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The United Soybean Board (USB) will extend its Animal Agriculture Initiative another year, USB Director Phil Bradshaw said during the AFBF annual meeting. Bradshaw, a soybean grower from Illinois, chairs the initiative, which emphasizes the importance of livestock to soybean producers and the U.S. economy.

2002 research showed that fewer than 16 percent of soybean producers nationwide understood that the livestock industry consumed nearly all of the soybean meal produced in the United States, Bradshaw said. Soybean industry leaders believed an education program was needed to motivate producers to take action to assist their most important customer.

"A growing livestock industry is vital to the success of soybean farmers. If livestock (production) move out of the U.S., soybean producers would lose their most important market," Bradshaw said.

Cooperating organizations have included state soybean boards and associations, national and state pork producers associations and the American Farm Bureau.