VIRGINIA SOYBEAN BOARD PROJECT PROPOSAL – FY2013/2014
ONE-PAGE SUMMARY
PROJECT NAME:
Soybean Research Verification Program
TERM OF PROJECT: July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013
COOPERATORS:
David Holshouser, Assoc. Professor & Extension Agronomist
Ames Herbert, Professor & Extension Entomologist
LOCATION:
Virginia Tech - Tidewater Agricultural Res. & Ext. Ctr.
6321 Holland Rd, Suffolk, VA 23437
Telephone: (757) 657-6450 ext. 412
Email: dholshou@vt.edu
TOTAL COST OF PROJECT: $41,263
FUNDS REQUESTED: $41,263 (100% of total cost of project)
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
1. Cooperate with 5 to 10 Virginia farmers to establish and conduct on-farm wholefield trials (split-field experiments) to verify the value of research-based Extension
recommendations, with a focus of maximum economic yield.
2. Near or within the research verification fields, establish a replicated small-plot or
large strip-plot experiment that addresses an issue pertinent to the cooperating
farmer.
3. Work with farmer cooperators or agribusiness to implement Extension
recommendations in a timely manner throughout the season.
4. Scout fields weekly and provide written reports to farmer cooperators, County
Agents, and/or cooperating agribusinesses.
5. Share weekly scouting reports to the soybean farming community via electronic
(email, Virginia Soybean Update blog, social media, etc.) and other (newsletter,
direct contact) means of communication.
6. Document inputs and expenses, measure yield, and create budgets to
economically compare Extension and farmer production systems.
7. Measure yields with weigh wagon, calibrated yield monitor, or plot combine. Enter
yields into the Virginia Soybean Yield Contest.
EXPECTED RESULTS: Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) recommendations,
developed from small-plot and on-farm soybean research, will be verified to be
applicable to large-scale field and farming operations. VCE soybean management
recommendations will be evaluated for completeness and analyzed for weaknesses in
information, knowledge, and understanding. From these analyses, further areas of
research may be identified. County Agents will be educated in soybean production and
given experiences that will benefit his local Extension programming efforts.
ESTIMATED WORTH: Virginia’s soybean crop was worth over $240 million in 2012.
Assuming a 5% gain in net profit from this program’s efforts, and additional $12 million
in value to Virginia’s soybean production may be realized.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
TO
THE VIRGINIA SOYBEAN BOARD
Title: Soybean Research Verification Program
Cooperator: David Holshouser, Assoc. Professor & Extension Agronomist
Ames Herbert, Professor & Extension Entomologist
Virginia Tech – Tidewater AREC
6321 Holland Road
Suffolk, VA 23437
(757) 657-6450 ext. 412
dholshou@vt.edu
herbert@vt.edu
Virginia Soybean Production
Duration of Request: July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013
Total Cost of Project: $41,263
Funds Requested: $41,263 (100% of total project cost)
Mission and Objectives:
The Soybean Research Verification Program in Virginia will represent a public display of the
implementation of research-based Extension recommendations in an actual field scale farming
environment. Information garnered from this project will help identify areas of production that
need further study, improve existing Extension recommendations, and increase County Agent
and crop adviser expertise in soybean production systems. The data collected from this project
will be used to develop an on-farm database used for economic analysis and computer-assisted
management programs. Specific objectives to accomplish this goal are listed below.
1. Cooperate with 5 to 10 Virginia farmers to establish and conduct on-farm whole-field trials
(split-field experiments) to verify the value of research-based Extension recommendations,
with a focus of maximum economic yield.
2. Near or within the research verification fields, establish a replicated small-plot or large
strip-plot experiment that addresses an issue pertinent to the cooperating farmer.
3. Work with farmer cooperators or agribusiness to implement Extension recommendations in
a timely manner throughout the season.
4. Scout fields weekly and provide written reports to farmer cooperators, County Agents,
and/or cooperating agribusinesses.
5. Share weekly scouting reports to the soybean farming community via electronic (email,
Virginia Soybean Update blog, social media, etc.) and other (newsletter, direct contact)
means of communication.
6. Measure yields with weigh wagon, calibrated yield monitor, or plot combine. Enter yields
into the Virginia Soybean Yield Contest.
7. Document inputs and expenses, measure yield, and create budgets to economically
compare Extension and farmer production systems.
D. Holshouser, Virginia Tech
Significance of Project:
Virginia’s 580,000 harvested acres of soybean are estimated to average 42 bushels per acre
(USDA Agric. Statistics Service) resulting in production of 24.4 million bushels and worth over
$292 million. This is a new record for yield and value. Virginia’s 20-year soybean trendline
yield has increased from 26 to 36 bushels per acre, representing an annual increase of
approximately 0.5 bushels per year. Some of this increase is due to new and improved varieties.
However, official variety testing data indicate that improved management practices are
responsible for at least half of the yield gains. To continue this yield improvement, soybean
farmers must continue to adopt new and improved research-based practices.
Although increasing yields is a priority, profitability is the aim for a sucessful operation.
Any increase in yield must be more valuable than the cost of the input responsible for the
additional yield. In many situations, additional inputs do not mean additional profits. Therefore,
the overall goal of this project is to strive for maximum economic yield, not just yield.
Profitability is necessary to a sustainable agricultural production system.
Background, Prior and Current Research and Extension Efforts:
The Virginia Soybean Board funds numerous research projects annually. While these
projects always give valuable information and usually show a return on grower’s investment,
implementing of and verification of this research is not always accomplished throughout
Virginia. Usually the best method of widespread implementation of recommendations is to get a
few key farmers to try the practice so to prove that the practice has merit on their operation.
Once the research has been “verified” by several farmers, the further implementation of the
project will spread through communication efforts within the agricultural community. This is
basically the model for Cooperative Extension – “extending” knowledge for meaningful
implementation and change.
Virginia Soybean Board Proposal: Soybean Research Verification Program
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D. Holshouser, Virginia Tech
Research verification programs are not new. The Soybean Research Verification program in
Arkansas is in its 29th year. The program is largely responsible for the double-digit yield
improvements over the same time period. Information on Arkansas’ program can be found at
www.aragriculture.org/soybean.htm. The Louisiana Soybean Research Verification Program
(www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/crops/soybeans/lsrvp/) was established in 1994,
where more than 125 fields in 20 parishes have been involved. Historically, the verification
fields averaged 12 bushels more than the state average. Kentucky recently began a verification
program in 2009 (www.uky.edu/Ag/GrainCrops/soybean.htm). In each year since, 16 fields
across western Kentucky provided a direct comparison between the University of Kentucky
recommendations and producer practices. Other states, including Virginia, have various versions
of research verification programs. The multi-county Virginia On-Farm Soybean Test Plot
program completed its 16th year in 2013. Those demonstration and research plots are an effort of
VCE Agents and Specialists, area producers, and agribusiness to conduct on-farm tests that
evaluate varieties, management practices, and new technologies. The goal is to provide researchbased non-biased information that enables farmers to make better management decisions.
However, few efforts have included a side-by-side comparison of farmer- versus Extensionrecommended crop management systems.
Plan of Work
1. Cooperate with 5 to 10 Virginia farmers to establish and conduct on-farm field trials (splitfield experiments) to verify the value of research-based Extension recommendations, with a
focus of maximum economic yield.
The first order of business will be to identify 5 to 10 Virginia farmers with the assistance
of VCE Agents. A County Agent will be involved with no more than one farmer in this first
year. This will help fulfill our goal of educating as many County Agents as possible on
recommended soybean production practices. Once identified, we will sit down with the
grower, County Agent, and/or crop adviser and go over his production practices, choose a
verification field, determine what will be done in that field, and clearly establish each
participant’s responsibilities. We will ask cooperators to agree to pay production expenses,
provide crop expense data for economic analysis, and implement the recommended
production practices in a timely manner. Our responsibilities will be soil and/or plant tissue
sampling, weekly scouting, and measurement of yield.
2. Establish replicated small-plot or large strip-plot experiment that is of interest to farmer
cooperator within the research verification field.
We will establish a small-plot or large strip-plot experiment that tests a particular
production practice. These experiments will be a simple two-treatment experiment
comparing with or without a certain input or comparing two production practices such as notill versus in-row ripping as an example. Therefore, we will not only be evaluating the
farmer’s overall soybean production system to our recommended practices, we will also
increase our knowledge by gathering on-farm research data.
3. Work with farmer cooperators or agribusiness to implement Extension recommendations in a
timely manner throughout the season.
The initial meeting with the farmer, County Agent, and/or crop adviser will be followed
up with another meeting before soybean planting. From a review of information presented in
Virginia Soybean Board Proposal: Soybean Research Verification Program
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D. Holshouser, Virginia Tech
the initial meeting, we will establish our Extension recommendations and present them to the
farmer. Alterations to this recommendation may be made at this time. However, the farmer
and Extension practices will be clearly established at this time. Some recommendation will
vary with week (e.g., insect spraying based on economic thresholds); therefore,
recommendations will be updated based on weekly scouting reports.
4. Scout fields weekly and provide written reports to farmer cooperators, County Agents, and/or
cooperating agribusinesses.
Fields will be scouted by an employee chosen by Drs. Holshouser and Herbert.
Preference will be given to a current or future student of the agricultural sciences. An
internship with college students is a possibility. The employee will be intensively trained for
scouting the fields by Drs. Holshouser and/or Herbert during their first few weeks of
employment. Constant communication will be maintained during the week. The scout will
complete written reports of the field each week and give a copy to the cooperating farmer,
County Agent, and/or crop adviser.
5. Share weekly scouting reports to the soybean farming community via electronic (email,
Virginia Soybean Update blog, social media, etc.) and other (newsletter, direct contact)
means of communication.
The weekly reports will be summarized at the end of each week. These summaries will
be posted on the Virginia Soybean Update blog. The agricultural community will be notified
of the summaries by email and social media. Fields included in the summaries will only be
identified by the county and the cooperator’s name will not be revealed.
6. Measure yields with weigh wagon, calibrated yield monitor, or plot combine. Enter yields
into the Virginia Soybean Yield Contest.
Yield may be collected by measuring the field size and harvesting the entire field (or
half-field) or by harvesting side-by-side strips of at least three acres. In these cases, a weigh
wagon will be necessary to weigh the sample or to calibrate a yield monitor. A plot combine
may also be used as long as the total measured area harvested equals three acres. These
yields will be automatically entered in the annual Virginia Soybean Yield Contest, sponsored
by the Virginia Soybean Association.
7. Document income, and expenses, and create budgets to economically compare Extension and
farmer production systems.
At the end of the growing season, VCE’s Enterprise Budget System Generator
(BUDSYS) will be used to calculate net returns, cost of production ($/bu), and income. The
results will be summarized and shared with the farmer, County Agent, and/or crop adviser.
These enterprise budgets will remain confidential and not be shared with the general public.
However, a summary budget report that will not identify the farm or county will be shared
with Virginia soybean farmers as part of a year-end report. The year end report will
summarize all locations and include a table containing the county, field size, previous crop,
production system (full-season or double-crop), and other pertinent information such as
variety, planting date , stand, harvest date, etc.
Virginia Soybean Board Proposal: Soybean Research Verification Program
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D. Holshouser, Virginia Tech
Budget
BUDGET CATEGORY
FUNDS
REQUESTED
PERSONNEL (LABOR)
Classified Staff (Ernest M. Ellis, 3 months)
Classified Benefits (FY13/14 = 40.0%)
Wage (TBA)
Wage Benefits (FY013/14 = 7.75%)
PERSONNEL (LABOR): SUB-TOTAL
11,632
4,653
$ 9,600
744
26,629
TRAVEL, CONVENTION, & EDUCATION
Travel to and from plot and extension meetings; attend the 2012
American Society of Agronomy meetings and/or the 2013 Commodity
Classic where results will be shared with colleagues and soybean
farmers.
3,500
SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS
Expendable field supplies, fuel, repair and maintenance
7,534
CONTRACTUAL SERVICES (Virginia Tech motor pool truck rental)
3,600
PROJECT TOTAL
$ 41,263
*ONR negotiated rates for Virginia Tech
The following personnel will be involved in this project:
Dr. David L. Holshouser, Assoc. Professor & Extension Agronomist
Ames Herbert, Professor & Extension Entomologist
E. Michael Ellis, Agricultural Technician
Sean Malone, Research Associate
Wage Employee (TBA)
Secretarial assistance
Budget Justification:
Salary and wage funds will be used to support farmer visits, planting and harvest of test plots,
weekly scouting, and harvest of verification plots. Approximately 25% of an Agricultural
Technician salary, 8% of a Research Associate salary, and 100% of the wage will be supported
by these funds.
Travel funds will be used to travel to and from verification fields, research plots, and extension
meetings. Funds will also be used to attend the 2012 American Society of Agronomy meetings
and/or the 2013 Commodity Classic where results will be shared with colleagues and soybean
farmers.
Material and supply funds will be used to purchase field supplies and fuel, and for vehicle and
equipment repair and maintenance.
Contractual services include funds to rent a vehicle from the Virginia Tech motor pool.
Virginia Soybean Board Proposal: Soybean Research Verification Program
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D. Holshouser, Virginia Tech
Submitted by:
Signature:
Name: Dr. David Holshouser
Title: Associate Professor, Tidewater AREC
Institution: Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Virginia Soybean Board Proposal: Soybean Research Verification Program
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