_{By Kara Berg, ISRC}

ISRC staff attended the Iowa Soybean Association’s summer Supply Committee meeting on June 27 and 28. The ISA Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI) team opened day one with updates on a variety of research projects and activities. ISA continues to focus on collaborative research programming that incorporates statewide on-farm research, analytics and insights and technical assistance.

ISA’s Senior Director of Research Christie Wiebbecke explained that the RCFI continues to take a holistic approach to research programming that reflects Iowa soybean farmer priorities saying, “It’s great to do research, but we have to get it into the farmers’ hands.” Additionally, Analytics and Insights Lead Matt Carroll mentioned that the ISOFAST tool, a project previously funded in part by the ISRC in collaboration with ISA, is being updated to run more efficiently. In addition, ISA is working on developing a research database so that farmers and RCFI can take full advantage of the data that is in ISOFAST and other ISA tools. This database will allow producers to view results from thousands of on-farm research trials conducted by ISA’s On-Farm Research Program.

Later on day one, ISRC Director Greg Tylka gave an update on the center and upcoming activities for August, which is Soybean Month in Iowa. North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) Executive Director Ed Anderson gave an update explaining that the NCSRP has a research budget of $4 million and is currently reviewing 17 research project submissions.

Also attending the meeting from Iowa State were Interim Agronomy Department Chair Mary Wiedenhoeft and Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology Department Chair Steve Harris, who gave department updates. 

Several researchers gave ISA-funded project updates. Presenters and titles of their projects were Steve Whitham, The Soybean Genome Editing Toolbox; Mike Castellano, Soybean Nitrogen Fertility for High-Yielding Soybeans; Daren Mueller, Evaluating Foliar Fungicides and Monitoring for Fungicide Resistance; Danny Singh, Breeding High Yielding Soybean Cultivars and Greg Tylka, Evaluating SCN-Resistant Soybean Varieties and Nematode-Protectant Seed Treatments.

On the second day of meetings, the ISA Supply Committee reviewed research project proposals from ISU scientists for 2023-2024. The following projects were approved to receive continued investment by the full ISA Board. 

Mike Castellano, principal investigator (PI) agronomy and co-PIs Sotirios Archontoulis, agronomy: “Soybean Nitrogen Fertility for High-Yielding Soybeans Following High-Yielding Corn and Winter Cereal Rye Cover Crops”

Leonor Leandro, PI, plant pathology, entomology and microbiology (PPEM) and co-PI Lingling Liu, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE): “Investigating the Use of Nano-encapsulated Seed Treatments for Improved Management of Soybean Sudden Death Syndrome”

Mark Licht, PI, agronomy and co-PI Fernando Marcos, agronomy: “Amplifying ISA Investment Through National Collaborative Research”

Daren Mueller, PI, PPEM and co-PI Edgar Nieto, PPEM: “Evaluating Foliar Fungicides and Monitoring for Fungicide Resistance”

Matt O'Neal, PI, PPEM and co-PIs Erin Hodgson, PPEM and Brad Coates, USDA-ARS: “Restoring Pyrethroid Susceptibility Among Resistant Soybean Aphids”

Danny Singh, PI, agronomy and co-PIs Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, mechanical engineering (ME), Daren Mueller, PPEM, Matt O’Neal, PPEM, Soumik Sarkar, ME, Arti Singh, agronomy and Greg Tylka, PPEM: “Breeding High Yielding Soybean Cultivars for Iowa Farmers”

Michelle Soupir, PI, ABE and co-PIs Daniel Andersen, Natasha Hoover and Rameshwar Kanwar, ABE and Marshall McDaniel, agronomy: “Regenerative agriculture production systems to promote reliable yields, improved soil health, and sustained environmental resilience”

Greg Tylka, PI, PPEM: “Evaluating SCN-resistant Soybean Varieties and Nematode-protectant Seed Treatments to Increase Profitability for Iowa Soybean Farmers”

Each project will be entered into the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database where readers can learn about the project researchers, budget, objectives and experimental plan as well as read semi-annual progress report and final results including how farmers will benefit from the work.