From the land of Grant University in Urbana Champaign, Illinois. This is the closing market reported as the September 2025. Happy birthday to my brother, Bill. I'm University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason out of the office for this Tuesday afternoon. Coming up, we'll revisit a conversation I held about iFAB or the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Tech Hub on the campus of the University of Illinois that stretches through Piatt and Macon Counties to Decatur.
Todd Gleason: 00:33And we'll also hear from Farm Credit Illinois and how it is looking forward into the coming year during this Tuesday edition of the closing market report from Illinois Public Media. It is public radio for the farming world online on demand anytime you'd like to listen to us at willag.org. That's willag.org. Todd Gleason services are made available to WILL by University of Illinois Extension. Well, let's begin our program this afternoon.
Todd Gleason: 01:05We'll talk a little bit today about IFAD again. We have four guests with us. They include the Rodney Weinserl. He's the executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association. Ismael Neves is the general manager of iProof.
Todd Gleason: 01:19That's a permanent. If you don't know what that is exactly, he'll tell you more about it, but it is the successor of AE Staley in Decatur. Ramon Bolero is here. He's the dean of the U of I College of ACES, Beth Connerdy is with us from IFAB, the regional innovation officer. Thank you all for being with us.
Todd Gleason: 01:38I think, Beth, I'll start with you because I wanna learn a bit more about IFAB. Can you tell me exactly what this is and the corridor that exists between campus in Urbana and here in Decatur and what the expectation over time might be.
Beth Conerty: 01:55Absolutely. So IFAB is the Illinois fermentation and agriculture biomanufacturing tech hub, which is quite a mouthful, but very, very descriptive of what we are doing. So we are a consortium of 34 partners trying to grow biomanufacturing and fermentation here in Central Illinois. You're right that the the corridor that we cover, the region that we are really focused on our three counties here in Central Illinois, Champaign County, Piatt County, and Macon County. Because as a as a University of Illinois College of ACEs employee, there's no better place to do the research and innovation around new new technologies in this space.
Beth Conerty: 02:38And then we have great partners with, Premiance, ADM, and Synonym, in in Decatur, Illinois. And so we are really focused on growing that, for new markets for agricultural commodities.
Todd Gleason: 02:51On the East End, this is anchored, Herman Bolero, the dean of the College of ACEs, by the campus, University of Illinois, IBRL in particular. Can you tell me how the this is supposed to work with campus as research and development happens and then the entrepreneurial spirit that goes along with it.
Speaker 3: 03:13Yeah. I think it's, you know, that when I look at IFAB, IBRL, the partnerships with stakeholders is clearly that you're looking at the land grant mission, right? It starts with the work that we do on the bench in terms of the research with bioengineering ease that will do precision fermentation, which is what it's we can do that on the bench in the labs. We can scale that up in IVRL, and we can work with partners to even bring it to a a a greater level. So for us is from the from the research point of view, that's excellent for us, but also from the teaching point of view, you know, from the education and the development of the workforce for the future for this industry, if it's really well for us because everyone of the students can have experiences within IBRL, could take classes of people that are working in these areas and they learn from internships or connections that we have with industry.
Speaker 3: 04:10So that's I think when I when I think about this project, I think, oh, the reason we have Langdon University. So, of course, on top of that is what extension does in terms of extending what we learn through all of this process.
Todd Gleason: 04:24Ismail Nevs from Premium. First, can you tell me about Premium, some of the background and history of and how you acquired the original AE Staley and what you're expecting to do. And then you are working particularly with a project called iProof, and I'd like to know about that. But let's start with just Premiant itself.
Speaker 4: 04:45Yes. So Premiant has been around for about three years now as the name goes with the name itself. We're a shoot off of Tate and Lyle. So we came out of Tate and Lyle and it became premium. However, the facility has been running for more than a hundred years.
Speaker 4: 05:02Right? It started with manufacturing back in the nineteen twenties. We became ten Alive in 1988 and now we've been printing the last three years. We're based in Decatur. We have a facility in Decatur.
Speaker 4: 05:14We have several other facilities across the Midwest. One in Tennessee, in Illinois, in Ohio as well. And we want to be a world leader in producing and making products sustainable and renewable products based from plants. Right? Our main raw material is the yellow dead corn that we use to make sugar, acidulants, industrial materials and other things.
Speaker 4: 05:42Eyeproof itself is a facility where we're trying to fill the gap in the bio economy or in the bio industrial space as a whole where there's not enough facilities within The United States that are at this scale. And iProof stands for Illinois Pilot Research and Operations Optimization Facility. So it is a mouthful. But hence the short version iProof. So iProof itself what we're trying to do is fill the gap in biomanufacturing space because right now there is facilities like IBRL that can bring a technology up to a pilot scale but there's not enough facilities within The U.
Speaker 4: 06:25S. To fill the gap towards commercializing whatever is being developed at the bank scale. So iProof itself is providing that opportunity so that we can become a hub for biomanufacturing here in the Midwest.
Todd Gleason: 06:39Can you tell me how this fits in? Because Permian still takes in grain. Yeah. Can you tell me how it fits into what farmers, producers think of as the Tate and Lyle side of premium, which is in their hometown, they're delivering grain to in the fall, and then how iProof fits into that? Yes.
Todd Gleason: 07:00Of course.
Speaker 4: 07:00So iProof fits into that by providing sort of a venue to commercializing and diversifying what we can do with a grain of corn. So right now for example we take, we use everything that we
Speaker 5: 07:12make in the grain of corn.
Speaker 4: 07:13However, we want to diversify that as much as possible to continue to add value to some of the products that we can make out of that grain of corn. By working in the bioeconomy and expanding the bioeconomy here in the Midwest, the Midwest itself there's no reason why it can become like the hub for bio manufacturing and the bioeconomy in general for The US because this is where, all of the raw product is being made. So by diversifying what we can make out
Speaker 5: 07:44of the grain of corn,
Speaker 4: 07:45we add value and we ensure the stability of that, product that the farmers are making.
Todd Gleason: 07:51Rodney Weinzurl is the executive director for the Illinois Corn Growers Association. When you talked with your farmer board and said, we want to be involved in some way, what decision was made to be involved? So,
Speaker 5: 08:09Todd, new uses has been a part of our organization for several decades. I can attest to that. And maybe backing up a little bit, you know, corn Illinois is just a perfect place to grow corn. I don't know if a lot of people realize it, but yields in Illinois are actually accelerating. So we hear a lot about climate going on and all that.
Speaker 5: 08:33And if you look at the last twenty years of data, you'll actually see yields in Illinois are actually accelerating, which is very interesting when you think about the narrative that's out there. But corn, it's it's strength really is starch production, which is a great feedstock for what the folks here at University of Illinois are doing and our wet millers. And we just heard wet milling is a very old technology, but it's still used for a whole host of things. So from a feedstock standpoint, the dextrose that we get from corn, from starch conversion, and now actually a lot of discussion about using ethanol as a feedstock within the whole petroleum complex to produce value added products are both are all things that, what's going on in IPAP can be very helpful with.
Todd Gleason: 09:21So Beth Connerty, I wanna come back to the idea about this corridor that exists now from Urbana to Decatur. It is a learning corridor. It is a research corridor, but it's also an economic development corridor. Is that the case?
Beth Conerty: 09:39Absolutely. I mean, no better place to do ag research than the University of Illinois and the college bases. But also, there's no place in the world that that grinds as much corn on a daily basis as as Decatur, Illinois. So so, like, Dean Valero was saying, everything from that research to manufacturing already exists. Then when you start to think about new companies and new economic development opportunities, what better place to tie into all of those resources?
Beth Conerty: 10:09So we have the university that can help advance their science, advance their technology. We have partners, like our industry partners in Decatur that can provide feedstock. We have a lot of farm ground. A lot of that feedstock is coming from right here in the region. And then if you're thinking even further about the things that need are needed to build manufacturing, utilities, they may not be exciting, but wastewater treatment, electricity, sewage, rail transportation, Those are all critical infrastructure pieces to build out new manufacturing opportunities, and those all exist here in in Central Illinois, in large part, thanks to our industry partners in Decatur.
Beth Conerty: 10:50So as these technologies advance, as companies are looking to build manufacturing sites, we want Central Illinois to be their destination.
Todd Gleason: 10:59On the education side, I suspect that you look at this, Dean Bolero, and say to yourself, we're involved in the research, but really we need to be able to provide a workforce and maybe the entrepreneurial side of that workforce that can help to develop new products for Illinois and the nation, the world as well. And I I'm wondering how you think about this in that terms in those terms and potentially what happens in Research Park on campus and whether there is an existing tie that will continue to push all of these together.
Speaker 3: 11:38Yeah. Absolutely. I think that having Research Park on campus is a a great thing for us, especially as incubators of potential companies that could come come out of that. I think that, you know, the university provides the environment for discovery, for innovation in all the areas again from the bioengineering to the fermentation to new products. And I think the research part provides the opportunity to incubate new companies.
Speaker 3: 12:05I think a lot of our students are taking some of those classes. They may participate in IBL. They may have their own ideas of how to to move the industry forward, and we yeah. That we we as a campus are an incubator of innovation by itself by bringing all those students on campus.
Todd Gleason: 12:22Then in Decatur, iProof hopes to be an incubator to to continue that process to create, I have soon, new companies or companies that will be acquired eventually. Correct.
Speaker 4: 12:36And the intent is, as I mentioned, to bring economic development to the area and to bring new new companies to the region. And we are providing that gap in there. I think a collaboration with IBRL and with IFAP, for example, will be will probably be the only, to the best of my knowledge, the only ones that will be able to provide an end to end solution to clients coming in. Meaning, they can develop their process early on, so early stage development, right? All the way through pilot scale, through demonstration scale, and then commercialization with premium as a partner for example, or some other company in the region.
Speaker 4: 13:15So what we're trying to do is fill that void that in between that pilot scale and commercialization which right now it's a big gap that is preventing or it's making it very challenging for some companies to get to that commercialization stage.
Todd Gleason: 13:31Ismail, I'd like to plumb your mind for just a second because you are the researcher on the stage with the background in this area. Biofuels to begin with, if I remember correctly, but we're talking about other kinds of things, bioproducts that are coming from corn. What are your expectations at this point? What are the possibilities?
Speaker 4: 13:51The possibilities are endless because there is a very large number of different products that can be made. So from cosmetics, from food products and food ingredients to biofuels and chemicals that are used to develop other products as well. So we already have for example partnerships with other companies. We have Covation in Tennessee and we have Sustania that is coming on online. Those are facilities that are already making products, bio based products from the sugar that is made from the corn.
Speaker 4: 14:22And those companies are already making chemicals that are distributed within the different product lines already. So what we're trying to build or what we're trying to do is continue on that trend and continue to build new companies. And in my mind, the sky is the limit because there is a a very large number of possibilities and different areas that you can go into.
Todd Gleason: 14:46Rodney's Byneserl, you've been executive director long enough to remember into the nineteen nineties and the February. There were pushes to begin with in the nineties, probably the eighties as well, for ethanol production Well, they're saying. Across I remember them too, Rodney, so it's fine. Across The United States, particularly here in the state of Illinois because we have ADM and Decatur and production of ethanol was there to begin with. Not nearly as big as it is now, but it was there.
Todd Gleason: 15:19And then there was this push in the February to create an environmentally sustainable biofuel, which you and the corn growers were very involved in. And I'm I'm going to ask you the question, are the corn growers going to be an upfront spokesman for this kind of function, this corridor development? Will there be that kind of push from corn growers here and other parts of The United States, do you suppose?
Speaker 5: 15:48Yeah. I think there's kinda two phases as I think about new uses. You know, we have the ability to produce a lot of products that are very high value, somewhat limited production, so we need, like, a lot of them. And I think that's where this corridor really works for that. The other side of it is if you think about ethanol, it really took off in 1978, kinda hung around in the early eighties.
Speaker 5: 16:16But today, we probably invested about 45,000,000,000 in ethanol plant capacity. We have 200 plants in the nation. And if we think about the 5.3, 5,400,000,000 bushels of corn used by the industry, We had that in yield growth over the last twenty years. So we literally are still dealing with the same carry out things that we had back in the 80s. And we have increased production by that magnitude.
Speaker 5: 16:45When we think about the new products, you know, we need a 100 products that are using 10,000,000 bushels of corn, you know, to get to the numbers across The United States that we're gonna need over the next couple decades. So there's lots of room. There's lots of stuff that needs to be done. We're replacing petroleum. Sometimes that's an interesting dynamic in the world that I would I work in.
Speaker 5: 17:09But, there's lots of opportunity here. We have all kinds of assets within this region, this corridor to capitalize on that.
Todd Gleason: 17:17The difference, Dean Valero, is this time around, instead of one product, you're looking at a multitude of products that we don't know about yet, and it will take a lot of research from the University of Illinois to make that happen.
Speaker 3: 17:33And we're we're we're excited about that. We're ready, and we got a lot of talented individuals on campus. We got Beth here that is leading a lot of that effort, and we're very excited about taking the challenge on.
Todd Gleason: 17:46Beth, how do you envision this unfolding over a decade?
Beth Conerty: 17:49Oh, I mean, our our tagline or what we are saying is that we are making Central Illinois the epicenter biomanufacturing over the next decade. We really think that there is no place better in the world. This has been substantiated by external research that there is no place better in the world to build this economy than in Central Illinois. Our grand vision is that all of these companies that are making the new products and using cornstarch locate here. They build manufacturing here.
Beth Conerty: 18:16They hire University of Illinois and College of Aces students.
Todd Gleason: 18:20Remiant will be at the front of the list to hire those students. I take it.
Speaker 4: 18:24Of course, of course. We're actually working together with IFAB and the University of Illinois to establish, to help with the workforce development by providing internships and providing opportunities for the students that come out of there so that we can build the workforce necessary for these biomanufacturing companies to come in and build their facilities here. Yep.
Beth Conerty: 18:43He has already hired two of my students. So I just have to plug that. Thank you. If
Todd Gleason: 18:49you had to guess, how long before you have a first viable product or do you already?
Speaker 4: 18:56Well, as I mentioned, we already have viable products. We have a probation facility that is in in Tennessee, and we have another facility in Indiana that is Sustania that is breaking ground in 2026 start being built there. So we already have products that are being made. We just need to expand on the portfolio of the different chemicals that can be made because the sky is the limit as I mentioned. And we can, drop in these chemicals that are more sustainable and that add to the, basically, national security, right, because they're being made here at home.
Todd Gleason: 19:33Our program today was recorded at the Farm Progress Show at the end of the month of August. We thank you for taking some time and spending it with us here at Illinois Public Medium. Our guests included Beth Connerty, along with Ismail Nives, Rodney Weinserl, the dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Herman Balaram. You may hear it again on our website at wilag.org. That's willag.org.
Todd Gleason: 20:01Now let's turn our attention to Farm Credit Illinois. I caught up with the president and CEO of FCI, Kelly Hunt, at the Farm Progress Show as well. Because Farm Credit is semi governmental, I'm roughly speaking, I I need to ask a secondary question as it's related to local banks and how farm credit takes on more of the load potentially in years that aren't as good or at in riskier times than maybe some local or other banks might be able to do in in relationship to agricultural loans.
Speaker 6: 20:39Farm credit on a national level holds about 45% of farm debt across the country. I always like to enter this conversation by saying first, we partner with community banks in many of our programs and in many ways. Agriculture needs farm credit and community banks for the scale to really serve that holistically. So we do partner. We have a lot of our programming where we're able to come in on the backside and work with community banks.
Speaker 6: 21:07But like you stated, community banks are serving lots of different industries, and they might open or close their valve to agriculture. And Farm Credit Illinois exists to serve agriculture. And so we don't flex in that way. We're here to serve in the good times and the bad times and the challenging times. And that's really where we think we can shine.
Todd Gleason: 21:28Thank you for joining me today. I appreciate it.
Speaker 6: 21:31You bet. Thank you.
Todd Gleason: 21:32Kelly Hunt is the CEO of Farm Credit Illinois. They service the bottom half of the state of Illinois. One last item now from the Farm Progress Show this time around. It's about the fungicide you sprayed on your corn this season. I spoke with Boris Camilletti from the University of Illinois and asked him some questions about tar spot.
Todd Gleason: 22:09In July, if I scout my fields and don't find tar spot, should I spray? No. If I scout it three weeks later and I don't see tar spot, should I spray? No. If I scout it that same three weeks later and I do see tar spot, should I spray?
Speaker 7: 22:27You have to see if it is developing so you need to check the progress not only if you see the symptoms or not.
Todd Gleason: 22:33What that exchange tells you about this fall is fairly simple if you left a check-in your field says the U of I plant pathologist look at the yield map to see if the fungicide worked. If you didn't leave a check, well plan accordingly for next year. You're listening to the closing market report from Illinois Public Media on this Tuesday afternoon. Find us online at willag.org. That's willag.0rg.
Todd Gleason: 23:01Or you can look us up in your favorite podcast applications by name, the closing market report. I'm Illinois Extension's Todd Gleeson.