When it comes to the agronomics of soybeans, better tools and insights that start in the research lab pave the way for better decisions and performance at the farm level. The flow of production technology in the lab is constant. Because farmers have little time to sort through the innovations at the field level, it’s vital to make sure that only the best solutions with the highest production potential make it to the field.
So, what’s the secret? How do most successful soybean seeds go from lab to field? Evaluating factors like sunlight, rain, soil and more come into play when looking at how well soybeans are going to perform when they get to the farm. This often starts at the university level. Missouri Soybeans values its close working relationship with the University of Missouri, according to Blake Barlow, director of research and agronomy at Missouri Soybeans.
“We are proud to fund research through the University of Missouri to ensure that farmers have access to high-yielding and resilient soybeans,” Barlow says. He also credits the organization’s ongoing work with seed companies and dealers across the state that help Missouri soybean growers continue to be successful year-after-year, based on a wider systems approach.
Likewise, Andre Reis, Ph.D., an assistant professor and state extension specialist in soybean agronomy for the University of Missouri, says a systems approach is also an appropriate way to describe how the university works to provide innovations for the state’s soybean farmers.
“My job is to develop and transfer new management practices to soybean systems in Missouri,” said Reis. “So, we try to improve crop management as far as agronomics. Better planting decisions or planting parameters, better variety selection, recommendations to help farmers choose the right variety for their production environment.”
A lot of lab time goes into selecting and perfecting the right soybean varieties for your farm. However, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to compiling the research.
“We are looking at crop nutrition strategies, as far as fertilizers and biological nitrogen fixation. We look at more in-depth issues like how plants compete and interact with each other as far as water and light acquisition for soybean canopies,” said Reis.
According to Reis, everything dealing with the soybean plant community, that is, everything related to genetics and the environment in which soybeans are grown is a big part of his team’s focus.
After a promising variety is developed the next step is often taken by seed dealers, who conduct trials to secure performance data that are crucial to ensuring a farmer’s success.
“We do test plots all the way across the state,” said Clarissa Cauthorn, a seed advisor for Beck’s Hybrids. “We do some with local farmers and we do some with contracted workers that plant those plots. Those plots are research plots. There are also yield plots.”
“We are looking to see how [the new variety] goes up against other products that are in the field to make sure we are putting our best foot forward, and to make sure that the farmer gets the best yield possible because if they’re not successful, we’re not successful.”
A Multi-Phase Process
“What you have to think about is the process that is started for a farmer to plant in the spring starts a year before they ever get ahold of that seed,” said Cauthorn. “Soybean seed companies must make those plans in early January or February [the year prior] of what acres are going to be grown for that seed. They go through that growing season and are harvested in the fall.”
After harvest in the fall, the seeds are checked for germination and quality before the process of seed treatment and shipping is ever started.
“You have a 12-month timeline from planning to planting to fungicide, herbicide, harvest, to taking to the location that will process that seed, to shipping that seed somewhere maybe in the same state, or maybe it’s going six states away, to treating that soybean seed, to getting it to the farmer’s shed, to getting it in the ground,” said Cauthorn. “You’ve got 12 months and what sounds like a 12-step process.”
Back in the lab, for Reis and his team, the research they conduct happens over multiple years.
“Because of the nature of the interaction between cultivars and the environment, usually we have to have a broad repetition of environment,” said Reis. “And, that means multiple locations or multiple years, and most likely both.”
Typically, this research is conducted for three years across five locations per year.
“We try to replicate what the available technology is for growers,” said Reis. That means using modern farm equipment, including high-precision planters to replicate realistic environments that could be found on a Missouri farm.
Collecting Data
“Our research structure allows us to go to different fields, different locations in the state of Missouri and we have field trials, field experiments changing planting parameters, planting dates, different genetics and cultivars,” said Reis. “So, most of our data is based on our own data we generate ourselves, either through students or our staff.”
Reis has a team of 10 students and employees who work alongside him to conduct trials.
Equipment isn’t the only modern technology they are using to gather information and insights. While some methods of data collection remain “old school,” Reis and his team use modern technology to collect data as well.
“For instance, for many projects we have our conventional data collection like plant biomass and plant biometry, but we are also collecting crop canopy images using drones and satellite images,” said Reis.
“We also work with other data sources like weather, satellite images, or soil data repository. We bring that accessory data to try to explain what our findings are, coming from our own trials… we generate our own data using farmers’ fields and research stations as our laboratory,” said Reis.
Data Doesn’t Equal Information
“We use technology for data acquisition, and then we have to use technology to handle and analyze the data. We are talking about a lot of data being generated during the growing season,” said Reis. Though it may sound contrary, he emphasized that, “data is not information.”
Data on its own is useless, that’s why Reis and his team dedicate a lot of time and expertise to interpreting this data and turning it into meaningful insights that Missouri soybean farmers can use. “You have to develop a framework, a method, to look at the big data that is collected and be able to convey a message with it,” he added.
Cauthorn added, “farmers are using data all the time. What’s most important for farmers is that they can synthesize that data very quickly.”
So how exactly do they interpret data?
“We are talking about more complex and statistical approaches, machine learning analysis,” said Reis. “My research group is really divided in that, part of the year we are busy generating data, planting trials, collecting imagery, collecting plant biomass, collecting measurement of light or water interception or yields. The rest of the year we are taking the data, looking at it, trying to understand patterns and develop information or messages that will later be shared with growers.”
“We have a system called FARMserver where we track rainfall, planting days, prescriptions and more,” said Cauthorn. “The more we measure, the more we know what we are doing. Technology is super important in the agriculture industry, not only for the ROI for the farm, but for generations to come.”
It’s no surprise that technology plays a large role in developing superior traits and best management practices, but it’s critical to note that technology hasn’t replaced the need for a human touch.
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