Through the scorching Baltimore summer heat, the four Minnesota farmers on the United Soybean Board (USB) put their stamp of approval on the organization’s 2025 fiscal year budget, which amounted to $173.8 million for the coming year. The budget supports research, promotion and education investment portfolios selected through USB’s Portfolio Development Process. These investments drive demand for U.S. Soy and return value to all U.S. soybean farmers. The total budget figure also includes execution, oversight and program support.
“The hard work is over, and now we can see them come to life,” said USB Chair Steve Reinhard on the approval of the FY25 investment portfolio.
The board’s approval of the FY25 budget took place during USB’s summer meeting July 8-11, hosted by the Maryland Soybean Board. The meeting set forth a strategic portfolio that focuses on growing preference and increasing the resiliency of U.S. Soy. Priority areas include supply and demand for infrastructure & connectivity, health & nutrition, and innovation & technology. In addition, the Communication & Education Committee aims to enhance the U.S. Soy and checkoff reputation across key audiences, and USB’s export promotion investments focus on differentiating U.S. soybeans around the globe.
With fewer checkoff dollars anticipated in the year ahead, the overall budget was set slightly lower than FY24, which made for some tough decisions for the USB directors.
“The checkoff is down at the moment and likely will be for the next couple of years, so we need to be good stewards of the checkoff and make every dollar count,” said Tom Frisch, USB director and Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) chair.
Frisch was the workgroup lead for the infrastructure & connectivity demand priority area. One project he’s most excited about is developing a soy-based chemistry curriculum that could be taught to post-secondary students.
“This will allow us to get to the future workforce earlier so that they start with using soy as a base instead of having to reengineer a current product to fit for soy,” said Frisch. “This way they’ll be thinking soy from the beginning.”
Martin County farmer Lawrence Sukalski, who serves on the USB executive committee and is the priority work group coordinator for the infrastructure & connectivity priority area, says that grower leaders are targeted in their approach to spending checkoff dollars wisely.
“We obviously have more of the supply than demand right now, so we tended to lean our funding priorities towards the side of demand to create new markets and move some soybeans,” said Sukalski.
Joining Frisch and Sukalski in Baltimore were fellow USB Directors Gene Stoel of Lake Wilson and Patrick O’Leary of Benson, along with MSR&PC CEO Tom Slunecka.
