Thanks to the Illinois Soybean Board (ISB) and Soybean Production Committee members, we take great pleasure to announce 16 soybean production research projects kicked off on September 1 with nine new projects for this fiscal year. To learn more about each of the research projects, view our FY24 Research Brochure where you can read a brief description of the project and find contact information for the principal investigator on each study. In FY23, ISB funded eight soybean production research projects and the jump to 16 funded in FY24 is particularly exciting to me for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, researchers are seeking to answer soybean related research questions that are practical, timely, and address farmers’ needs in Illinois. Evaluating best management strategies in cover crops and no-till to meet conservation goals, to assessing waterhemp’s resistance to group 15 herbicides, to identifying high yielding wheat varieties that can be harvested earlier to allow for increased double crop soybean yields, the research projects this year feature a wide variety of topics.
Second, researcher engagement with Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) staff has increased dramatically. Good relationships between the staff and researchers means the research findings from checkoff funded projects can be communicated quickly back to farmers. At ISA, we have worked to develop a place on ILSoyAdvisor.com where farmers and professionals can learn about research conducted here in Illinois with checkoff dollars via multiple learning formats (fact sheets, videos, blogs) through this link – https://fieldadvisor.org/learn/. Check back often to see updates on research projects and the people working on them.
As always, please reach out to any of the ISA Agronomy team if you have ideas for future research projects. We want to ensure the research conducted with checkoff money is relevant and informative for farmers and their operations.
About the Author: Jennifer Jones
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You mention 16 research projects, what are they? Illinois has done nothing that I know of concerning SDS tolerance evaluation since ISOB stopped funding SIU’s excellent program. Does anyone know anything about Red Crown Rot, tolerance, mitigation, environmental causal factors?? I haven’t heard of any comments in Illinois concerning SCN. Have they left town? I’ve been preaching pH’s of 6.2-6.4 for 25 years based on Wisconsin’s 4 years of replicated research in the late 90’s. Finally other agronomists are getting on board. Apparently only Wisc. & Iowa are aware of this phenomenon. U.of I. still recommends lime applications based on a 9″ plow layer!! We’ve not moldboard plowed for 40 years?? Oh, if one does minimum tillage you can adjust your rates-how much, is there a formula?? I had to get these concerns off of my chest. All I hear is PR talking in generalities about how great ISA is, no substance or results.
Hello Gerry,
Thank you for voicing your concerns. This feedback from individuals like you as well as survey results are what we use to guide us to fund or get involved with future research projects. The ISA Agronomy team is a newly formed group, so we are not aware of what has happened in the past, but we are completely focused on the future. First and foremost, you can learn more about the research that we are funding by going to our research landing page here: https://fieldadvisor.org/learn/ as well as the FY24 brochure that is linked above in the blog. Our ISA Research page will continuously be updated with researcher written and video updates. We are funding several research projects regarding the mitigation of soybean cyst nematode and new this year, ISA is funding free SCN testing in Illinois that will provide further data for future projects. I also just finished up a meeting discussing next steps regarding red crown rot research. For example, we may not be funding a red crown rot project as of this year, but we are still working with University and USDA-ARS researchers in other ways to help combat this disease. You can keep up to date with what all the ISA Agronomy team is doing by reading our ISA Field Note Blog: https://fieldadvisor.org/field-notes-blog/. Please reach out with questions if needed.
Gerry – please see Stephanie’s reply to your comment below. Thanks, Kelsey