The Crop Protection Network (CPN) provides an infrastructure for multi-national field crop Extension outputs across North America, the majority of which are soybean-focused. This network is composed of individuals in Land Grant universities and closely related organizations in the United States and Canada. Since 2015, the CPN has developed more than 60 extension products including webinars, full-length publications, scouting guides, feature articles, e-books, and research updates. Popular CPN tools include national soybean foliar fungicide efficacy guides, a research tool for calculating estimated historical yield loss from soybean diseases, and a tool for Certified Crop Adviser’s (CCAs) to earn continuing education units. The CPN also provides a responsive framework to quickly create Extension outputs that address current farmer needs. The traditional research proposal model prevents farmers and industry from obtaining and adopting the most current information to rapidly respond to emerging issues until after checkoff-supported research projects are complete. CPN infrastructure allows for quick dissemination of current knowledge from diverse research groups in a relatively short time, and outputs can be updated in near real-time to reflect knowledge changes. The CPN information-sharing template is easily recognized by farmers as an output created by Extension and supported by the soybean checkoff.

This project focused on the expansion and maintenance of the Crop Protection Network, to better support university specialists and others who contribute to collaborative efforts to develop field crop protection resources applicable across wide geographic areas for the U.S. and Ontario, Canada. The groundwork for the Crop Protection Network has been firmly established. This model has been successful, with strong evidence of supporting collaboration among diverse groups in addressing regional IPM priorities and seasonal issues. During the course of this project, the CPN further diversified resources and tools to include additional disciplines such as entomology, weed science, and nutrient specialists. New Webinars and Soybean Research Updates were developed to convey scientific research to stakeholders, and CPN efforts were promoted on social media outlets.