Five Things You Need to Know About a New Way the Checkoff Wants to Get Research Results in Your Hands

New “tech transfer” program brings production research to farmers who need it most

The soybean checkoff funds production research at land-grant universities all over, but sometimes the information doesn’t always make it to the farmers who can use it to farm better and smarter. For example, a checkoff-funded survey of U.S. soybean farmers conducted earlier this year found that 75 percent of farmers agreed that production research funded by the soybean checkoff has helped develop advancements and improvements in U.S. soybean production. But 31 percent had a hard time identifying some of those specific advancements and improvements.

USB’s Land Grant University Technology Transfer Program seeks to change this by working with state soybean checkoff boards to provide these universities and extension professionals with resources to reach farmers. Here’s more information on this exciting new program:

1. USB first funded the program in February 2011. The idea came from a similar project implemented in Mississippi.
2. The tech transfer program works with land-grant-university researchers and the extension community to communicate  checkoff-funded production research results to U.S. soybean farmers. In 2011, 12 states participated in this program.
3. Communications projects that have been supported by the program include soybean scouting guidebooks in Iowa, pest and disease alerts distributed by email to farmers in New Jersey, Internet-based guides for South Carolina farmers, short videos that create an online soybean “Scout School” for farmers in Tennessee and podcasts with soybean production tips for Nebraska soybean farmers.
4. Soybean production research and coordination represents the second-largest investment area USB makes each year. Many of the outcomes of this investment in production research represent management practices that U.S. soybean farmers can start implementing now. Results from research like this can help improve profit potential for U.S. soybean farmers.
5. For 2012 the USB Communications program not only chose to fund the tech transfer project but also the committee nearly doubled the resources to allow for increased state participation.

To learn more about the tech transfer program, read the latest edition of USB Issues.