Five Denied Seats on Soybean Checkoffs
Published: Friday, May 15, 2026
Five nominees to the U.S. Soybean Board were recently denied their seats at the table after being nominated by their respective states to oversee $121 million in annual checkoff dollars and provide state representation to the committee. Four of the five refused for their positions were women, including Carla Schultz of Mayville, Mich.
Checkoff funds are used for research, marketing, and promotion of U.S. soybeans.
Approving state nominees has historically been a formality. Schultz says there has been no transparency or reasoning provided by the USDA as to why Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who has final approval authority for all checkoff boards, denied the nominees elected by their respective states. Schultz was entering her second three-year term and had been elected by the entire body as the communication and education chair.
State appointees were submitted in August of 2025. States submit a first nominee, and a second which serves as an alternate in case the first elected nominee cannot fulfil the obligation due to a life event or any reason that would reduce the ability to commit fully to the required obligations.
"Normally the appointments are made in December at our board meeting, but they were delayed this year," Schultz said. "So, at the meeting, we just had to go on with business as usual and assumed that all first nominees from our states would get chosen. We had executive committee elections and went into our January meetings."
During this time, Schultz explained that communications with USDA continued regarding final approval dates for appointees, but no time frame was provided by USDA.
Work continued as usual by board members who were completing assignments for the February meeting, who assumed that their appointments were delayed due to last year's government shut down.
It came as a complete shock when the appointees were finally released in February that several first nominees were bypassed for the USDA positions to which they had been selected by peers in their home states.
"The hard thing about that was we had already been doing the work," Schultz said.
Dawn Scheir from South Dakota, Sara Stelter of Wisconsin, Steve May from Tennessee and Susan Watkins of Virgina were all denied their appointments along with Schultz. Watkins was beginning her third term and was elected to serve as treasurer, leaving a leadership gap on the board.
Of the 42 appointed board members plus alternates, none of the appointees were female, leaving only five remaining females on the seventy-seven-member board.
Watkins second nominee was unable to take on the commitment and had only offered his name assuming he would never be called to serve on the Soybean Committee. His refusal leaves the state of Virginia without their fully allotted representation for the state's soybean growers.
While the secretary has the prerogative to bypass a state's first nominee, such a move has not happened under USDA leadership by Sonny Perdue or Tom Vilseck.
"Sadly, we don't have much recourse," Schultz said.
She had been an active board member, earning her spot through volunteering and leadership on both the state and national levels and positioning herself to one day become chairman of the board.
"I think the most disappointing fact is that we really don't have transparency from USDA," she said. Appeals presented by states have been denied.
Speculation that eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives may have been part of the decision-making process but is strictly conjectured. Schultz said that all the women on the board were appointed fully by merit, each earning the position through hard work.
"What is frustrating is that USDA did not reach out to any of the states to ask what we were doing as a representative within their state," she said.
"As it stands, the federal government has the right to do what it did," Schultz said. "The question is, should that happen in the future? The second nominee is there for circumstances beyond control in the case of the first nominee. We can say this isn't right, and we can say no, it wasn't right; but what can we do about it? We cannot litigate the federal government."
While still frustrated, Schultz hopes this situation does not happen again to any person presented by their state for board appointment.
Since being away from the board for the last few months, Schultz has realized the enormity of the commitment to serving on the Soybean Committee and now spends less time on the phone and is more present for things with her family and the farm.
Ben Steyer, CEO of the Michigan Soybean Committee said, "The Michigan Soybean Committee fulfilled its responsibility under federal law by submitting two qualified nominees per open United Soybean Board seat for consideration to the USDA. Our focus remains on identifying and advancing strong candidates to represent Michigan soybean farmers."
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