Everything but the Free Lunch

Soybean checkoff helps mid-South farmers develop online Scout Schools

Now, soybean farmers in at least one state can eat lunch and learn more about how to increase soybean yields without the need to travel from their farms.

The United Soybean Board (USB), Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board (TSPB) and University of Tennessee (UT) Extension worked together to put some of the most important U.S. soybean production management information offered at UT Soybean Scout Schools online in the form of short videos available to soybean farmers.

Pictured: USB farmer-director John Butler (center), a soybean farmer from Dyersburg, Tenn., shut down his soybean planter and jumped off his tractor last May to meet with University of Tennessee (UT) Extension officials in an effort to create easier and more convenient ways to get more soybean checkoff-funded production research information into the hands of mid-south farmers. Others meeting with Butler included (left) Angela McClure, Ph.D., UT soybean and corn specialist, Julie McKelvey, Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board communications staff, and Ginger Trice Rowsey with the UT Institute for Agriculture communications services.

“While the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts we harvested an additional three bushels an acre in Tennessee this year compared to 2010, we can still perform some very basic tasks that can easily help increase our soybean yields next year,” says USB director John Butler, a western Tennessee farmer.

The Scout School lessons, which require only about 5-10 minutes each to watch, offer mid-South U.S. soybean farmers important information such as:

•    How and why to correctly determine the growth stage of your soybeans.
•    Easy ways to identify and manage herbicide-resistant weeds.
•    Using a sweep net to identify damaging pests such as stink bugs and podworms.

USB began a program in 2011 to try to get more results of checkoff-funded soybean production research into the hands of all U.S. soybean farmers. Fifteen state checkoff organizations want to partner with USB in 2012 as part of this effort.