Update:
• Received seed from seed and seed-treatment companies for 2017 field experiments, designed the 2017 field experiments, and packaged and organized the seeds for the various experiments.

• Set up, planted, soil sampled, and maintained nine field experiments located throughout Iowa to evaluate the yield enhancement and nematode control provided by nearly 200 SCN-resistant soybean varieties.

• Set up, planted, soil sampled, and maintained nine field experiments located throughout Iowa to evaluate the agronomic performance and nematode control provided by four different nematode-protectant seed treatments - namely Aveo (from Valent), Clariva (from Syngenta), Ilevo (from Bayer CropScience), and Nemastrike (from Monsanto).

• Extracted SCN cysts (egg-filled dead SCN females), then eggs, from samples collected from all 9 resistant variety evaluation experiments and the 30 seed treatment experiments to determine initial SCN egg population densities.

• Contacted more than 50 seed companies and gathered information about SCN-resistant soybean varieties in to use to update the ISU Extension publication titled “Soybean Cyst Nematode-Resistant Soybean Varieties for Iowa”.

• Published a 25-year retrospective analysis of yields and nematode control provided by SCN-resistant soybean varieties in Iowa in the online scientific journal Plant Health Progress (www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/volume18/number3/PHP-RS-16-0062.pdf).

• Wrote and submitted to the journal Plant Health Progress a manuscript summarizing three years of coordinated ISA On-Farm Network and ISU small-plot experiments evaluating the agronomic benefits and nematode control provided by Clariva seed treatment (ISA scientists Peter Kyveryga and Tristan Mueller are co-authors).

• Wrote almost all of a manuscript to be submitted to the online journal Plant Health Progress that summarizes three years of coordinated ISA On-Farm Network and ISU small-plot experiments evaluating the agronomic benefits and nematode control provided by Ilevo seed treatment (ISA scientists Peter Kyveryga and Tristan Mueller are co-authors). The manuscript will be submitted in early 2018, when 2017 yield and nematode data are collected and analyzed, then added to the manuscript.

View uploaded report

The research conducted in this project is farmer-focused, applied research that is unique in Iowa and the nation in that SCN-resistant soybean varieties and nematode-protectant seed treatments are intensively evaluated under real Iowa field conditions and nematode data, in addition to yields, are collected from each individual 4-row research plot at the time of planting and again at the time of harvesting. The intensive-scale information emanating from these experiments is not available anywhere else in the U.S. The research results give Iowa soybean farmers first-hand information generated in their state about the performance that can be expected when these SCN-resistant soybean varieties and the nematode-protectant seed treatments are used.

Also, the experiments with nematode-protectant seed treatments are coordinated closely with the Iowa Soybean Association’s On-Farm Network in order to generate a robust set of data from through Iowa to illustrate to Iowa soybean farmers what can be expected in terms of yield increase and SCN reproduction suppression when the seed treatments are used.