The Indiana corn checkoff will be represented by Mike Shuter, president of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council. ''I think it's a tremendous opportunity we have here. China can be a tremendous market for us. Whether it's corn exports, corn or DDGS, and even if we're exporting pork, it's going to take corn to produce that pork in this country, and that's another positive way of getting corn moving through the system,'' Shuter said.

 

Indiana Soy Alliance director Jerry Osterholt will work on behalf of the soy checkoff. He said, ''I'm very proud to go and represent Indiana soy farmers, and hopefully we can find some trade relationships that we can make and build on over there to help Indiana soy farmers.''

 

Shuter said the mission for the checkoffs is to open doors, but he cautions the trip is just the start of that process. ''I think our mission is to open the doors we have to, to try to get more corn exports into China. I don't know what those will be yet. That's part of the reason we've got to go over there and find out where those doors are at and what it takes to get them open.''