Scotland County Purchases Soybean Oil-Based Tires
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By Emily Bontrager, NEMOnews Media Group
The Scotland County Commissioners met with representatives from the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council on Thursday, April 27.
Recently, Scotland County purchased four new soybean oil-based tires. These tires are made by Goodyear and not only support Missouri farmers, but also our environment.
The soybean oil tires are a part of the Pod to Pavement Program through the Soybean Merchandising Council.
Matt Amick, who is the Director of Market Development for the Missouri Soybean Association and the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council, explained how these tires are beneficial to not only rural communities, but Missouri farmers as well.
“The Merchandising Council is funded by soybean farmers and soybean checkoff. The goal of the soybean checkoff is to work on research, education, and then market development for soybeans,” Amick said.
“This is a new market for soybean oil and basically what Goodyear has done is they’ve found a way to incorporate soybean oil in the compounds of the tires to replace petroleum oil. One of the benefits of having soybean oil in the tire is that a lot of companies are looking for a bio-based option for their equipment to become more sustainable. One of the great things is it supports farmers as well,” Amick said.
According to Amick, the tires also react better to ice, snow, and rainy conditions on the road, making them more pliable than a typical tire.
Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council District 3 Representative Tim Gottman also weighed in on how the council strives to promote new products that utilize soybeans.
“As a manager of the checkoff dollar, it’s our job to promote and research new uses of any type of soybean that we can get soybean into. Not everything that we spend money on comes to fruition, but we keep trying to find a new niche that can essentially benefit the Missouri farmer,” Gottman said.
The Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council is working with about 25 to 30 counties across the state to provide a set of tires for the counties to try out. These tires are being used as a promotional tool and to help support the agricultural community and rural communities.
Last year, Scotland County started using biodiesel fuel soybean products for the first time. After hearing about the soybean oil-based tires, the Commissioners decided to look into the new soybean-based product.
“We heard about this first through our road supervisor that had seen them do this with Ralls County, so we got a hold of Matt and got the ball rolling for ourselves,” Eastern Commissioner Brent Rockhold said.
“We heard about these tires that they were making, so we decided to try them. We thought that would be a good promotion to help with the soybean sales in our state,” added Presiding Commissioner Duane Ebeling.
Four Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse HT tires were installed on the Scotland County Sheriff’s truck this past week. Through the Pod to Pavement Program, the county will be reimbursed for the cost of these tires. Each tire cost the county $170.55.
The reimbursement will only be for the first four tires, but according to the commissioners, the county might purchase more soybean oil-based tires in the future.
“We really like the way the tires look, and I imagine down the road we will probably use more of them,” Presiding Commissioner Duane Ebeling said.
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