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.