The NC State Soybean Extension program seeks to provide data-driven best management practice recommendations to soybean stakeholders in the state. To deliver these best management practices, a two-fold approach will be deployed that focuses on 1. collaborative research conducted across the United States; the backbone of the USB-supported Science for Success project and 2. North Carolina centric research that address high-priority areas identified in the NC Soybean Producers Association 2023 RFP.
First, to collaboratively deliver soybean best management practices, the Science for Success team, comprised of University-based Soybean Extension Specialists across the US, will conduct common-themed research protocols to amplify our resources and deliver robust soybean best management recommendations to growers across the nation. The USB-supported outreach group leverages QSSB funding at the local level to generate best management practice recommendations of national relevance. This allows researchers to quickly capture a range of yield and environmental variability (i.e. 50 sites of data/year nationally versus 4 sites data/year locally) when determining production practice impact on soybean profitability. The continued success of the Science for Success project, led by NC State University, is contingent on the support of QSSB-funding for localized research efforts. This proposal seeks to request continued support from the NC Soybean Producers Association for collaborative research efforts with focuses for 2023 on biological seed treatments and harvest timing and desiccant interactions with yield, seed quality, seed composition, and profitability. These collaborative research trials will be deployed at 3-4 sites across North Carolina and 30-50 sites across the US annually.
Second, the proposed research will investigate foliar products, including foliar fungicides, foliar fertilizers, and desiccants, which play a role in maximizing profit in North Carolina soybeans, particularly in high-yield situations where soybeans are planted before mid-May with a MG=5 variety. These trials will be employed in 3-4 locations across North Carolina annually and production practices within each location will be determined using data generated by the NC State Soybean Extension program from 2019-2022 on optimal planting dates and maturity groups to maximize yield in North Carolina.