Hefty urges application for SD Soybean Genesis Leaders Program

A member of the Ag PhD family is an alumnus of South Dakota Soybean’s Genesis Leaders Program. Zach Hefty, whose family farms at Baltic, South Dakota and leads the Ag PhD agriculture information service, is one of the young people who completed the latest edition of the Genesis Leaders Program. The fourth class of the South Dakota Soybean Genesis Leaders Program begins late this year.

The leadership program, sponsored by the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff, is a series of four seminars from December through March designed to develop leaders for the soybean industry.

“The Genesis Program is really awesome,” said Hefty, during an interview with the South Dakota Soybean Network. “We went to few different tour sites where we learned about the ag industry and soybeans as well. That’s where I started learning about soybean production being more than just what you see. I started learning more about soybeans in general and how they get exported to other countries and how they’re utilized in the United States and in South Dakota.”

Through a Soybean Checkoff partnership with the South Dakota Agriculture and Rural Leadership Program (SDARL), the Genesis Leaders Program teaches, among other things, leadership skills and industry knowledge.

“One of my favorite ones was going out to Pierre and learning about how [the legislative process] works with agriculture and lobbying and all of those different processes,” said Hefty. “And it was really awesome to see kind of how laws or stuff works in the agriculture industry that will affect growers.”

For South Dakotans at least 21-years-old and with direct participation in the soybean industry, Hefty urges they apply.

“I’d say if you’re interested in agriculture at all or basically want to learn about how the whole industry works, especially on the soybean side, you’ll get your eyes opened to that,” said Hefty. “You’ll [find out] how Congress starts their conversations, to how bills are getting passed, to different industry leaders and how soybeans are used throughout the world.”

Aside from helping on the farm, Hefty has responsibilities with Ag PhD.

“I create content and I work with my dad and my uncle to help our social media pages and help our marketing pages as well as going out and looking at our farm and scouting and just helping out any way I can,” said Hefty.

The Genesis Program prepares leaders for the soybean industry as well as leaders in the participants’ communities. As in Zach Hefty’s case, the program provokes contemplation about one’s future.

“I see myself learning as I go because I’ve only been out of school for a year and I’ve already learned so much,” he said, referring to where he sees himself in the next five years. “The amount that I could continue to learn with these next five years, I just see myself continuing to grow and doing a similar thing to what I’m doing now and talking about agriculture and promoting it on social media as well as different events.”

There’s more conversation with Zach Hefty on the Soybean Pod, wherever podcasts are available, brought to you by South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff.