The Soybean Pod

We’ve heard superlatives from others referring to their relationship with Jerry Schmitz and about Jerry’s role in the founding of the South Dakota Soybean Association. In this edition of the Soybean Pod, the floor is Jerry’s. We’ll dive into his upbringing, his college years and most of all, the impetus in founding the organization from which he retires as executive director. Although Schmitz has been the paid leader of the South Dakota Soybean Association and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council for the past seven years, his involvement goes back to its official beginning in 1982.

Steven Censky, in his second tenure as CEO of the American Soybean Association, measures the pulse of global and domestic circumstances that affect soybean growers. He says many growers priced fertilizer supplies prior to conflicts in Iran and on the Strait of Hormuz. However, many did not. Those are the hardest hit with steep cost increases resulting from that war. In this edition of the Soybean Pod, Censky talks about higher – much higher – input costs lately and better soybean prices since relations thawed between the U.S. and China last fall. Censky also reminisces about his background as a staff member for South Dakota Senator James Abdnor, his education at South Dakota State University, and how the experiences prepared him for his current position.

Terry Jaspers’ resume is well-rounded for leadership. After serving the FFA as a state officer, his education at South Dakota State University prepared him to be a farm lender. That didn’t keep him from farming at aSisseton, South Dakota, whose citizens he serves as mayor. At the time of this interview for the Soybean Pod, Jaspers was a few months into his first term on the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff board and was waiting patiently for his farmland to become fit to work and plant. (He completed planting a couple of weeks after our visit.) On this edition of the Soybean Pod, Jaspers talks about his farm, about the 2026 planting season and about what it’s like to work the upper reaches of the Coteau des Prairies.

Soybeans grown in northern states, including South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, states that comprise Northern Soy Marketing, are being marketed to soybean meal buyers in Southeast Asia. The competing supplier – Brazil – touts soybean meal that they say has more crude protein. On this edition of the Soybean Pod, poultry nutrition consultant Bob Swick says that what northern-grown soybeans lack in crude protein, they more than make up for in essential digestible amino acids. “I was talking about how good soybean meal is made from soybeans that grow in the north part of the U.S.”

It’s fitting that a phrase repeated at Orion Samuelson’s funeral was one that he often used to remind farmers and non-farmers alike: “If you eat, you’re involved in agriculture.” Samuelson, a supporter of producer-funded checkoff programs, became well known most notably on WGN Radio in Chicago, as well as for co-founding and co-anchoring the nationally televised U.S. Farm Report and later This Week in Agribusiness. For a year in the late-90s, Soybean Pod host Tom Steever worked for Orion in Chicago on a short-lived DirecTV television venture called Channel Earth. This edition of the Soybean Pod is a conversation with Samuelson’s long-time partner and co-anchor, Max Armstrong, who also worked with Tom at Channel Earth.

Out of the 200,000 bushels of soybeans crushed each day by South Dakota Soybean Processors (SDSP), a few thousand are non-GM (non-genetically modified). In this edition of the Soybean Pod, the company’s senior procurement manager, Kari VanderWal, explains what it takes to supply that daily demand for soybeans grown without traits developed through genetic modification. Growing non-GM soybeans is not without challenges, but there are rewards. “Right now, we're looking at around $2.50 (per bushel) premium that they can earn if they decide to do that,” says VanderWal. “If we put that down to dollars per acre, it's $115 to $150 per acre profit that they could make.”

A fermentation process in Volga, South Dakota, is amping up the nutritional specs on soybean meal. Years ago, Dr. William Gibbons and Dr. Mike Brown, both professors at South Dakota State University, developed a method of bio-transformation resulting in a high-protein feed for aquaculture. Expansion into feeds for swine, poultry and pets led to a name change. Dustin Gibbons, the son of the company’s co-founder, is general manager of what is now Houdek. In this edition of the Soybean Pod, the younger Gibbons explains how this feed improves aquaculture, livestock and pet diets while building demand for soybean meal.

25X’25 Pursues Renewable Fuels Goals Yet to Reach by SD Soybean

Soybean demand rises and falls with export prospects and domestic uses. On this edition of The Soybean Pod, South Dakota soybean growers talk about what is driving demand and where they think demand is headed. Those growers also talked about how the Soybean Checkoff contributes to demand for the crop domestically and overseas. These conversations with farmer/leaders Bruce Haines, Drew Peterson and Blake Foxley happened before the late-2025 trade framework agreed upon with China. They made their comments at Dakotafest, near the High Plains soybean processing plant at about the time of its long-anticipated opening, which is expected to make a positive contribution to domestic crush numbers and soybean demand.

Cole Sonne is the fourth generation on his family’s Mount Vernon, South Dakota farm. Cole’s days are spent alongside his father raising corn, soybeans and Black Angus cattle, but there’s more.

“We also have a YouTube channel called Sonne Farms,” said Sonne, “which I believe is the biggest YouTube channel in South Dakota.”

It’s big to the tune of tens of thousands of viewers per episode, seen all over the United States as well as in other countries. We caught up with Sonne just before he spoke at the 2025 AgOutlook Conference and Trade Show in Sioux Falls this past December. At the conference he talked about the importance of the next generation getting a solid foothold on the farm, which you’ll hear about on this edition of The Soybean Pod. But you’ll also hear about the Sonne Farms YouTube channel, hugely popular among farmers and others.