Soybean Research Verification Program

Soybean Research Verification Program
Helps Fine-Tune Production Practices

Farmer likes Verification program
Dumas farmer Will Cox uses the checkoff-funded
Soybean Research Verification Program to fine-tune his production practices
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By Rich Maples

If a soybean farmer averages 60 bushels per acre on a field and wonders what he could have done better, he must be doing something right.

That's the case with Will Cox, who cut 59.7 bushels per acre on a 30-acre field he had enrolled in the Cooperative Extension Service's Soybean Research Verification Program (SRVP). It was Cox's first year in the program.

He is one of many farmers who has taken part in the research verification program since it was started in 1983 to show farmers that research-based Extension recommendations could help increase their yields and income. The SRVP is funded by checkoff funds granted by the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board.

Cox, who farms near Dumas, was recruited for the verification program by Desha County Extension agent Blair Griffin. Each week during the growing season, Griffin and Richard Klerk, an Extension soybean specialist and SRVP coordinator, checked the verification field and advised Cox on production practices such as fertilization, pest control and irrigation scheduling.

Griffin said the furrow-irrigated, sandy loam field had no history of soybeans. "It's always been in cotton. Early in the winter, the price for soybeans was a little over $8 per bushel, and we thought it might be economically feasible to grow soybeans on cotton ground.

"Not a lot of farmers, and especially not landlords, are going to take cotton out of production for soybeans."

Griffin noted that in 1995, he and Cox had planted 10 cotton varieties and 10 soybean varieties in the field as part of a county Extension variety demonstration. The rest of the field was in cotton.

"When we pulled soil samples in the spring, we found that we needed more potash where we had cut 50 to 60 bushels in the soybean variety demonstration than in the rest of the field where we had harvested 1,000-pound cotton. Many people assume cotton uses more potash than soybeans, but when you get into higher soybean yields, you need a lot of potash."

The Extension team chose Asgrow 5885 for the SRVP field because it had been the highest yielding variety in the previous year's county variety demonstration. The variety was also matched to the field by SOYVA, Extension's computerized soybean variety selection program.

Klerk said, "We planted on 38-inch rows, conventional tillage, on beds. We usually recommend narrower rows, but when you can water on a timely basis and have a high level of management so you can push the beans, plants will get big enough to lap before they bloom."

Klerk noted that cotton growers such as Cox can often cut their weed control costs for soybeans because "they're already set up to band and spray under plants. They can do postemergence directed spraying and use cheaper herbicides."

Cox said he's used the production practices recommended for the research verification field on his other soybean fields.

"I've done pretty much the same things on all my fields--the Vitavax M for disease, fertilization and the chemicals."

Cox said the main difference between the SRVP field and his others was the close attention paid to field conditions by the Extension team. He and other farmers who have taken part in the SRVP say the program points out the value of timeliness.

"We probably watered the field about two weeks ahead of everyone else," said Cox.

Did the neighbors say anything about the early watering? "They've commented that they watch me and water the next week," said Cox, "but they may have watched the field closer this year because of the dry weather. Plus, they saw how much we cut on the field last year."

Klerk said it helps Cox that he's not a rice farmer, too. "He doesn't have that pressure to take away water from the beans to water rice."

Klerk added that Cox made a high enough yield to justify watering eight or nine times. Plus, he saved money on herbicides by being able to band instead of broadcast chemicals.

Cox and the other producers farming on good cotton ground are never going to forsake cotton for soybeans--their landlords won't let them--but he feels that as long as he's planting soybeans, he might as well do it right.

Cox will enroll another field in the Soybean Research Verification Program in 1997.

Soybean Research Verification Team
The soybean research verification team - Desha County Extension agent Blair Griffin,left,
Extension agronomist Richard Klerk, right, and cooperating farmer Will Cox
proudly advertise their checkoff-funded project along Hwy. 65 near Dumas
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