  To date we’ve had visitors from 140 countries that have come to train and learn at the Northern Crops Institute, and we have a group of food and feed scientists that teach them how to utilize the crops that we grow in this region in their food and feed products.”

The Northern Crops Institute is on the campus of North Dakota State University, funded by state appropriations and various Checkoffs.

To listen to the interview in its entirety go to: http://bit.ly/1mgaOJk