Benson Hill, Inc. (NYSE:BHIL) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Wright : Okay. And then what I was just trying to get a little bit better understanding of is on the in-market value creation per acre. On that value, I guess, that’s on Slide 11, but some of the traits, right, are on Slide 6. But is there a way to like ring like the traits as far as the drivers of that market value creation? Or how to think about which traits are the more valuable than others?

Deanie Elsner: Absolutely, Brian. What we’ve done as we looked at the animal feed markets is we literally looked species by species and then within each species, subspecies to understand the end user needs. Across the board, animal feed is a very formulaic approach to pricing. As you know, it’s very, very high volume and lower margin. But they formulate the way you calculate the price point on that formulation is very formulaic. And so really, by far, the biggest driver of formula cost is protein. So our protein on average, is about 20% higher than commodities. So we get a gold star for protein delivery. What protein does is it enables our producers to use more of our protein and replace higher cost ingredient streams in their formula costs.

So it’s a cost advantage to them. In addition, the low oligosaccharides trait is an anti-nutrient trait. What that means is it helps the animals digest a soy. As a result of that, producers can actually use more of our soy in replacement of higher cost ingredient streams. Amino acids are also a valuable set of traits depending by animal species and amino acids today are supplemented with high-cost additives because the soy meal tends not to have the right combination or the right levels of amino acid. So you can imagine how UHPLO with 20% higher protein, the low oligosaccharides trait and enhanced amino acids actually really speaks very positively to this market and in a very advantaged way. We have cost estimated every one of those formulas and then we’ve brought in external experts from the animal nutrition industry to validate and shadow price our estimates.

And so we feel pretty good about the value creation we’re bringing forward by species across those different acres, and that’s what our plan is as we go out in the market.

Brian Wright : That’s super helpful. The other thing I just wanted to kind of understand kind of how we’re thinking about it from a commercialization standpoint is so massive increase on the protein content. But even on the HT, it’s a little bit of a drag on the yield at the protein content massively overwhelm that. But like how do you think about like how that goes into the market as far as will it be directly contracting with farmers because it’s going to be driven more by the end market kind of pole demand versus just typical, okay, I am a farmer we’re in, this is the best yielding seed and just kind of how we think about like how that works from the commercialization standpoint.

Deanie Elsner: Yes, it’s a great question. So as I mentioned, the accessible market for animal feed is about 28 million acres for domestic consumption. So you can imagine the potential in these acres. As we launch these acres into market, ultimately, what we’re trying to get to is a value-add for our farmers and our producers and end user producers. As that comes to fruition, that’s where the value ultimately is going to be overall. Brian, I think I lost your question. May you repeat it over time, I was under train, I think I lost your question.

Brian Wright : No, no, no. I think that was super helpful. What I think — and I just want to make sure I’m interpreting any way he said. So basically, it’s the animal feed companies that are going to drive the former to take up the seed and plan to seed and contract with it because of the benefits that they get and they’re going to share some of that with the farmer. Is that kind of just…