Daren Mueller, Iowa State University Extension plant pathologist, and Mark Licht, ISU Extension cropping systems agronomist, are part of a regional team participating in a Soybean Yield Benchmarking project. They are looking for farmers in Iowa to participate in a statewide soybean yield benchmarking project, which is part of this larger regional effort.

Information about this project:

•Funded by soybean checkoff funds through the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP)

•The project aims to generate baseline farmer data on current soybean management practices

BOOST YOUR BEAN YIELD: The North Central Soybean Research Program is a farmer-led organization that invests soybean checkoff funds in university research and Extension programs to better understand and manage plant stress factors that reduce soybean yield and farmer profitability.

•The goal is to identify key factors that prohibit soybean farmers from obtaining yields that should be potentially possible on their respective farms. In other words, what is causing a yield gap on your farm?

The ISU crop specialists are asking soybean farmers across Iowa to provide yield and other agronomic data specific to their soybean production fields. With the data, they will conduct an in-depth analysis of what factors might be causing a yield gap.

Please complete the fillable PDF and email completed forms to [email protected].

Gathering information to help you produce better bean yields

All data submissions will be kept strictly confidential, says Clarke McGrath, On-farm Research and Extension Coordinator for the Iowa Soybean Research Center at ISU in Ames. Farmer name, mailing address and email address are asked for, and will be used only to provide summary results back to survey participants. Identifying information will not be associated with the individual field survey information. However, if you want to omit your name, address and email that is fine, too. You can submit your data without your personal identifying information, if you prefer.

“In this project, our objective is to work for you,” McGrath emphasizes. “Our goal is to use the data you supply us to help you produce soybean yields on your farm fields that, in the future, will be closer to the potential soybean yields that are possible on those fields once you know what the production system factors are that might be holding back your current yields.”

To learn more about this survey and how you can participate, go to crops.extension.iastate.edu/projects/soybean-yield-benchmarking. The deadline for participating in this project is March 1, 2016.