The Soybean Pod

There’s been a lot of noise about seed oils, including soybean oil. Some of it, specifically from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior is critical, blaming the oils for inflammation and chronic diseases like type II diabetes and obesity. Dr. Mark Messina could not disagree more. On this edition of The Soybean Pod, Dr. Messina, director of nutrition science and research at Soy Nutrition Institute Global, cites evidence of a much different story.

A bio-adjuvant being developed with support from the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff at Dakota BioWorx in Brookings, South Dakota, will enhance the efficacy of crop protection sprays while yielding a dry material that shows promise in treating white mold and other crop ailments. “The beautiful thing about it is this is derived from soybean,” says Dr. Matthew Cole, founder and CEO of Pioneer Biotech. “We’re fermenting bio-adjuvants from soybean.”

Dakota BioWorx is housed in the new POET Bioproducts Center at the South Dakota State University Research Park. The firm is home to a bunch of bioprocessing labs, bioreactors and processing facilities that help scale up bioproduct ideas that are getting closer to commercial launch and success. In this edition of the Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, we’ll talk to Dakota BioWorx CEO Neal Connors about what goes on at The Soybean Checkoff-supported pilot facility.

Research and experience point to the conclusion that reducing tillage is a good farm production practice. On this edition of The Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, our guest is Peter Kovacs, an associate professor in the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science at South Dakota State University. Kovacs talks about Soybean Checkoff-supported research on reduced tillage, and how it conserves soil, water, time, energy and money. Kovacs also tells the story of what brought him to South Dakota from his native Hungary.

Zach Smith went from an upbringing in the shadow of Disney World to doing soybean feeding trials on South Dakota beef cattle. On this edition of The Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, we’ll talk to the central Florida native about that checkoff-supported research being conducted at South Dakota State University. With a calculator at the ready, Smith, an associate professor in animal science, lays out what’s possible, and how feeding soybeans to cattle might eventually pencil out.

Biobased diesel fuels – many of them sourced from soybeans – are breaking records. Numbers associated with these liquid fuels are impressive and continue to rise. On this edition of The Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, Kate Shenk, director of regulatory affairs for Clean Fuels Alliance America, talks about those numbers and what they mean for soybean farmers and rural communities.

The soybean market is hurting compared to its high-water mark. The robust markets soybean growers enjoyed in 2012 and 2022 seem a distant memory. In this edition of The Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean growers and their checkoff, agriculture economist Ben Brown at the Food and Agricultural Policy Institute offers insights into why the markets are soft, as well as where they might go and how to navigate them.

A South Dakota State University study indicates the adoption of conservation practices like reduced or no-tillage contributes to yield increases and improvements in soil health. In this edition of The Soybean Pod from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, Dr. David Clay, Distinguished Professor of soil science at SDSU, explains how that has happened and how conservation farming can improve productivity.