The Soybean Pod

The guard is changing in more ways than one. Kevin Scott is the new assistant executive director for the South Dakota Soybean Association and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. Scott, a farmer from Valley Springs, South Dakota, was brought aboard in anticipation of the retirement later this year of current executive director Jerry Schmitz. Kevin Scott’s leadership experience runs deep. In this edition of The Soybean Pod, he talks about preparing for the position during the last quarter-century without even knowing it. He also brings up life-change opportunities presented by having accepted this position.

It is increasingly difficult to successfully pass a farm to the next generation. South Dakota State University Extension is addressing what it takes to navigate this succession with a series of Sustaining the Legacy conferences on what it takes to plan for passing the farm down. From estate planning to retirement to long-term care, on this edition of The Soybean Pod, we talk to Heather Gessner, South Dakota State University Extension’s interim Agriculture and Natural Resources program director and SDSU’s Livestock Business Management Field Specialist. Gessner discusses farmers’ need to plan for when they’re no longer in charge of that next crop. Planning on that passage can seem daunting, and it often requires help from professionals.

A late-October 2025 agreement between President Trump and Chinese President Xi was that China would resume importing soybeans from the U.S. after they suspended U.S. soybean buys this past spring. Two-and-a-half weeks after the announced agreement, agricultural cooperative Wheaton Dumont Coop, which serves farmers in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, said it would move at least four unit trains of soybeans destined for China, Mexico and St. Louis in late December and early January. In this edition of the Soybean Pod, Mount Vernon farmer and South Dakota Soybean Association President Kevin Deinert reacts with “a sigh of relief” to the original long-awaited deal between the two trade superpowers.

Soybean farmers are struggling without China among the list of U.S. export customers. To maintain soybean demand, growers are heavily dependent on exports, particularly exports to China. The world’s largest soybean importer has backed away from buying U.S. soybeans, which is hurting farmers’ bottom line. On this edition of The Soybean Pod, from South Dakota soybean farmers and their checkoff, Tregg Cronin, a farmer and market analyst from Gettysburg, South Dakota, says there are no easy answers, and there is no quick resolution on the horizon.

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.