My Experience at the 2025 IPSA Conference

I had the opportunity to attend the Independent Professional Seed Association (IPSA) conference in Palm Springs, CA at the beginning of January. I had many networking opportunities and made valuable connections. It was cool to experience the independent seed industry side of agriculture. 

I went to several learning sessions and here are a few points I thought were interesting:

1. The biofuel market has huge potential for US soybeans: there have been more pushes to move to biofuels (which are made out of oils) and regulation has forced the US to buy used canola and soybean oils from other countries when we are the second largest soybean producer. Although the speaker’s point was we need to use our own soybeans to make biofuels, I didn’t completely agree because even though we produce a lot of soybeans, it’s not like we aren’t using them, they are mostly going to soybean meal.
2. Revcell technology: This is a liquid applicant you spray on your soybeans at a certain growth stage that temporarily damages them but the regrowth adds 30% yield to the soybeans. Still a new product but all the research shows it works
3. In the next 1-2 years there will probably be a drought as bad as the dust bowl: The climatologist who made this talk spent an hour going over overwhelming evidence from lunar cycles to ocean temperatures to planet alignments that all point to this. He said it is more likely to occur in 2026 or 2027 than later. I am interested to see if his predictions are right or not. 

Overall I am very grateful to have been able to attend the conference. A big shoutout to IPSA for paying for me to attend and stay at the resort in Palm Springs (basically a free vacation). I learned a lot and made good connections. I am interested to see if what they predicted for the future actually happens.