Updated September 11, 2019:

Organization of the report:

In this final report, we present the progress of the SCN Coalition as a whole. We have organized this final report into a Summary, Mission Statement and Detailed Chronology. Chronological presentation of the SCN Coalition is very important to understand the entire scope of the SCN Coalition and how funding is complimentary. Specific actions that USB has funded are detailed.

Summary:

Since 2015, the SCN Coalition progressed from a vision into a campaign with the potential to be one of the most impactful educational and awareness efforts in soybean disease management ever developed. The SCN Coalition began in 2015 with initial funding from the private sector and the North Central Soybean Research Program. In FY18, the United Soybean Board funded the SCN Coalition as well, allowing the SCN Coalition to expand nationally, improve greatly the resource center (www.thescncoalition.com) and improve the launch of the SCN Coalition at Commodity Classic 2018. As a consequence, the SCN Coalition secured (and/or improved) relationships with seven major private corporate partners, the Corn+Soybean Digest, approximately two dozen Universities in as many states and many QSSB’s. We anticipate the SCN Coalition will have its greatest national impact in FY19.

Mission Statement:
The Mission of the Second Soybean Cyst Nematode Coalition is to develop an SCN Resistance Management and Awareness Campaign to educate growers and industry on the reality of SCN resistance development, to slow the development of highly aggressive SCN populations, and to minimize increasing levels of yield loss.

Detailed Chronological Summary:

Partner involvement (Fall 2017 - Winter 2018).
Discussions and visits with partners has continued throughout the project. In December, 2017, members of the SCN Coalition met with partners in Chicago, Ill in conjunction with ASTA. It was novel to have multiple partners, who are competitors by nature, in the same room. Partners expressed a keen interest for planning jointly for the launch of the SCN Coalition and features in the resource center www.theSCNcoalition.com. Partners also pledged in-kind support through the launch, and indicated that direct contributions may be possible in the future (pending successful launch).

Launch planning and resource center construction (Fall 2017 - Winter 2018).
Development of materials for the resource center www.theSCNcoalition.com and launch planning was at a fever pitch in the fall of 2017 until the launch.

Leveraged Funding (Fall 2017 - Winter 2018).
On January 1, 2018, USB began to financially support the SCN Coalition with a $275,000 investment. The support of USB brings the SCN Coalition national (not just North Central State program), develops a state-of-the-art resource center (as opposed to a more-basic pass-thought site) and facilitates a very robust launch of the SCN Coalition. The investment of USB and NCSRP attracted financial interest of private partners. In-kind support during the launch was provided, and we determined that in the next quarter specific monetary proposals are going to be submitted to each partner.

Launch (February 2018) – Funded in part directly by USB.
The launch of the SCN Coalition occurred in Anaheim, CA in conjunction with the Commodity Classic in February, 2018.
o Activities at the conference: Booth staffed with Experts, ‘Whats New’ Session, ‘Press Conference, Video Wall sponsorship,
o Press Conference included press presence from 12 media outlets
o 20+ Media interviews
o Partner cross traffic all week
o Bayer AdVocacy Form presence.

www.thescncoalition.com (February – March 2018) – Funded in part directly by USB.
In conjunction with the launch, the resource center website www.thescncoalition.com became active. www.thescncoalition.com is the ‘face’ of the SCN coalition to growers and stakeholders across the country and is equipped with training videos, grower testimonials, downloadable print and electronic educational pieces and local information by states and partners (in development).

Corn+Soybean Digest Cover Story (February 2018).
In conjunction with the launch and resource center operation, the Corn+Soybean Digest made SCN the cover story. In the article, multiple aspects of SCN were discussed, and the SCN Coalition was presented as a possible solution (or tool) to help growers manage the nematode.
o Earned media impressions (2/20/18 – 3/12/18): 635,433

The international IPM Conference (March 2018).
A symposium about the SCN Coalition was presented to the academic community in March, 2018 at the International Integrated Pest Management (IPM) conference in Baltimore, MD. Four speakers presented in depth material on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the SCN Coalition; Steve Gomme (Syngenta) prepared a discussion on baseline knowledge level of SCN among growers (presented by Dr. Kaitlyn Bissonnettee as a result of weather related travel problems), Dr. Greg Tylka discussed the loss of effective resistance conferred by PI88788, Dr. George Bird discussed management tools for SCN and Dr. Sam Markell presented the SCN Coalition as a means to help growers manage SCN into the future.

Planning for outputs and leveraged support (April – May 2018).
In April and May, the SCN Coalition refined a two-year plan to maximize the impact of the SCN Coalition nationally and into Canada. Outputs and actions were divided into three primary components; management and communications, local extension efforts and national exposure. Each of the three components was planned as independent but highly coordinated.
• Management and communications efforts included corporate partner recruitment, traditional and social media communications. A funding request for this effort in FY19 was submitted (and later accepted) to the NCSRP.
• Local message development and delivery is critical for each soybean growing area in the U.S. While the SCN Coalition has developed broad messaging, refinement of those messages for each specific state makes them more accurate and more practical for the growers. A funding request for this effort in FY19 was submitted (and later accepted) by the United Soybean Board.
• National exposure is a very effective way to deliver a broad message to a large number of growers. This exposure helps drive growers to the more local communications and specific recommendations developed in the states or on the resource center www.thescncoalition.com . A funding request for several events to increase national exposure was submitted to private corporate partners. The three events/activities above are being funded in FY18/19; a presence at Farm Progress (the largest outdoor farm show in the US), a 32-page SCN-specific insert in the Corn+Soybean Digest (a publication distributed to over 100,000 growers nationally) and a presence at the 2019 Commodity Classic.

Coordination and updates (June – August 2018).
A significant amount of coordination among SCN Coalition members, private corporate partners and checkoff organizations were done in this time frame. PI’s were updated on SCN Coalition progress and plans at the annual Society of Nematologist and American Phytopathological Society (with the ICPP) in July and August. Communication with private corporate partners in anticipation of the Farm Progress Show and other activities was very high. Additionally, once NCSRP and USB agreed to FY19 funding requests, that promised funding was leveraged to secure funding from the private corporate partners. Communication with checkoff organizations (local and national) continued through this time frame.

Farm Progress Show (August 2018).
Six university members of the SCN Coalition worked collaboratively with private corporate partners at the largest outdoor farm show in the United States. This included SCN Coalition members being embedded in private partner tents, and delivering dozens of educational programs, presentations, and interviews with national media. National exposure from this event was very high, and continues today. As an example only, Sam Markell and Greg Tylka will be featured on the US Farm Report with Tyne Morgan on October 13-14, 2018 (six weeks after the Farm Progress Show). The US Farm report is estimated to be watched by over 500,000 growers.
o Interviews included Adams on Agriculture, AgriTalk, FarmJournal/AgWeb, Iowa Agribusiness Network, AgDay/Farm Report, Dakota News Network and Monsanto.
o Estimated airplay over 100 stations.
o Estimated audience members reached of program exceeds 1M. For example, AgriTalk alone reaches over 500,000 farmers daily.

Corn+Soybean Digest SCN-Insert Development and Leveraged Funding Support (September 2018).
Checkoff funding was successfully leveraged with private corporate partners for a SCN special 32-page custom insert in the Corn+Soybean Digest. Money was committed and the SCN-Insert contract was signed by all parties involved on September 20, 2019. The issue is slated to hit growers mailboxes in early December. The timing will coincide with many 2019 production decisions made by growers (seed selection, for example) and will occur right before the winter meeting season begins. We anticipate the SCN-Insert will drive growers to find more local information about SCN. We have timed up outputs in the FY19 contract with USB to coincide with the December SCN-Insert timing; providing funding to PI’s so SCN extension material and deliverables ready for the winter meeting season (November – March 2019), and a media blitz will occur during the same November- December time frame. Importantly, to prepare for this, a two-day planning and coordination meeting with all the PI’s is scheduled for early November.

www.thescncoalition.com version 2.0 (Fall 2018) – Funded directly by USB.
The robust resource center, complete with a national profile, state-specific recommendations and more pages of numerous outputs was unveiled in fall 2018. This version predates all the planned fall actions and outputs of the SCN Coalition, which will drive traffic to the resource center.

Social media (through September 2018):
Social media pushes by the SCN Coalition have been increasing slowly, and expect to expand during the fall of 2019 and beyond.

SCN Coalition Team:

University team members include approximately two dozen Universities throughout the country:

Private Partners to date:
Bayer, BASF, Corn+Soybean Digest, Growmark, Monsanto, Pioneer, Syngenta, Winfield United.

Public Partners:
North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP), United Soybean Board (USB), dozens of Universities and QSSB’s