Update:
The following is an update on the Iowa Soybean Research Center (ISRC) activities from September 2021 through March 2022.
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 attend the meeting in person 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:
1. Leonor Leandro – Time of Disease Onset as an Early Indicator of Soybean Resistance to SDS
2. Liang Dong and Steve Whitham– Low-Cost Multimodal Sensor Arrays for Early-Detection of Soybean Diseases
3. Steve Whitham, Lie Tang, Danny Singh – Effects of Increased Atmospheric CO2 and Abiotic Stress on Soybean Performance in the Enviratron
4. 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 during which they shared their research ideas and needs before the conversation segued into discussions on funding of new research.
There was a lot of discussion around the new research ideas. 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 requested level required $260,000, which was $40,000 more than the center had available. Suzanne Shirbroun and Randy Miller, IAC farmer representatives and Iowa Soybean Association Board of Director members, offered to request from the ISA Supply Committee an additional $40,000 be provided to ISRC toward support of the new 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 and Steve Whitham’s project for $60,000 and Prashant Jha’s project for $100,000. 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 ISA 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, 2021. 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, 2021 to review the research project ideas 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:
1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
The ISRC has four new industry partners recruited by Steve May, the ISRC’s Industry Partner Recruiter. Latham Hi-Tech Seeds joined in October, Peterson Genetics, AGCO and Beck’s Hybrids came on board in February/March. 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 in fall 2021 as part of a United Soybean Board (USB)-funded project led by Katy Rainey from Purdue University. The first meeting was hosted by and held on the Purdue University campus in West 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. Not all of the stakeholders could meet in person because of travel restrictions related to the pandemic, so these were hybrid meetings with participants attending in-person and others joining 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 a collaborative group 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 Convening meetings were three ideas for proposals. Teams were identified for the three research ideas, and the ideas were submitted in response to the USB’s December 2021 Request for Concepts. The researchers will learn in June 2022 if the 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 the USB requests a full proposal based on the idea. Shalamar Armstrong from Purdue University is the lead investigator. This is an example of another research collaboration developed out of the Soybean Centers Coordination Group (SCCG).
The ISU Creamery blended a special ice cream, named SoyFest, made from soy beverage, cream, chocolate and chocolate-covered roasted soybeans that was sampled by hundreds of attendees who participated in the ISRC’s SoyFest (student-focused on-campus event) on August 25, 2021. The center found other event opportunities for people to enjoy the SoyFest ice cream 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 at ISU, presented an update on the soybean cyst nematode situation. 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’s 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.
The 2022 Fusarium Virtual Meeting, coordinated by the ISRC and hosted by Dr. Leonor Leandro, was, held on February 8, 2022. Dr. Leandro started these meetings in 2016 as a way of communicating with fellow ISU colleagues about Fusarium research happening around ISU’s campus. Her vision of the meetings is to provide opportunities for communication and exchange of ideas between Fusarium researchers, to share research findings, to troubleshoot research protocols, to identify new research needs, and to allow collaborations to emerge. In 2018, Dr. Leandro welcomed Fusarium researchers, Berlin Nelson and Hui Yan from North Dakota State University and James Kurle from the University of Minnesota to present research and join the group discussions. Virtual meetings have made it easier to invite other university Fusarium researchers and share in the group talks and discussions. This year included Fusarium researchers from South Dakota State University, Febina Mathew and Bijula Sureshbabu, who presented their research findings. The four talks from this year’s meeting:
1. Bijula M. Sureshbabu and Febina Mathew (South Dakota State University), “Effect of foliar fungicides on endophytes in soybean.”
2. Shrishail S. Navi (ISU), “Diversity of Fusarium species associated SDS and root rot of soybean.”
3. Gary Munkvold (ISU), “Mycotoxin production in Fusarium according to contemporary species concepts.”
4. Larry Halverson (ISU), “Influence of cropping system on the soybean root-associated microbiome.”
Greg Tylka, Jill Cornelis, Kara Berg, Steve May, Danny Singh, Prashant Jha and Arti Singh participated in the Iowa Soybean Association’s Innovation to Profit conference held in Ankeny, Iowa on February 17. Speaker Matt Erickson, economic & policy advisor for Farm Credit Services of America opened the conference explaining what expectations farmers could see from the economy in 2022 and the future as it relates to agriculture decisions. Following the opening remarks, were several breakout sessions including interactive discussions, conservation management, to sharing results of system approaches to increase soybean yield. The conference concluded with a panel discussion on soy transportation. Panelists from the Iowa Association of Business & Industry, Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, and Sukup Manufacturing spoke on topics ranging from supply chain, to emerging markets, to transportation and how these challenges and opportunities can affect Iowa soybean farmers’ decisions.
Jill Cornelis, the center’s research administrator, organized a two-day spring 2022 agronomist training workshop for ISRC industry partner, Syngenta, which was held at ISU’s Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center on February 23-24. Dean Grossnickle, Syngenta’s Agronomic Service Representative, reaches out each year and requests assistance for their annual training workshop. The center coordinates meetings and workshops of this type for all of its industry partners. Greg Tylka, director of the ISRC, was invited to present on soybean cyst nematode management at this year’s workshop.
Research Project Updates - (final and progress reports can be found on the ISRC's website, www.iowasoybeancenter.org).
2019 Funded Projects
• Final report by Prashant Jha, “Hyperspectral Imaging for Early Detection of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds in Soybean.” A segment of the field of precision agriculture is being developed to accurately and quickly map different weed species and, more specifically, herbicide-resistant vs. herbicide-susceptible weed biotypes in crop fields using advanced optics and machine learning algorithms. This project is a partnership between the Weed Science program in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University and Optical and Remote Sensing Technology Center in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Montana State University. This work built on our prior success in using similar technologies to classify crops and weeds, focusing on weeds common to the U.S. Great Plains. In this project, however, we collected hundreds of thousands of spectra of most troublesome weeds (common waterhemp and other pigweed species, giant ragweed, and marestail) in Iowa soybean production and differentiated herbicide-resistant vs. herbicide-susceptible biotypes of those weeds in-crop using a hyperspectral imager. Plants were imaged in fields using ground-based and drone-based platforms. The spectra were differentiated from one another using advanced machine learning algorithms to develop classification images. The ultimate goal was to develop early-season UAV-based weed maps for site-specific weed management applications in soybean fields. We will also develop late-season weed maps by attaching a hyperspectral camera beneath the combine at the time of soybean harvest.
• Progress report by Steve Whitham, “Virus-Mediated Gene Editing in Soybean.”
2020 Funded Projects
• Progress report by Thomas Baum, “Mechanisms of Defense Suppression by Cyst Nematode Effectors.”
• Progress report by Leonor Leandro, “Time of Disease Onset as an Early Indicator of Soybean Resistance to Soybean Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS).”
• Progress report by Lie Tang, “In-Field Soybean Seed Pod Analysis on Harvest Stocks Using 3D Imaging and Machine Learning.”
Future Planning
• Jill Cornelis, ISRC’s Center Administrator, is organizing the Soybean Centers Coordination Group (SCCG) meeting set for May 11, 2022 at the Illinois Soybean Association Offices in Bloomington, IL. Representatives from the soybean centers and qualified state soybean boards from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri will participate.
• Because of the great success from the ISRC’s 2021 Meals from the Heartland (MFTH) meal-packaging event, the staff decided to host the event annually. Our goal is to raise $7,500 and package 30,000 meals by August 2022. The ISRC staff can find 50 volunteers to package the meals and cover the rent of the packaging location. However, we are not able to cover the costs of the meal ingredients. To help reach our goals, the ISRC recently submitted a proposal to the Prairie Meadows Community Betterment grant to support meal ingredient costs for 2022. Steve May, ISRC’s Industry Partner Recruiter, is also soliciting monetary donations from industry sponsors interested in supporting the costs of the meal ingredients. Please reach out to Steve May, maysteve@comcast.net, if your company would like to help support the center’s 2022 MFTH service project. We thank Cargill and Syngenta for their generous support in 2021.
• The ISRC staff are starting plans to host a summer/fall Field Tour for ISU researchers from agronomy, plant pathology and microbiology, entomology, and agricultural and biosystems engineering departments to visit ag-related businesses. Last year, ISRC industry partner Corteva hosted a series of six virtual tours from Corteva’s Johnston, Iowa campus and Indianapolis, Indiana campus to our ISU audience. As businesses begin to reopen after the pandemic, the ISRC looks forward to offering in-person visits as much as possible.
• The ISRC staff is working on plans to host the Iowa Soybean Association Board Directors for a one-day campus visit on September 9.
• The ISRC will assist ISU researchers in putting together proposals for submissions to the Iowa Soybean Association and North Central Soybean Research Program’s calls for proposals released on March 18.
• In 2022, the ISRC will sponsor the Students of Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences (SASES) meeting hosted by ISU’s Agronomy Club on campus April 7-9. SASES is the undergraduate program of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). We will also sponsor the Iowa Youth Crop Scouting Competition on July 28, 2022.
• Michelle Graham and Jamie O’Rourke, USDA-ARS soybean researchers and faculty at ISU, are organizing the 2022 Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean meeting. Michelle and Jamie are being assisted by the ISRC with arranging their virtual meeting in August.
Update:
The following is an update on the Iowa Soybean Research Center (ISRC) activities from April through August 2022.
Jamie O’Rourke and Michelle Graham, USDA-ARS soybean researchers at ISU, contacted the center in March for assistance in putting together a virtual meeting of the Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Soybean that was held on August 22-23, 2022. Kara Berg, ISRC’s Communications Specialist, developed the meeting logo and Jill Cornelis, the center’s research administrator, connected the meeting organizers with ISU’s Conference Planning and Management team who put together an online registration site, and the Engineering-LAS Online team who provided technical assistance for the online meeting. More than 250 soybean researchers participated in the meeting.
Greg Tylka represented the ISRC at the Iowa Pest Resistance Management Program workshop titled “Resistance Management: Where do we go from here?” on April 4, 2022 at the ISU Memorial Union. Dean Robison, ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, welcomed the group. Present at the meeting and participating in the discussions were farmers, agribusiness personnel, university faculty, and state department of agriculture officials. A diverse panel of experts discussed current trends in weed, insect and pathogen resistance and resistance management options, which was followed by presentations on the socio-economics of resistance management. Later, attendees split into breakout groups to discuss how their experiences managing resistant weeds, insects and/or pathogens have changed and subsequently they shared whether they perceived differences in awareness about pest resistance among neighbors, work colleagues, and their community. After that, the breakout groups discussed what the driving forces were for specific examples of successful resistance management, could those circumstances be replicated elsewhere, and what changes are needed to result in improvements in resistance management in the future. Iowa’s Agriculture Secretary, Mike Naig, joined in the afternoon discussions. The meeting concluded with a wrap-up session identifying next steps for the program.
The ISU Agronomy Club hosted the 2022 Regional meeting of the Students of Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences at ISU on April 7-9. SASES is an undergraduate student club with the Soil Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy. The ISRC supported this year’s regional meeting through financial sponsorship and giveaways for the SASES attendees.
Four research ideas, developed from discussions of the Coordinated Soybean Centers Group, were submitted to the United Soybean Board in February 2022 and invited to submit full proposals for funding consideration by the farmer board. The four proposals are:
1. “Building Infrastructure and Connectivity for Small and Medium Scale Processing of Soy-Based Value-Added Products: A Multistate Approach.” PI – Dharmendra Mishra, Purdue University. Co-PI’s – Arun Nair, University of Arkansas; Senay Simsek and Katy Rainey, Purdue University; Karen Hudson, USDA-ARS Purdue University; Bongkosh Vardhanabhuti and Pavel Somavat, University of Missouri; Kristin Bilyeu, USDA-ARS University of Missouri
2. “Economic Impact of Competing Soy Investment Alternatives.” PI – Jayson Lusk and Katy Rainey, Purdue University
3. Regenerative Ag – “The Role of Soybean Production in Carbon Farming: A Multistate Collaboration.” PI – Shalamar Armstrong, Purdue University. Co-PI’s – Carson Reeling and Shweta Singh, Purdue University; Marshall McDaniel, ISU; Scott Demyan, Ohio State University; Felix Fritschi, University of Missouri; Amir Sageghpour, Southern Illinois University
4. “The Coordinated Soybean Centers: Identifying the Best Remote Sensing Technologies for Targeted Management of Soybean.” PI – Katy Rainey, Purdue University
Representing the ISRC, Greg Tylka and Jill Cornelis attended the Coordinated Soybean Centers Group meeting in Bloomington, IL on May 11, hosted at the Illinois Soybean Association offices. Katharine Drake Stowe, director of the new U.S. Soybean Research Collaborative (USSRC), was invited to meet with the group and talk about how the USSRC Research Forum and Think Tank held in Indiana last August 2021 set the stage for thinking more broadly across the soy value chain. The group discussed ways the two groups can work collectively.
Steve May, center partner recruiter, continues to look for possible industry partners for the ISRC. Albaugh LLC and Mosaic are the newest additions of the ISRC. Albaugh LLC is based in Ankeny, Iowa and offers crop protection, seed treatments, fertilizer, pesticides, and other agricultural chemicals. Mosaic Company is based in Tampa, Florida and is the largest producer of potash and phosphate fertilizer in the US.
Greg Tylka has been a member of the SCN Coalition since it formed in 1993 with the slogan “Take the Test, Beat the Pest”. The SCN Coalition resurged in 2015 after learning of weakening SCN resistance and strategies. In both decades, MorganMyers marketing and public relations company helped the coalition communicate the SCN problem and management “how-to’s” with farmers. The SCN Coalition and MorganMyers received two National Agri-Marketing Association awards for Best in Show in 2019 and 2020. On May 19, 2022, the SCN Coalition and MorganMyers won the prestigious Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award in the Issues Management category announced during a banquet hosted in New York City.
Research Project Updates
2019 Funded Projects
• A Final report by Prashant Jha, “Hyperspectral Imaging for Early Detection of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds in Soybean.” A segment of the field of precision agriculture is being developed to accurately and quickly map different weed species and, more specifically, herbicide-resistant vs. herbicide-susceptible weed biotypes in crop fields using advanced optics and machine learning algorithms. This project is a partnership between the Weed Science program in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University and Optical and Remote Sensing Technology Center in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Montana State University. This work built on our prior success in using similar technologies to classify crops and weeds, focusing on weeds common to the U.S. Great Plains. In this project, however, we collected hundreds of thousands of spectra of most troublesome weeds (common waterhemp and other pigweed species, giant ragweed, and marestail) in Iowa soybean production and differentiated herbicide-resistant vs. herbicide-susceptible biotypes of those weeds in-crop using a hyperspectral imager. Plants were imaged in fields using ground-based and drone-based platforms. The spectra were differentiated from one another using advanced machine learning algorithms to develop classification images. The ultimate goal was to develop early-season UAV-based weed maps for site-specific weed management applications in soybean fields. We will also develop late-season weed maps by attaching a hyperspectral camera beneath the combine at the time of soybean harvest.
• A final report by Steve Whitham, “Virus-Mediated Gene Editing in Soybean.”
2020 Funded Projects
• A progress report by Thomas Baum, “Mechanisms of Defense Suppression by Cyst Nematode Effectors.”
• A progress report by Leonor Leandro, “Time of Disease Onset as an Early Indicator of Soybean Resistance to Soybean Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS).”
• A progress report by Lie Tang, “In-Field Soybean Seed Pod Analysis on Harvest Stocks Using 3D Imaging and Machine Learning.”
**All of the reports for the funded projects can be found on the USB National Soybean Database by searching the title of the project.
The ISRC hosted their annual one-day Staff Retreat on June 15 at Cloud’s Restaurant in Ames, Iowa. In attendance were Greg Tylka, Jill Cornelis, and Kara Berg from the ISRC, Ed Anderson from the ISA and Steve May, industry recruiter for the ISRC.
Greg Tylka and Jill Cornelis participated in the 2nd Annual Soybean Research Forum & Think Tank held July 18-20 in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the first year for Greg and Jill to participate. Greg was a facilitator for one of thirteen tables made up of researchers, farmers, industry, USDA, and state staff discussing trends, challenges and opportunities for soybean.
Greg and Jill also participated in the Coordinated Soybean Centers Group meeting held at the Indiana Soybean Alliance offices on the afternoon of July 20 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Coordinated Soybean Centers Group is represented by soybean centers from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, and Minnesota and their state soybean checkoff. The group’s focus is in identifying multi-state/multi-disciplinary teams working to deliver high-level projects leveraging farmers’ investment with federal and private funds for the benefit of farmers. During the meeting in July, an On-farm cover crops proposal idea was introduced by Katy Rainey from Purdue University’s Soybean Center. During the discussion, the group identified a lead principle investigator and Ed Anderson offered the Iowa Soybean Association’s RCFI On-farm partnership to share data with the collaborative team.
There were three additional proposal ideas brought up during the meeting:
1. Soybean roots-Carbon sequestration (Felix Fritschi, Missouri Soybean Center)
2. Substantiating Soybean oil content/quality importance through sustainability management practices (Jennifer Jones, Illinois Soybean Association)
3. Quality soybeans importance in biofuels (Qingfeng Ge, Southern Illinois University)
The Coordinated Soybean Centers Group agreed that for future meetings we would meet in-person annually in conjunction with the Soybean Research Forum & Think Tank as most of the participants from the soybean centers group overlap in participation with the think tank meeting.
The Iowa Youth Crop Scouting Competition was held at the Field Extension Education Lab (FEEL) on July 28. The center helped sponsor this year’s competition. Following the event, ISU researchers Lie Tang, Steve Whitham, Danny Singh and Danny’s graduate students Liza Van de Laan and Dinakaran Elango provided a short tour of the Enviratron to Suzanne and Joe Shirbroun and their crop-scouting students. Congratulations to their crop-scouting teams who took 1st and 2nd places at the Iowa Youth Crop Scouting Competition!
On August 4, the center hosted a field tour for 21 ISU researchers. This year’s tour featured Beck’s Hybrids near Colfax, Kemin Industries in Des Moines and Salin247 from Ames, who provided a demonstration at one of Beck’s Hybrids test plots. The goal of the ISRC’s field tours is to engage research graduate students, faculty and staff in the departments of agronomy, agriculture and biosystems engineering, and plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology from Iowa State University with farmers and industry. The group started the day at Beck’s Hybrids with an overview of Beck’s research followed by a tour of their field test plots. The Salin247 team, an engineering company working on autonomous farming solutions, was onsite at Beck’s Hybrids and provided a demonstration of their autonomous planter. The day ended with a tour of Kemin Industries, known for creating and supplying over 500 specialty ingredients for human and animal health and nutrition, food technologies, crop technologies, biofuels and animal vaccine industries in more than 120 countries.
The ISRC hosted our second Meals from the Heartland packaging event on August 5. The center received generous funding support from Cargill to purchase the meal ingredients and we had more than 40 volunteers help package over 38,000 meals. The meals were distributed to local food banks and schools in the Des Moines area as well as to Iowa’s sister state in Ukraine. The ISRC also donated boxes locally to ISU’s on-campus food bank, SHOP, and to Food at First located in downtown Ames. The center hosts the event in August to celebrate soybean month in Iowa as the meals contain soy protein, the life-saving ingredient in these meals.
Other center activities in August included:
• The ISRC provided promotional giveaways during the research plot tours led by Danny Singh at the National Association of Plant Breeders Annual Meeting hosted by ISU August 8-11.
• Kara Berg, ISRC’s Communications Specialist, designed the logo for the Soy2022 Virtual Soybean Conference held August 22-23. Over 300 registered to participate in the online conference. The meeting organizers, Jamie O’Rourke and Michelle Graham, USDA-ARS and ISU affiliated faculty, reached out to the ISRC earlier this spring for assistance.
• On August 29, the ISRC hosted the ISA’s group from Brazil for an afternoon on the ISU campus to learn about research related to soybean and weed management, the functions of the Seed Science Center, and SDS. The group was in Iowa for the Farm Progress Show August 30-September 1.
Future Planning:
• The ISRC Staff is looking forward to hosting the ISA Board to campus on September 8-9 to showcase some of the research ISU is working on.
• The center’s Industry Advisory Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 15 at the ISA Offices in Ankeny. The council will hear research updates on existing projects and an opportunity to learn about new research ideas.
• The ISRC’s Management Team meeting is set for Tuesday, September 20. The management team makes final research funding decisions, which are based on comments and feedback garnered from the Industry Advisory Council representatives during their meeting.
• Greg Tylka will be attending two upcoming professional conferences this fall: 1) The Society of Nematologists meeting is scheduled September 25-29 in Anchorage, Alaska, and 2) The National Soybean Nematode Conference is December 14-16 in Savannah, Georgia.
• The ISRC staff is making plans for next year’s SoyFest celebration, August 23, 2023!
Update:
Soy is Feeding the Food Insecure
The ISRC hosted our 2nd Meals from the Heartland packaging event on August 5. The center received generous funding support from Cargill to purchase the meal ingredients and we had more than 40 volunteers help package over 38,000 meals. The ISRC staff was able to deliver over 1,000 meals to two Ames food bank locations, Food at First in downtown Ames and SHOP (Students Helping Our Peers) located on ISU’s campus to help the food insecure members of our local community. The remaining 36,000+ meals were distributed to other communities around Iowa, where needed and to Iowa’s sister state in Cherkasy Ukraine.
ISRC Hosts the ISA Board to ISU Campus
The ISRC hosted 45 Iowa Soybean Association farmer board members and staff on September 8-9, 2022, with tours of Iowa State University’s research facilities and research farms in Ames. The tours included a walking tour of labs in the Advanced Teaching and Research Building led by researchers from the plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology department who talked about their current soybean-related research. Following the tours, Mike Castellano and Marshall McDaniel from the agronomy department gave brief talks of their research projects on the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative and soil management and crop sustainability, respectively. Day two started early with a visit to the ISU Ag Engineering and Agronomy Research Farm for a tour of the Enviratron, a demonstration of Lie Tang’s field robot called the phenobot, and presentations by Danny Singh and Arti Singh’s research teams near their research field plots. Next, the group went to the BioCentury Research Farm where we learned about the soy asphalt pilot research project led by Eric Cochran, chemical and biological engineering department, and were led on a tour of the thermochemical laboratory by engineer Tannon Daugaard. The afternoon was spent outside at the Field Extension Education Lab (FEEL) listening to presentations on weed management, soybean cyst nematode management, and soybean management. A full story on the ISA visit to ISU can be found in the ISRC’s October 2022 newsletter at our website, www.iowasoybeancenter.org.
Annual Industry Advisory Council Meeting
The center’s annual Industry Advisory Council (IAC) meeting was held on September 15, 2022, at the Iowa Soybean Association Offices in Ankeny. In attendance were representatives from 16 of the 17 industry partners, two of three farmer representatives, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Dan Robison, Ed Anderson (chair), and Greg Tylka (ISRC director). Dean Robison and Ed Anderson welcomed the council and expressed appreciation of industry’s commitment to the center. ISU researchers Prashant Jha from the agronomy department and Joffrey Mejias, postdoc with Thomas Baum’s lab in the plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology department at ISU gave brief presentations on their ISRC-funded projects, “Hyperspectural imaging for early detection of herbicide-resistant weeds in soybean,” and “Mechanisms of defense suppression by cyst nematode effectors.”
The ISRC received 12 new soybean research ideas in 2022 for review and discussion by the IAC. ISU researchers Sotirios Archontoulis, Joffrey Mejias, Silvina Arias and Gary Munkvold provided short synopses of their research ideas. Following lunch, the council held a closed discussion on the 12 research ideas and available funds of $300,000 to support new research. As part of the discussion, the farmer representatives spoke directly to the industry representatives in the room asking them to strongly consider increasing their partnership funding level to the center and help match the level of checkoff funds Iowa farmers are contributing toward soybean research through the ISRC. At the end of the meeting, two research ideas, “continuous soybean” from Sotirios Archontoulis and “seed treatment effects on the seed & soil microbiome,” by Gary Munkvold received the IAC’s endorsement.
The ISRC’s Management Team met a few days following the IAC meeting to make the final funding selections. Though the Management Team agreed to support the IAC’s recommendations, there was the issue of the available funds, $300,000, and the proposed budgets, $420,000. Greg Tylka met separately with both Archontoulis and Munkvold who agreed to make adjustments in their work plans to fit the $300,000 budget.
In November, the farmer representatives, also serving on the ISA Board, recommended the ISA Board approve an additional $13,000 to the ISRC to be used for funding of the new projects. Both projects received the additional funds and the researchers started their projects in January 2023.
Joint Communications
Early in November, Aaron Putze and the Iowa Soybean Association’s communications team invited Kara Berg, ISRC communications specialist, to a meeting in Ankeny. The meeting focused on ways the ISA and the ISRC could work together and share articles, press releases, etc. During the discussion, Aaron suggested doing a State of Soy episode with Greg Tylka. Videotaping of the interview was shot over ISU’s fall break in the Advanced Teaching and Research Building on campus. You can watch the video on the center's website, iowasoybeancenter.org.
ISRC Center Review
The ISRC was one of several centers tasked by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to conduct a Board of Regents center review in 2022. The purpose of the reviews were to determine if a center was still relevant, of the highest quality, and consistent with the institution’s mission and strategic plan. ISU Associate Dean for Research and Discovery, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, provided guidance and oversight for the ISRC’s review.
A center review team was led by Ed Anderson, senior director of research at the Iowa Soybean Association. Other team members included Kelly Gillespie, Bayer; Steve Harris, plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology chair; Prashant Jha, agronomy; Leonor Leandro, plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology; Steve May, center industry recruiter; Randy Miller, current ISA President and representing ISA and soybean farmers; and Matt O’Neal, plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology.
The review team met on November 8, 2022, in Ames with the ISRC staff, the ISRC Affiliates, and Carolyn Lawrence-Dill for a full day of interviews, discussion, and questions and answers by the center director, the center staff, and ISU researchers. Overall, the center received positive reviews. Several researchers commented they view the ISRC as a valuable source of seed funding and as a conduit between academic research and understanding the needs of soybean farmers. It was noted the center is beneficial to many stakeholders through its promotion of short- and long-term research, teaching and outreach, while also serving as a model for six other soybean research centers across the U.S. The ISRC is also considered vital to the state, regional and national soybean industry and the broader agriculture industry. Key goals to help ensure the center’s viability going forward will be to strengthen its financial viability and its visibility.
Training
ISU researchers, Greg Tylka, Daren Mueller and Alison Robertson from the plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology department provided training to IndigoAg on November 30 and December 1, 2022. (IndigoAg is being recruited to join the center as an industry partner). Greg’s training session started at the Advanced Teaching and Research Building where he gave an overview on nematodes problematic to corn and soybean. Tylka also spoke in-depth on the biology and management of soybean cyst nematode and spent time with the group in ATRB’s teaching lab, where participants could observe different life stages of the microscopic pest. Daren and Alison discussed seedling diseases of corn and soybean. They explained how to identify certain diseases, the pathogens and their management options. In addition, Alison discussed her research on cover crops and its effect on corn seedling diseases.
Fall Conferences
Iowa State University’s Integrated Crop Management Conference was held on November 30 and December 1 at the Scheman Building on ISU’s campus. The ICM Conference is considered one of Iowa’s best crop production education events. The conference draws a large number of farmers, crop advisers, industry members, researchers and educators from across Iowa. The conference covered 34 topics in 66 sessions across crop, pest, soil fertility, and soil and water management areas. Nine ISRC affiliates presented on a variety of topics at the conference:
o Sotirios Archontoulis on the 2022 cropping year
o Mike Castellano on The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative
o Matt Helmers on the impact of in-field conservation practices in reducing nitrate loss
o Erin Hodgson on how to manage late-season pests and on soybean gall midge
o Prashant Jha on weed management
o Mark Licht on soybean management and redefining the field edge to increase
profitability, wildlife and improve water quality
o Antonio Mallarino on phosphorus and potassium research and on soil pH
o Daren Mueller on the management of soybean diseases
o Alison Robertson presented on the 2022 corn growing season and on managing a
cereal rye cover crop ahead of corn to ensure optimum yields
Greg Tylka attended the National Soybean Nematode Conference in Savannah, GA, December 14-16, 2022 and served on the conference planning committee. Greg gave a presentation on, “Challenges in Advancing Soybean Nematode Management: Opportunities to Grow”. In addition, five soybean centers from the Coordinated Soybean Centers Group sponsored a luncheon at the conference: the Iowa Soybean Research Center, Missouri Soybean Center, Illinois Soybean Center, Purdue University Soybean Center, and the Center for Soybean Research at Ohio State University.
ISRC Welcomes ISA’s Senior Director for Research at ISU Event
The ISRC hosted a welcome reception at the ISU Seed Science Center on February 28, 2023 for Christie Wiebbecke, ISA’s new senior director for research. Christie and Ed Anderson both currently serve in the role, but Christie will take over fully on May 1, 2023 as Ed retires from the ISA. The welcome reception was an opportunity for ISU researchers working in the area of soybean research to meet Christie face-to-face. The center believes these gatherings of ISA and ISU researchers are valuable and will host similar events once or twice every year.
New Industry Partners join the ISRC
Steve May, the ISRC’s Industry Recruiter, recently signed-on Nutrien and Sound Agriculture as the center’s newest industry partners. Nutrien is one of the world’s largest providers of crop inputs, particularly potash and nitrogen fertilizer. Sound Agriculture develops nature-based solutions for tastier, healthier and more sustainable food. Their breakthrough biochemical technology enables agriculture to adapt faster to climate change and evolving consumer preferences. The center is excited to welcome these companies.
Future Events
•Syngenta is hosting a training workshop for their agronomists on March 22-23, 2023 at ISU’s Seed Science Center. Jill Cornelis, ISRC’s Research Administrator, is organizing the workshop as she does each year for Syngenta. The ISRC offers services like this to all of their industry partners.
•The ISRC is sponsoring a $500 travel award at the American Society for Plant Biologists (ASPB) Conference in Ames on April 22-23, 2023. The award will be given to a graduate student, undergraduate student or a postdoc working on soybean-related research.
•For the second year in a row, Cargill is providing a generous gift of $10,000 for the ISRC to host another Meals from the Heartland meal packaging project. The event is set for August 2, 2023 at the ISU Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center. The ISRC will sign up about 50 volunteers to help package nutritious meals for food insecure members of our community. Soy protein is the “life-saving” ingredient in these healthy meals.
•SoyFest 2023 is scheduled for August 23, 2023.
Update:
ISA Board Supports Additional Funding for Research
The ISRC Management Team approved funding for two projects in September 2022 for “Continuous soybean” and “Seed treatment effects on the seed & soil microbiome” with the $300,000 research funding available. In November, the Industry Advisory Council farmer representatives, also serving on the ISA Board, recommended the ISA Board approve an additional $13,000 to the ISRC to be used for funding the two new projects. The additional funds were received and the researchers began work on their projects in January 2023.
Research Project Updates
Progress reports and a final report of current ISRC research projects were added this spring into the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database and on the ISRC’s website, iowasoybeancenter.org.
Progress reports:
• Time of disease onset as an early indicator of soybean resistance to SDS, Leonor Leandro
• Low-cost multimodal senor arrays for early-detection of soybean diseases, Liang Dong
• Effects of increased atmospheric CO2 and abiotic stress on soybean performance in the Enviratron, Danny Singh, Lie Tang, Steve Whitham
• Enhancing implementation and adoption of non-chemical tactics for integrated weed management in soybean, Prashant Jha
Final report:
• Mechanisms of defense suppression by cyst nematode effectors, Thomas Baum
Discussion Points from FFAR Meeting with the ISRC – March 2023
During the ISRC’s 2022 annual Industry Advisory Council meeting last September in Ankeny, Iowa, council representatives asked if funds provided by the ISRC to support research projects could be matched with funds from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
In early March 2023, Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, associate dean for research and discovery in the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Greg Tylka and Jill Cornelis of the ISRC met with Jeff Rosichan, FFAR’s Director of Crops of the Future Collaborative, via Zoom to discuss the above-stated possibility.
The meeting started with Greg explaining to Jeff how the ISRC works and how research projects are selected for funding.
Highlights from the discussion with Jeff include:
• FFAR funding is complementary, not competing with other federal funding agencies
• FFAR requires a one-to-one match
• FFAR prefers grants selected competitively (although it is possible to submit unsolicited proposals to FFAR as well)
• FFAR will not fund projects with narrow principal investigator participation. Projects must involve more than just one state. Projects need to have broad participation.
• FFAR funding has a lot of flexibility
• Jeff mentioned four grant programs related to agriculture:
1. Seeding Solutions – annual grants program supporting bold research in food supply and agroecosystem management. Pre-applications are required in late January and award notification comes in the fall following FFAR’s Advisory Council meeting.
2. New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award – provides funding to early-career scientists whose research addresses significant food and agriculture challenges. Matching funds are not required for this program.
3. Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research (ROAR) grants – provides rapid deployment of funding in response to an outbreak, ex. soybean gall midge. Funding decisions can be made within days. The program is open year-round.
4. FFAR Fellows Program – program established to provide career guidance to the next generation of food and agriculture scientists. Graduate Student Fellows receive grants to pursue research that aligns with FFAR’s Challenge Areas. Additionally, Fellows participate in professional and interpersonal skills training. Each Fellow grant requires a sponsor.
In summary, FFAR can only match funding on a project; FFAR cannot match funding that is not associated with a project. FFAR will only fund projects with broad participation. Projects must involve multi-state/multi-investigator that have gone through a competitive, scientific review. The ISRC typically funds single-state/single-institutional investigator(s) projects.
ISRC Welcomes ISA’s Senior Director for Research at ISU Event
The ISRC hosted a welcome reception at the ISU Seed Science Center on February 28, 2023 for Christie Wiebbecke, ISA’s new senior director for research. The reception was an opportunity for ISU researchers working in the area of soybean research to meet Christie face-to-face. The center believes these gatherings of ISA and ISU researchers are valuable and will host similar events once or twice every year.
Syngenta Spring Agronomy Training Workshop
Jill Cornelis, research administrator for the ISRC, helped coordinate the Syngenta Spring Agronomy Training Workshop hosted at the Seed Science Center March 21-22. Guest speakers for the two-day workshop included ISU researchers Greg Tylka (SCN), Meaghan Anderson (Corn & Soybean Growth Development), Erin Hodgson (Iowa Insect Update & ID quiz), Alison Robertson (Iowa Corn Disease Update), Daren Mueller (Iowa Soybean Disease Update), and Prashant Jha (Weed ID).
Personnel Changes for ISU Agronomy Department
Kendall Lamkey is the new associate dean for facilities and operations in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences effective May 16, 2023. Lamkey has been a faculty member at ISU since 2002 and chaired the department of agronomy since 2007 after serving one year as the interim chair. As agronomy chair, Lamkey also served on the ISRC’s Management Team, which makes research-funding decisions based on feedback from the center’s Industry Advisory Council.
Mary Wiedenhoeft is interim agronomy department chair, effective May 16, 2023. Wiedenhoeft, Morrill Professor of Agronomy, is a graduate of Iowa State with a B.S. in agronomy and earned her Ph.D. in crop physiology from Washington State University. She was a faculty member at the University of Maine for 12 years before joining ISU’s Department of Agronomy in 1999. As interim chair, Wiedenhoeft will also serve on the ISRC’s Management Team.
New Industry Partners Join the ISRC
The ISRC welcomes Nutrien and Sound Ag as new industry partners with the center. Nutrien is one of the world’s largest providers of crop inputs, particularly potash and nitrogen fertilizer. Sound Ag develops nature-based solutions for tastier, healthier and more sustainable food.
Follow the ISRC on Twitter
On May 1, the ISRC activated their Twitter account. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @ISU_SoyCenter.
ISRC Staff Plants Soybeans
On May 23, Kara Berg, communications specialist, and Jill Cornelis, research administrator, helped the Tylka Lab crew plant part of the soybean variety trial plots near Ames, Iowa. This was the first time Kara and Jill experienced soybean planting and soil sampling. It was a beautiful day for planting!
SCN Videos
Greg Tylka, director of the ISRC and professor of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology at ISU hosted videos for the SCN Coalition this summer. Filming of the videos took place in the Tylka research lab in the Advances Teaching and Research building on campus. The videos and more information about soybean cyst nematode can be viewed on the SCN Coalition’s website, thescncoalition.com.
ISRC’s Annual Staff Retreat
The ISRC hosted their annual Staff Retreat on June 21 at the ISU Core Facility-ISU Research Park in Ames. Steve May, industry recruiter for the ISRC, and Christie Wiebbecke, senior director of research for the Iowa Soybean Association attended the retreat along with the center’s staff Greg Tylka, Jill Cornelis, and Kara Berg. The focus of this year’s retreat was on the center’s upcoming Industry Advisory Council (IAC) meeting set for September 8. A Think Tank to help discover potential research areas in soybean production is scheduled in the morning followed by the IAC meeting in the afternoon. With the large number of soybean industry people already attending the IAC meeting, the timing of the Think Tank was very efficient use of people’s time. The IAC meeting in the afternoon, chaired by Christie Wiebbecke, will include discussions and guidance from the IAC on research investments for FY24.
ISRC Reaches Twenty Industry Partners
Ag Ingenuity and Meristem are the ISRC’s newest industry partners, which brings the total number of partners to 20. Ag Ingenuity Partners is the research division of Advanced Agrilytics. They specialize in spatial agriculture research. Meristem Crop Performance offers biologicals for crop inputs. Welcome to both!
2023 Iowa Youth Crop Scouting Competition Largest Turnout Ever
The Iowa Youth Crop Scouting Competition was hosted at the ISU Field Extension Education Lab (FEEL) 8 miles west of Ames on July 27. The goal of this event is to educate Iowa youth on the basics of integrated pest management (IPM), fostering a lifetime of understanding about the concepts and importance of IPM. This year’s competition included fifty youth from around Iowa in grades 7-12. This was the fifth year the ISRC has been a sponsor of the event.
Soybean Meetings in Indianapolis
The Coordinated Soybean Centers Group (CSCG) meeting was held in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 26. Ed Anderson, director of the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP), led the meeting. The CSCG includes representatives of soybean centers and their state soybean associations from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and now North Carolina. Christie Wiebbecke from ISA and Greg Tylka and Jill Cornelis from the ISRC represented Iowa at the meeting.
Following the Coordinated Soybean Centers Group meeting, the US Soybean Research Collaborative (USSRC) held their third annual Soybean Research Forum and Think Tank in Indianapolis on July 27-28. This year’s focus was on traceability and transparency.
August is Soybean Month in Iowa….Check Out the Activities
ISRC hosts the ISA Experience Class
On August 2, the Iowa Soybean Association’s Experience Class visited two ISU Farms near Boone. Jill Cornelis coordinated the visit for twenty Experience Class participants with ISA’s Kennady Moffett to tour the Field Extension Education Lab (FEEL) and the Ag Engineering/Agronomy (AEA) Farm. The first stop for the class included a ride on the people-mover as Edward Ernat, manager of FEEL and graduate student in plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology, shared with the group information about what kinds of demonstrations go on at FEEL. Edward explained how the plots work and who utilizes the field plots. The class learned about different field demonstrations, everything from growing sunflowers to replicating hail crop damage to beneficial pollinator prairie plots. Following the outdoor tour of FEEL, the class moved indoors and listened to a brief overview about identification of various soybean diseases from Monica Pennewitt, graduate student of Greg Tylka’s, and Chelsea Harbach, Extension specialist in the ISU Plant & Insect Diagnostic Clinic from the department of plant pathology, entomology, and microbiology. Monica and Chelsea also offered the group an opportunity to identify soybean diseases on their own using soybean models used in classrooms to teach students about soybean diseases.
The Experience Class’ last tour stop of the ISU Farms took them on a short drive east to the ISU AEA Farm where Carolina Freitas, graduate student of Sotirios Archontoulis’, talked with the group about her project on continuous soybean. This is a brand new project funded last year by the Iowa Soybean research Center and designed to learn how to best grow continuous soybeans in anticipation of a major increase for demand for soybean oil in upcoming years. Carolina demonstrated how hydrology data is gathered using hydrology sensors to measure for soil moisture and how the team is able to use the information in the soybean fields.
Meals from the Heartland Meal Packaging and Meal Donations
The ISRC hosted their third annual Meals from the Heartland meal packaging event on August 2 at ISU with Cargill providing generous support of the meal ingredients and supplies for the third year. Included in the meal ingredients is soy protein, the life-saving ingredient in the meals. More than fifty volunteers helped packaged over 38,000 meals (176 boxes) in just over 2 hours for people in our communities needing a healthy meal. In the three years of packaging the meals, the center and our volunteers have packaged over 96,000 meals, which equates to feeding 370 kids for an entire year. The ISRC staff give special thanks to the Cargill Cares Program and our many, many volunteers for their generous support!
The center was able to donate and deliver eleven boxes (2,376 meals) of meals to our local Ames community food banks, Food at First in downtown Ames and the Students Helping Other Peers (SHOP) on ISU’s campus. The remaining 165 boxes of meals were distributed by the Meals from the Heartland organization.
ISRC Hosts Summer Field Tour
On August 7, the ISRC hosted twenty-two ISU researchers on a one-day field tour. Our first visit was the Bruce Wessling farm near Grand Junction, Iowa. Sheila Hebenstreit, independent agronomy consultant and past ISA Board Director, invited us to the Wessling’s to learn about their operation of low-till and other conservation practices. Bruce was unavailable, but Bruce’s farming partners, Austin Saddoris and Wade Sohm, and another local farmer Sheila works with on conservation practices, David Ausberger, hosted our group. Most of the discussion was about how conservation practices started for them, what types of conservation practices are used on their farms and why. We learned about the USDA’s CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) and FWP (Farmable Wetlands Program) the Wessling’s use in their farming practices. Additionally, our hosts explained the use of buffer strips, oxbows, and tile drainage as it relates to bioreactors.
Next, Clayton Farms salads was on the field tour’s lunch menu. Salads were delivered fresh to us at our lunch stop at a local park in Boone, where we took a brief respite before starting our afternoon tour of the Clayton Farms vertical farming operation located at the ISU Research Park in Ames. Vertical farming is growing vertically stacked layers. At Clayton Farms, they grow several lettuces, microgreens and cherry tomatoes hydroponically. Their focus is on their delivery business and getting fresh ingredients to their customers the same day as harvested. Clayton Farms Restaurant recently opened in Ames and they have plans to expand their market into the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area and the Minneapolis, MN area.