8 minute read
Meeting Farmers Where They Are
by Mace Thornton
Thanks to a mention in the classic American poem "Casey at the Bat," baseball fans think of this time of year as a season when “hope springs eternal.” Similarly, at this time of year, Illinois soybean farmers - whether they root for the Cubs, the Sox or the Cardinals - share similar hopes for their soybean crops.
Planting season, unless too wet, dry, hot or cold, carries great expectations among soybean farmers. Every field looks like a champion.
Even if Mother Nature decides to throw a curveball related to weather, pests or disease, the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) Agronomy Team has already leveled the field of play to ensure Illinois farmers have the critical agronomic information they need to compete. And throughout the year, the Agronomy Team’s ability to deliver updates and real-time agronomic insights further empowers farmers to drive in the winning run.
The Agronomy Team has all the bases covered through state and regional agronomy meetings, the ILSoyAdvisor website (www.ilsoyadvisor.com), newsletters, late-breaking updates, farm visits and surveys, and even urgent crop advice over the phone.
For farmers, assistance is never far away. Batting leadoff for the Agronomy Team is ISA Outreach Agronomist Stephanie Porter, CCA. She holds degrees in crop science and plant pathology from the University of Illinois (U of I) and is the staff member who often fields calls from farmers with specific agronomic concerns.
“I’ve made a lot of farmer contacts,” Stephanie says. “I may not be able to answer their questions all the time, but I’ll always be able to point them in the right direction.”
Stephanie is proud of the role she plays in delivering unbiased, research-based information, in conjunction with ISA’s Kelsey Litchfield, who handles a good share of the agronomic communications duties.
“We work together on outreach and events,” Stephanie says. “It’s all about offering up good research-based information. It could be ISA-funded research, coordinated by Jennifer Jones, or through the experts we have around the state, including the ISA Soy Envoys.”
The Soy Envoy program features a group of six seasoned soybean agronomists and crop advisers who offer a steady stream of insights including area crop reports, articles, videos, audio interviews, Field Notes blog items on ILSoyAdvisor.com and social media posts.
Once a year, timely research topics also are presented during the ISA Soybean Summit—the organization’s premier statewide agronomy event. But there are also half-day “Better Beans” events across the state that are regional in focus. Plans are taking shape to have a series of “Field Talks” events this year, at locations around the state such as the Farm Progress Show site in conjunction with Richland Community College, at Rend Lake College, and Heartland Community College.
In addition, a number of less formal and more localized “Tailgate Talks” with ISA leaders and Soy Envoys are being planned for this growing season. “A lot of good information will come out of those that might be more relevant or timely to farmers in the area,” Stephanie says.
According to Stephanie, farmers often have a wide range of questions on issues such as the importance of sulfur in soybean production, nutrient management issues, soybean cyst nematode control or the resurgence of red crown rot disease. Although interaction with Illinois soybean farmers is the favorite aspect of her job, Stephanie is excited about starting an ISA Crop Report this year from the viewpoint of agronomists, Soy Envoys and Extension personnel.
Kris Ehler, Sales Agronomist for Ehler Brothers Co., in Thomasboro, was among the six Soy Envoys appointed to the group last year. Although a new group of six has been announced, Kris said he volunteered to continue serving in an advisory capacity.
“This is actually my second time being an Envoy,” he said. “I got into soybeans through pushing soybean yields, things like early planting and the kind of yield advantage that brings growers.”
In addition to being a regular contributor to the ILSoyAdvisor website, Kris, who could be called the designated hitter for high-yielding soybeans, shares information over several of his social media channels, including a Facebook page titled, “The Pursuit of 100+ Bushel Soybeans.”
“I started doing research on early planted soybeans in 2009,” he says. “Everybody was planting corn first, taking two weeks off and then coming back to plant beans in the middle of May to late May. Planting early was a 10-bu. advantage in 2009, and I just never looked back. We’ve done a flip-flop, and now we have some county averages knocking on the door of 70 bu. an acre.”
Serving as a Soy Envoy has given Kris the platform to help other farmers considering planting soybeans earlier for the possibility of higher yields.
“I want to get that information out and broadly distributed,” he says, “not just in Illinois but in other states. I think ISA is the benchmark for other states as far as distribution of agronomic information to growers. To be a part of that, it just adds fuel to my fire.”
Research about growing better soybeans is also the force that drives ISA Director Brady Holst, Chair of the ISA Soybean Production Committee. Holst, a U of I grad, raises corn, soybeans and wheat near Augusta. Prior to farming, he served as a design engineer for an ag technology company, so he is familiar with the broad scope of agriculture.
Brady provides farmer leadership for numerous production research areas, including encouraging continued outreach and supporting the Agronomy Team. He also serves as a farmer liaison with university researchers and reviews the yearly findings of ISA’s farmer-focused production concern survey.
“We take that information back to our researchers and tell them what farmers are talking about. It bridges the gap because there are times when you can lose the connection between ag and researchers at universities,” Brady says. “It’s good to be in the middle to facilitate communication.”
He appreciates the Agronomy Team's efforts to translate complex findings into actionable insights at the farm level, supported by a goal of “empowering farmers with knowledge that enhances their productivity and sustainability.” Brady is excited about a number of emerging technologies related to soybean production such as CRISPR gene editing to identify novel traits that, for example, might confer resistance to pests such as soybean cyst nematodes.
Brady is also excited about farmers being part of ISA’s new farm trialing network.
“Illinois is such a big state,” he says. “As you talk to farmers in different regions, they always talk about how their region’s different. So doing a farm trialing network is good because it will hit all corners of the state. There’s always going to be a field trial close enough that would be similar to your fields.”
ISA Research Agronomist, Jennifer Jones, CCA, is the teammate who leads much of the engagement with scientists and institutions on the research side. But when it comes to helping coordinate soybean production research, she takes her signs directly from Illinois soybean farmers.
“We’re very passionate about improving farmer access to unbiased information,” she says. “That’s part of my role, but it’s also determining that we are meeting their needs to the best of our ability with the funding available through the checkoff.”
A good share of that information comes through ISA’s farmer-centric production concerns survey, which is in its third year. The survey was revamped this year in an effort to not only identify but also understand the production concerns of growers and crop advisers.
According to Jennifer, a graduate of the U of I with a master's degree from Purdue, weed management and herbicide resistant weeds topped concerns in the latest survey. As a result, she says, farmers approved funding for a research project with Aaron Hager at the U of I, who is studying herbicide resistance in waterhemp.
“That project actually came to life because this was a hot topic,” she says. “We take what we get from the survey and coordinate with researchers in the state to address the needs of our farmers.”
The No. 2 concern identified in the survey was the ongoing effort to control soybean cyst nematodes (SCN). ISA is offering free SCN sampling kits. Any farmer or crop adviser can submit samples to the U of I, which conducts egg counts to determine if a population is over a threshold and whether it is exhibiting signs of resistance. The No. 3 concern: how to best incorporate in-field conservation practices such as cover crops, no-till and nutrient management strategies.
Although the challenges are diverse, so are the universities chosen to partner on research, according to Jones.
“We prioritize partnering with as many universities as we can in the state, especially the main four that work on ag, the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Western Illinois University and Illinois State University,” she says. “We’re also passionate about working with our community colleges. We value that there's a breadth of researchers across the state with which we can partner. Illinois is such a diverse state, and we've heard feedback from farmers that they really want information from their neck of the woods where it's relevant to their soil types, climate or weather."
