Northern Soy Marketing
While Northern Soy Marketing shouts the quality, consistency and reliability of northern-grown soy from the rooftops at any opportunity, seeing is believing.
The fourth annual NSM Crop Tour is an ideal opportunity for international purchasers to see up-close practices and conditions that set U.S. Soy apart. This year, the tour is set for Sept. 21-25, 2026, welcoming participants from Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand – three growing markets for northern soybean farmers.
“It’s important that we build relationships with foreign customers so they understand who we are and the product that we can provide them,” NSM Director Patrick O’Leary said.
The tour will kick off in Minnesota, where participants will spend the morning at the University of Minnesota’s soybean research plots and lab before heading to O’Leary’s farm near Danvers, Minn.
While there, O’Leary will showcase the equipment used on the farm, and if the weather cooperates, his guests will witness the 2026 soybean harvest in person. This won’t be the first time O’Leary has welcomed an international trade team. The NSM Crop Tour stopped by his farm in 2023 and 2024, too.
“Having the ability to see how we raise the crop and what the crop looks like in the field is important,” O’Leary said. “I think it’s important for them to see that the crop harvested from the field is low in foreign material and high-quality right out of the combine.”
While in Minnesota, participants will also tour the Ag Processing Inc (AGP) crush plant in Dawson, Minn., before heading over to South Dakota. In South Dakota, the NSM Crop Tour participants will engage in a tour of Houdek, a poultry nutrition research discussion at South Dakota State University, tour Jeff Thompson’s Colton, S.D., farm and Central Farmers Cooperative.
“Building trust, credibility and reliability are a core tenet of everything NSM does,” NSM Executive Director Gary Williams said. “The Crop Tour is an important relationship builder and the conversations that will happen at every stop along the way help move the needle.”
Farmers from NSM’s member states – Minnesota and South Dakota – produce nearly 20 percent of the soybeans grown in the U.S., a majority of which are loaded onto rail and shipped from Pacific Northwest (PNW) export facilities. Hence, the NSM Crop Tour will conclude in the PNW, where participants will tour AGP’s export facility at the Port of Grays Harbor.
NSM’s Crop Tour is a critical aspect of promoting northern-grown soybeans and soymeal by working with respected researchers to provide a more accurate picture of soybean feeding quality by considering critical essential amino acids, rather than crude protein as the true measure of soy quality.
Northern Soy Marketing news release
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