Farming is nothing new to Jared Windmann, but supporting his entire family on it is. Windman says with the increased production of biodiesel, a product made from soybeans, there are more doors opening for new opportunities in the animal agriculture industry.

"The more biodiesel that they crush, the more soybean meal that becomes available. That in turn, makes the feed cost cheaper," said Windmann.

The Missouri Soybean Association sees the need for more available livestock feed in the state and also sees an opportunity to market soybean meal to its number one customer.

"Right now soybean oil is so important to biodiesel, but at the same time whenever you crush soybeans you get two products both soybean meal and soybean oil," said Adam Buckallew. "It takes two-thirds of a bushel of soybeans to make one gallon of biodiesel. And from that, thirty pounds of soybean meal is produced. That amount is enough to only feed about 15 to 30 hogs each and everyday."

It's about an 80/20 breakdown. So when crushing the soybeans to make biodiesel, you get about 20 percent that's oil and then the rest will go to the soybean meal or feed. By 2009, Missouri will produce nearly 150 million gallons of biodiesel each year, which means an abundant amount of soybean meal available for Missouri livestock producers.

Windmann says it is also comforting to know that with these changes, one day his children will also have the opportunity to return to the family farm. Missouri currently has five biodiesel plants in production and three more are expected to be online by late spring 2008. Two additional plants are still in the planning stage, including one in Carrollton.