When you’re one of the board members in charge of directing the soybean checkoff, it’s best to practice what you preach and stand by those checkoff investments.  

Pat Sullivan, district 5 & 6 director of the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC), is doing just that. In August 2025, the MSR&PC secretary had the opportunity to support and show off one of those investments, RePLAY, on the driveway at his family farm. Produced by BioSpan Technologies and supported by the soy checkoff, RePLAY is an agricultural oil seal preservation agent that extends the life of asphalt surfaces.  

Sullivan recently repaved a portion of the driveway at his farm and hired Bargen Incorporated to lay down a treatment of RePLAY with hopes of doubling the life expectancy of the asphalt with the 88% biobased product that uses soybean oil as one of the main ingredients. Over time, untreated asphalt oxidizes and erodes, but each application of RePLAY reverses that process and helps protect it from the sun, rain and fluctuating temperatures and reduces potholes, cracks and edge rutting.  

“We’ve been promoting RePlay for a number of years, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try it on our home farm to get some more life out of the driveway we just repaved last fall,” said Sullivan, who farms near Franklin in Renville County. “We raise soybeans, it’s a soybean product; what a great way to use more bushels.”  

RePlay uses about 100 bushels of soybeans for every lane mile of application, which equates to about 2 acres of soybeans on average. IIt can be used on streets, driveways, parking lots, trails and tennis courts. The city of Hutchinson has used RePLAY for nearly a decade and conducted a study with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) on its impact. The study showed significantly less distress and cracking on their streets when RePLAY was applied versus untreated or chip sealed streets.  

“The city of Hutchinson has found it can make their pavement last about 10 years longer by using the RePLAY product, which can mean a pretty big cost savings,” said Jerry Van Dyke, project estimator with Bargen Incorporated. “On top of that you’re supporting the ag industry and soybean farmers.” 

The data shows using RePLAY makes “cents,” literally. Spending just $1 on preservation postpones or eliminates spending $6-10 in reconstruction costs every 5-7 years. Better roads also mean safer roads. RePLAY applications have been shown to have increased skid resistance by 16%. Hutchinson officials reported that using RePlay saved the city about 30% in road maintenance costs.

While only a few hundred feet long and maybe 40 feet wide, the application process on Sullivan’s driveway only took a couple minutes and even left behind a pleasant, citrusy smell. The morning application was ready to be driven on by lunch time. By then, Sullivan had already begun spreading RePlay’s positive economic and environmental message.   

“It’s great that we now have companies locally offering this product, so it shows that our checkoff investments towards finding new uses for soybeans and then promoting these soy-products are working,”Sullivan said. “I even brought in our Renville County engineer and my county commissioner to see how it works and learn more so hopefully they will consider it as an option moving forward as well.”