Today’s agriculture industry is innovative in many ways, from precision farming to auto-steering to varied seeding and fertilizer rates. Why should soybean varieties be any different? They’re not. Take high oleic soybeans, for example.

High oleic soybean varieties were developed to deliver a better soybean to the food industry. The oil produced from these soybeans adds functionality that customers don’t get from standard commodity oil. The oil functions better than regular soybean oil for uses like frying foods or baking crackers. And, it contains no trans fats and has less saturated fat when compared with other competing vegetable oils.

One reason this is important is that soybean farmers have lost 4 billion pounds of annual soybean oil demand because commodity soybean oil no longer meets the needs of these particular customers. Today, farmers have an opportunity to win back some of that market with high oleic soybeans.