Update:
The ISRC’s Industry Advisory Council (IAC) held their annual meeting on September 3, 2021 in the Ballroom of the ISU Alumni Center. Several council members were unable to travel because of the pandemic, so the hybrid meeting included members attending in-person as well as those who participated online through ZOOM. The all-day meeting featured an overview of the center and its funding sources, a presentation provided by Steve Whitham on his currently funded ISRC project, “Virus-mediated gene editing in soybean”, and talks given on four of the eight new research ideas proposed by ISU researchers:
~Leonor Leandro – "Time of Disease Onset as an Early Indicator of Soybean
Resistance to SDS."
~Liang Dong – "Low-Cost Multimodal Sensor Arrays for Early-Detection of
Soybean Diseases."
~Steve Whitham, Lie Tang, Danny Singh – "Effects of Increased Atmospheric
CO2 and Abiotic Stress on Soybean Performance in the Enviratron."
~Marshall McDaniel – "Using a “Liquid Cover Crop” to Reduce Nutrient
Leaching and Increase Soil Health."
After a short lunch break, Greg Tylka led a “Think Tank” discussion with the council representatives sharing their research needs and wants before the conversation segued into discussions on the new proposals.
There was a lot of discussion around the proposals. The council recommended offering Dr. Leandro additional funding (offering $60,000 over two years instead of the $40,000 she requested) to expand her soybean sudden death syndrome project to include additional soybean varieties and conducting more field experiments, especially in more southern locations in the state. There also was somewhat of a consensus of the council to recommend funding the Whitham, Tang, Singh “Enviratron” project at $100,000/year for 2 years ($200,000 total). Supporting these two projects at the suggested level required $260,000, which was $40,000 more than the center had available. Suzanne Shirbroun and Randy Miller, IAC farmer representatives, offered to request from the ISA Board an additional $40,000 be provided toward support of the ISRC’s FY22 research projects mentioned above.
After this, additional council members spoke up and further discussions occurred and a stronger consensus (near unanimous) was reached to recommend funding Leandro’s project at $60,000 plus Liang Dong’s and Prashant Jha’s projects for $60,000 and $100,000, respectively. The funding necessary for these projects totaled $220,000, which was the amount of funding available from the center.
In the week following the IAC meeting, Suzanne Shirbroun and Randy Miller submitted a request to the Supply Committee of the ISA Board for additional funds as mentioned above, but they requested an additional $100,000 instead of $40,000, as initially discussed, to allow the center to fund the Enviratron project as well as the three other projects that had strong support for funding by the IAC. The Shirbroun/Miller request was approved by the ISA Supply Committee on September 8, and the full ISA Board approved the funding on September 9. This meant the final FY22 funds the ISRC had available to invest in new research projects was $320,000 ($200,000 from ISA and $120,000 from industry partners).
The center’s Management Team met on September 20 to review the research proposals and make funding decisions. The Management Team considered the comments and recommendations made by the Industry Advisory Council members as well as the additional funding support from the Iowa Soybean Association following the Council meeting. As was recommended by the IAC, the following projects were approved for funding by the Management Team:
*Liang Dong and Steve Whitham, "Low-cost multimodal sensor arrays for early-
detection of soybean diseases." ($30,000 per year for 2 years; Total $60,000)
*Prashant Jha, "Enhancing implementation and adoption of non-chemical
tactics for integrated weed management in soybean." ($50,000 per year for 2
years; Total $100,000)
*Leonor Leandro, "Time of disease onset as an early indicator of soybean
resistance to SDS." ($30,000 per year for 2 years; Total $60,000)
*Steve Whitham, Lie Tang, and Danny Singh, "Effects of increased atmospheric
CO2 and abiotic stress on soybean performance in the Enviratron." ($100,000
per year for 2 years {with $100,000 for Year 2 coming from FY23 funds}; Total
$200,000)
New Industry Partners
Steve May, the ISRC’s Industry Partner Recruiter, was successful in adding Latham Hi-Tech Seeds and AGCO as the center’s newest industry partners this fall. Latham Hi-Tech Seeds joined in October and AGCO came on board in December. Welcome!
Events and Activities
The Iowa Soybean Research Center hosted the Iowa Soy Convening in Ames on October 27. The meeting was one of three held in the Midwest last fall as part of a project led by Katy Rainey from Purdue University. The first meeting was hosted by and held on the Purdue University campus in Lafayette, Indiana on October 4-5, and the University of Missouri hosted the third meeting in St. Charles, Missouri on November 16-17. The meetings were part of a planning project to increase demand for soybean in plant-based protein led by Dr. Rainey. Numerous interested stakeholders could not meet in person because of the pandemic, so the meeting had participants attending in-person and others who participated online through ZOOM .Participants of the meetings included soybean researchers, soybean farmers, soybean checkoff representatives, and representatives from various soybean industries and non-profit organizations. Dr. Rainey’s project developed out of the Soybean Centers Coordination Group (SCCG), which is made up of representatives from soybean centers and their qualified state soybean boards from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri. Emerging from the Soy Convenings, were three ideas for proposals. Teams were identified for the three ideas, and the ideas were submitted in response to the United Soybean Board’s (USB) Request for Concepts. The researchers will learn in February 2022 if USB will request full proposals for any or all of the ideas.
Jill Cornelis, ISRC’s Center Administrator, coordinated ZOOM meetings this fall with a multi-state team of agronomists from Purdue University, the University of Kentucky, The Ohio State University, and the University of Missouri. The group submitted a project idea on regenerative agriculture to the USB’s Request for Concept. The team plans to cooperate with agronomists from Illinois and Iowa if USB requests a ftull proposal based on the idea. Shalamar Armstrong from Purdue University was the lead PI. This is an example of another research collaboration developed out of the Soybean Centers Coordination Group.
The ISU Creamery blended a special ice cream, named SoyFest, made from soy beverage, cream, chocolate and chocolate-covered soybeans that was sampled by attendees of the ISRC’s SoyFest student-focused on-campus event on August 25, 2021. The center found other opportunities for people to enjoy the SoyFest ice cream during events at ISU and the ISA last fall, including:
•The ISRC’s Industry Advisory Council meeting
•The Iowa Soybean Association’s September Board of Directors’ meeting
•The ISU Agronomy Graduate Students’ club cookout
•The Iowa Soy Convening
•The Farm Progress Show planning meeting
ISU hosted the Integrated Crop Management Conference on December 1-2. Greg Tylka, ISRC’s Director and professor of the plant pathology and microbiology department, presented an update on the soybean cyst nematode situation and Kara Berg, communications specialist for the ISRC, captured photos throughout the two-day conference.
In early December, Greg Tylka spoke at the University of Minnesota 2021 Crop Pest Management Short Course about soybean cyst nematode, followed by a meeting with the co-directors of the newly formed Minnesota Soybean Research Center, Seth Naeve and Aaron Lorenz to talk about the Iowa Soybean Research Center.
Future Planning:
Jill Cornelis, ISRC’s Center Administrator, is helping coordinate the Soybean Centers Coordination Group (SCCG) meeting for spring 2022 in St. Louis, Missouri. Representatives from the soybean centers and qualified state soybean boards from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Missouri will participate. Note, the University of Minnesota’s newly formed soybean center, Minnesota Soybean Research Center, will soon be part of the SCCG and university personnel plan to participate in the 2022 meeting.
Due to the huge success of the ISRC’s 2021 Meals from the Heartland (MFTH) meal-packaging event, the staff decided to hold the MFTH event annually. Steve May, ISRC’s Industry Partner Recruiter, has started recruiting sponsors, requesting monetary donations, to cover the costs of the meal ingredients. The ISRC staff will recruit volunteers to help package the meals. Our goal is to raise $7,500 to package 30,000 meals in August 2022.
The ISRC staff are making plans to host a summer/fall Field Tour for ISU faculty, staff, and students to visit ag-related businesses. Last year, the center brought a series of six virtual tours of Corteva’s Johnston, Iowa campus and Indianapolis, Indiana campus to our ISU audience. As businesses begin to reopen after the pandemic, the ISRC hopes to offer in-person visits as much as possible.
ISU’s Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and the Department of Entomology will merge on July 1 to become the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology.
The center’s staff is planning on hosting the Iowa Soybean Association Board Directors for a one-day campus visit and lunch on September 9. More details will be forthcoming.
The Iowa Soybean Research Center works to support and promote all university research, teaching, and extension activities related to soybean biology, breeding, economics, precision agriculture, production and pest management. The ultimate, long-term goal of the center is to advance understanding of soybean plant biology and to increase soybean production and make production more profitable and environmentally sustainable for Iowa farmers in the future. The center accomplishes its goals by leveraging soybean checkoff dollars with funds from its 14 industry partners to support research. The center's funding priorities are set by the center's Industry Advisory Council, which consists of three farmers and a representative from each industry partner. This council also provides feedback on current soybean research needs. In FY2022, Iowa State University faculty who received funding for projects is as follows: 1) Liang Dong and Steve Whitham, "Low-cost multimodal sensor arrays for early-detection of soybean diseases," 2) Leanor Leandro for "Time of disease onset as an early indicator of soybean resistance to SDS," 3) Prashant Jha, "Enhancing implementation and adoption of non-chemical tactics for integrated weed management in soybean," and 4) Steve Whitham, Lie Tang, and Danny Singh, "Effects of increased atmospheric CO2 and abiotic stress on soybean performance in the Enviratron."