At its beginnings in 1930, one of the primary functions of the Iowa State University (ISU) Northern Research and Demonstration Farm was sugar beet research, notes Dan Robison, dean of the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. 

At the time, soybeans were barely on the radar of Iowa farmers. According to USDA statistics, the crop was grown on just over 3 million acres nationwide that year, and most were harvested as forage. Today, soybeans are grown more than 9 million...