This USDEC Expert Wants To Keep Families On Dairy Farms Generation After Generation

Jun 19, 2023

Martha Scott Poindexter's heart beats for agriculture. She grew up on a cotton, rice and soybean farm in Mississippi. She spent 23 years advancing agricultural policy on Capitol Hill.

Today, as the chief operating officer (COO) of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, Poindexter uses that Ag experience to work collaboratively with the dairy checkoff and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) so that farmers get a strong return for their export investment.

"DMI and USDEC work hand-in-hand to help farmers sell milk ingredients and products," said Poindexter. "We cannot do our job without DMI and our farmers. Dairy farmers are our greatest source of funding which enables USDEC to serve them by promoting dairy and dairy products overseas.

"We know that farmers are our number one priority along with our member companies and working collaboratively with DMI helps USDEC succeed in carrying out our mission to feed healthy nutritious dairy to the world."

Poindexter is one of USDEC's “experts on exports” working for the leading "U.S. dairy export accelerator" and our ambitious mission to "enrich the well-being of people, communities and the planet.” In a series of articles and videos for National Dairy Month, some of our experts are stepping out from behind the scenes to explain how and why they serve the U.S. dairy industry.

It wasn't that long ago when exports were an afterthought. Today 18% of milk production goes into cheese and dairy ingredients shipped across our borders to a world increasingly hungry for dairy. 

Despite COVID, a supply-chain crisis and other challenging issues, U.S. dairy exports have set all-time records for three consecutive years. Since 2010, dairy export volume has risen 76% -- and we're not done yet. Long-range supply-and-demand projections point to an even brighter future for U.S. dairy exports.

More than 95% of the world's population lives outside U.S. borders. More than 94% of U.S. dairy farms are family owned. 

"I think U.S. dairy exports are one way that enables people to stay on their family farms generation after generation," said Poindexter, who works with President and CEO Krysta Harden from USDEC’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters near Washington, D.C.

As COO, Poindexter manages a USDEC staff of more than 45 as well as international offices in Mexico/Central America, China, Japan, Middle East. Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, South America and South Korea.

Poindexter was named USDEC's COO two years ago, bringing extensive governmental and business experience with her. 

Among other things, Poindexter was the first female to lead both the agriculture and intelligence committees, writing numerous farm bills and other agriculture, nutrition, and intelligence legislation. She spent six years at agribusiness giant Bunge in government affairs, advancing the company's export and commodity trading operations.

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”