Why would a farmer in Iowa be interested in supporting a national project? What we can do with your checkoff investment at the local level is amplified by both generating needed local information and accessing larger national data pools to make robust recommendations more rapidly on soybean best management practices. This of course is not appropriate for all research topics as some have very specific local applicability. However, Science for Success (U.S. Soybean Extension Specialist working group) has been intentional about identifying best management practice focuses that will have national Extension impact. The coordination collaboration and outreach effort are funded through the United Soybean Board. Each year, the group collectively identifies two topics to focus research. The two topic areas of focus for this project in the upcoming years were identified as biological seed treatments (2022 and 2023), a national soybean soil health trial (2023 and 2024), and a harvest timing/desiccation trials (2024 and 2025). This collaborative group leverages QSSB funding to support localized research efforts that will be integral to providing soybean farmers with the tools and information they need to continue increasing their quality and efficiency, ultimately allowing us to develop and deliver BMP’s on a national scale. Additional funding is leverage from USDA NIFA to supplement USB and QSSB funding for additional analytical costs and to support graduate students to write peer-reviewed journal articles.

Our overall goal as a national soybean extension group is to:
1. Generate robust soybean best management recommendations through national collaborative research.
2. Distribute high-quality information to soybean producers locally and across the U.S. on emerging best management practices

In 2023, funding will be used to conduct research in two field trials as part of multi-state collaborations. One project led out of Ohio State University is a harvest timing trial (multiple planting dates, maturity groups, and harvest dates) to determine effect of harvest timing on yield, yield loss and seed quality. The second project is a soybean nitrogen credit trial looking at how soybean production ahead of corn provides an opportunity for lower corn nitrogen rates. The research results from both trials will be published in a peer reviewed journal and will be used in producing factsheets, videos, and potential content for webinars.

Updated September 4, 2025:
At Commodity Classic project discussion were had regarding field trials for the 2025 growing season. There will be a continuation of the harvest timing effect on soybean yield and seed quality trial; soybean N credit trial; cover crop verification and outreach project, and the initiation of a potassium fertilizer for soybean trial. The Iowa location for the potassium fertilization trial is going to be conducted by Richard Roth. The continuation trials/project all have partial funding from USB and USDA. The funding for this project is being used to supplement the grant funding to ensure adequate funds are available for the Iowa locations.

This research will help better understand how planting date, maturity selection, and harvest timing effect grain yield, yield loss and seed quality in an effort to improve harvest timing to attain high yields. The second aspect is to more fully understand how soybean residue can reduce N inputs and yield levels to increase the importance of soybean in cropping systems.