Wanted: Soybean farmers for yield study

By GARY BROCK

gbrock@recordherald.com

Laura Lind­sey from Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion talks to farm­ers at the Jan­u­ary Field Agron­omy Day in Fayette County, where she dis­cussed plans for a com­pre­hen­sive soy­bean study this year.

What fac­tors do soy­bean farm­ers con­trol that impact their crop yield?

That is one of the ques­tions The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity wants answered in a new three-year study of soy­bean crop yield — and they want the help of south­ern Ohio farm­ers to take part in the study.

And bet­ter yet, the farm­ers who vol­un­teer will be paid for their efforts.

Dr. Laura Lind­say at OSU Exten­sion told Fayette County farm­ers at a recent sem­i­nar that it is “extremely dif­fi­cult to esti­mate soy­bean yield.”

This year, Ohio State Soy­bean Per­for­mance Tri­als hopes to learn what can be done to increase soy­bean yield. And that is where Ohio farm­ers can help.

Dr. Lind­sey says the tri­als, funded by the Ohio Soy­bean Coun­cil, will look at yield lim­it­ing fac­tors in soy­beans across Ohio.

She said yield has risen steadily since the 1920s to an aver­age of about 45 bushels an acre today. “What will it take to reach 100 bushels an acre?” she asked, say­ing that in order to each the 100 bushel mark for soy­beans in the next 30 years, the rate must increase 3.3 bushels per acre every year. That’s a tall order.

To learn what fac­tors stand in the way of this, Ohio soy­bean farm­ers in nine loca­tions are being asked to take part in the sur­vey. Those cho­sen will be paid $200 for their con­tri­bu­tion to the findings.

In all, more than 200 fields, about 70 each of the next three years, will be examined.

The fol­low­ing are the state dis­tricts, the coun­ties in those dis­tricts and the num­ber of farm­ers sought in each of those districts:

- Dis­trict 10 (Williams, Ful­ton, Lucas, Defi­ance, Henry, Wood, Pauld­ing, Put­nam, Han­cock, Van Wert, Allen Coun­ties) 10–12 farmers;

- Dis­trict 20 (Ottawa, Erie, San­dusky, Lorain, Seneca, Huron, Wyan­dot, Craw­ford, Rich­land and Ash­land Coun­ties) 10–14 farmers;

- Dis­trict 30 (Ashtab­ula, Lake, Cuya­hoga, Geauga, Trum­bull, Portage, Sum­mit, Med­ina, Wayne, Mahon­ing, Stark and Columbiana Coun­ties) 5–10 farmers;

- Dis­trict 50 (Fayette, Mar­ion, Ross, Mor­row, Knox, Union, Delaware, Lick­ing, Franklin, Madi­son, Fair­field, Pick­away Coun­ties) 5–6 farmers;

- Dis­trict 60 (Holmes, Coshoc­ton, Tus­carawas, Car­roll, Har­ri­son, Jef­fer­son, Bel­mont Coun­ties) 2–6 farmers.

- Dis­trict 70 (Pre­ble, Mont­gomery, Greene, But­ler, War­ren, Clin­ton, Hamil­ton and Cler­mont Coun­ties) 5–8 farmers;

- Dis­trict 80 (High­land, Pike, Jack­son, Brown, Adams, Scioto, Lawrence and Gal­lia Coun­ties) 2–6 farm­ers; and

- Dis­trict 90 (Musk­ingum, Guernsey, Noble, Mon­roe, Perry, Mor­gan, Wash­ing­ton, Hock­ing, Athens, Vin­ton and Meigs Coun­ties) 2–6 farmers.

Those soy­bean farm­ers inter­ested should con­tact Dr. Lindsey’s office at OSU, 614–292-2001 or 614–292-9080, or by email at lindsey.233@osu.edu.

(Gary Brock is edi­tor of ACRES of South­west Ohio.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.