Welcome to Soybean Summit 2024

If you weren’t able to join the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) at the annual Soybean Summit event for the latest in soybean production – you missed out! But not to worry. Illinois Field & Bean Magazine is here to catch you up on the high-energy, information-packed keynote sessions that kicked off the event.

Attendees learned how to implement yield-maximizing techniques while preserving soil health, then discovered ISA’s on-farm trialing service and all it can offer. Here’s a quick review of these high-quality sessions.

Keynote 1: Achieving High Yield Soybeans While Protecting the Soil

Chris Weaver, “The Podfather”

In Keynote 1, The Podfather, as Chris Weaver is known, took us straight to the dirt with a lively and informative, no-frills talk on his own hard-earned, well-proven no-till, no-irrigation strategy.

A sixth-generation farmer from Finksburg, Md., Chris farms with his parents and his wife, Megan, and their two kids. The Weaver operation grows soybeans, corn and rye for distilleries. Chris and his family pride themselves on thinking of new ways of increasing yield while still protecting and doing what is right for the soil. He shared yield-maximizing techniques that preserve soil health.

The Weavers started pushing yields in 2010 and have had great success achieving soybean yields of 158 bu. per acre on nonirrigated land. But Chris has never been satisfied with the status quo of agriculture and refuses to be told there is something farmers cannot achieve. His ultimate goal: growing 200+bushel, no-till, non-irrigated soybeans.

“I enjoy growing high-yielding beans and being challenged,” he said. “People say you can’t spread fertilizer in the winter and push the envelope. Well, I’m the guy doing it.”

As Chris puts it, he eats, sleeps and breathes high-yielding soybeans. He advocates treating every acre as a high-yielding acre. Acknowledging that his approach isn’t for everyone, Chris maintains that if you keep an open mind, you can still learn something from it.

“I do no-till, but I’m not opposed to working ground,” he said. “That’s just what works best in my area. Like irrigation – I have both irrigated and non-irrigated acres, depending on what works best.”

Years back, the Weavers started doing their own on-farm trials, instead of viewing what the neighbors and others were doing. “We do our own research plots on the farm,” he said, “and it has helped us a lot over the years, like eliminating high-salt products –we don’t use those now.” Although products were labeled low or high salt, for example, trialing let the Weavers test them and knock low-performers out of the rotation.

Since starting small with just 125 acres of test plots (Chris originally blocked out 75 but kept adding), they’ve expanded to a variety of different plots, sometimes testing 75 varieties of soybeans. And he loves to share the information they glean from the trials.

“I’m an open book,” he said. “My good friend Terry Vissing, one of the original Yield Masters, and Kevin Kalb started Midwest Advanced Crop Consulting, and I’ve been with them talking about our years of producing high-yielding soybeans and the data we have.”

He believes his story resonates with fellow farmers because he isn't selling snake oil. Instead, he is truly trying to increase yields. “I’m a farmer, and I have an agronomy degree,” he said. “I believe it’s possible to talk about adjusting herbicides and chemicals, and at the same time talk yields.”

Biologicals have made the difference, Chris said. He calls it feeding the biologicals you have. And soil testing is critical – he tests religiously three times a year, even during the growing season.

So after years of production and data on high-yielding soybeans, what can’t Chris live without? The answer, as they say, might surprise you: “GPS, recordkeeping – and weigh tickets.” Nope, not yield monitoring (though it’s great for soil samples, he said).

Yield monitors are too easy to manipulate, Chris said. He believes you can make them say what you want, go faster or slower to change the numbers, and take an of-the-moment screen capture to “prove” it. No, Chris runs everything through scale tickets, believing that’s the most accurate, indisputable way to track yields. The Weavers take everything over the scale to be sure of their numbers.

So going into 2024, what should every farmer be doing, according to The Podfather? Go in with an open mind, ask questions, calibrate your planters three times - and live by your scale tickets.

Keynote 2: Growing the On-Farm Trial Network

Stacy Zuber, Ph.D., and Abigail Peterson, CCA, Illinois Soybean Association

If you’ve ever wondered where your checkoff is going and wanted a direct line to some of the state’s most connected agronomists, you can get a front-row seat to the field by joining the ISA On-Farm Trial Network. “This is the best way to see new research, get access to experts and engage with our agronomists,” said Abigail Peterson, CCA, Director of Agronomy for ISA.

The goal of the network is to assess the best potential and resilient cropping systems, while addressing sustainability and maintaining profitability. “Maybe you want to adopt some conservation practices, but some of the advice isn’t practical for your farm, for example,” said Stacy Zuber, Ph.D., ISA Research Data Scientist.

ISA trials provide opportunities for any Illinois farmer, covering a wide variety of current and future topics, such as long-term strip till; cover crops; no-till; and evaluating long-term soil health and system management over three, five and 10 years.

“Certain soils in Illinois’ central and northern sections have prairie soils, so we’ll be looking at how those can work in both the short and long terms, for example,” Zuber explained.

The network will include Action Trials, as well. Designed to help growers react quickly to concerns, these shorter-term assessments have a faster turnaround and could extend through a single growing season or even part of a growing season. “The goal is to collect information quickly and get it back out so that growers can be actionable immediately,” said Zuber. “It could be fungicide, new pests, weather concerns, herbicides or weed management – a range of topics are possible.”

Participating growers will also be able to determine their level of cropland and time enrolled in the program – and no amount is too small. “It could be as small as 1 acre of a check strip or larger, depending on the size of their equipment and field breakdown,” she said. “We want to have these shorter trials as well as the longer trials that we can split in any way and put more statistical data behind the trials research universities are conducting.”

In fact, the vision is for the ISA On-Farm Trial Network to be a great supplement to university research, which can be limited by smaller plots, restrictions by participating suppliers and fewer locations. ISA aims to build on the great research Illinois universities are conducting – a bridge between industry and university.

“Our goal is to get textbook guidelines to actual farms,” said Peterson. “For farmers who want to be even more resilient and profitable, this is a great opportunity. We put a high value on farmers’ time, and on the quality data their farm trials will provide.”

The ISA On-Farm Trial Network will have something for every farmer and provides a flexible, simple way for growers to collect data from their own farms that answer questions about their individual land and production strategies.

“We know that the growers with good conservation practices tend to be more resilient,” said Zuber, “and participating in trials will help them build that. We will help them identify practices to help minimize risk and to protect the environment while maintaining profitability, yield and farm health.”

Editor's note: Growers should watch for a Producer Concern Survey coming soon from ISA to identify topics farmers want to see researched, challenges they’re facing and what strategies they can most use on their farms. The survey will also provide a space for growers to indicate their interest in participating in the ISA On-Farm Trial Network.