If research is the engine behind advances in soybean
production, then the Soybean Research Verification Program
(SRVP) is where the rubber hits the road.
Since 1983, the Soybean Promotion Board has invested
more than a million dollars in the verification program
to put the findings of University of Arkansas researchers
to work in farmers' fields, says Lanny Ashlock, U of A
Cooperative Extension Service agronomist and SRVP coordinator.
Ashlock, who's been involved in the program since the
first year, says, "The Soybean Research Verification Program
was an offshoot of the Cotton Research Verification Trials
begun in 1980. The two programs began for the same reason.
"Yields weren't increasing, even though there was research
going on in areas like fertility and varieties. The research
just wasn't coming together. We didn't have a holistic
approach, where the parts function together as a whole.
"We wanted to know if our recommendations were practical
and cost effective for the farmer. Could we really help
the farmer?"
The idea was to have an extension specialist work with
a county agent and the farmer on every phase of production
for a selected field, using the farmer's equipment and
labor. If a problem arose, the SRVP team could confer
with researchers and extension specialists to find a solution.
"We started with four trial fields in southeast Arkansas
in 1983," notes Ashlock. "In '84, we went statewide with
10 fields, including some doublecropped soybeans behind
wheat.
"Until 1988, all of the fields in the verification
program could be irrigated. That year we added dryland
fields."
He says that although irrigated soybean acreage in
the state has increased almost 10 percent since 1983,
60 percent remains dryland. "We still need to do more
work with non-irrigated beans."
Ashlock says the Soybean Research Verification Program
has proven to farmers and the U of A scientists who serve
them that yields can be improved regardless of the production
system, be it irrigated or non-irrigated, conventional
tillage or no-till, full season or doublecropped behind
wheat.
"When we first started the program, we felt like if
we produced more than 40 bushels per acre with full-season,
irrigated soybeans, we had done well. Now, we're disappointed
if we produce less than 50 bushels, full season or doublecropped.
"We want to know what went wrong. Was it the variety?
Did we miss an irrigation?"
Ashlock says dryland production has been more challenging,
but yields in the non-irrigated SRVP fields have been
a few bushels higher than the state average. "We need
to do more work to increase yields and the profitability
of dryland production."
He says the verification program has given farmers,
researchers, extension specialists and county agents and
others in the agriculture business a chance to see first-hand
how U of A recommendations work in the field.
Soybeans Today January 1999
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