Episode 23 of Battle for the Belt is now available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-z4Bv8bMY
In this episode, we are with Tom Fontana, the Director of Research and Education for the Ohio Soybean Council. We discuss the function of the Ohio Soybean Council and the various projects that are funded by Ohio checkoff dollars, including Battle for the Belt.
What is the soybean checkoff?
The soybean checkoff has been around for a little over thirty years. The checkoff is federal and managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is essentially farmers funding their own research projects. For every bushel of soybeans sold in Ohio, a half of percent of the revenue goes to the soybean council. That half of percent is split between Ohio and the national organization, the United Soybean Board. The Ohio Soybean Council board is made up of volunteer farmers and the council staff, and the farmers make the final decisions on how the checkoff dollars are being spent. The money collected in Ohio goes to research, marketing, promotion, and education. None of the checkoff dollars can be used for lobbying or advocacy work, which is why they have another organization called the Ohio Soybean Association that is membership driven.
Current funded projects
Battle for the Belt is a checkoff funded project that is very important right now because it is the top of mind for farmers. Producers are very interested in planting date and the yield benefits and penalties for certain planting dates. The checkoff funds soybean cyst nematode work and has been for some time now. The work on this soybean issue is not done yet as this is a number one yield robber for soybeans in the U.S. The checkoff is also funding various soils research with research at Ohio State University as well.
Student funding opportunities
Much of the checkoff funding is for student support.
The checkoff funds students and research through a few different ways. The first is through traditional research projects. Then there is a program for graduate students to submit proposals to fund smaller research projects, allowing students to practice writing and submitting proposals and manage smaller amounts of grant money. There is also a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students awarding 9 undergraduate scholarships and 3 graduate scholarships every year. This past year, seven graduate students were awarded scholarships because the council wanted to support more students who are doing tremendous work.
The Ohio Soybean Council aims to support students in agriculture as the industry will need its best and brightest to move forward.
Thank you to the Ohio Soybean Council and Ohio farmers for funding Battle for the Belt as we aim to bring Ohio farmers up to date research on planting date, planting priority, and agronomic recommendations.
What’s happening in the field?
At the Western location, the heat has moved the corn along, closer to being ready to harvest. Planting date one and two are at R6, with some hybrids in planting date three reaching R6 but on average still at R5. Planting date four is at R4 and planting date five is at R2. Some ear diseases have been found like diplodia (Figure 1), in corn planted on the first date. We will take a closer look at these diseases at harvest.
For soybean, the first three planting dates are all at R6, which is “full seed” (Figure 2). The first planting date is midway between R6 and R7 (one pod on the plant has reached its mature color). Planting date four and five are at the beginning of R5.
Northwest
Thankfully, the Northwest location received rain last week. All of the soybeans are in various parts of the R5 growth stage. The soybeans tend to linger in this pod fill period for a few weeks, so there is usually overlap in this stage with every planting date. The corn has planting date 1 at R5, planting date two at R4, planting date three at R3, planting date four at R2, and planting date five at R1.
Wooster
The Wooster location also received rain last week! All of the soybeans at this location are also at R5, except for planting date one which reached R6. The corn stages for planting date one through five are as follows: R5, R5, R4, R3, R1.
The summary of locations, last week’s weather, planting dates, GDDs and stages is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Weekly weather conditions for each planting date at the Western Agricultural Research Station, Northwest Agricultural Research Station, and Wooster Campus, with the day of planting, soil, air temperature averages, and Growing Degree Days (GDDs) from August 26th to September 1st. Information from CFAES Weather System (https://weather.cfaes.osu.edu/).
