2019
Agronomic and economic consequences of variable rate seeding in Michigan cropping systems
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Contributor/Checkoff:
Michigan Soybean Committee
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
Field management
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Maninder Singh, Michigan State University
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
1906
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Michigan Soybean Committee
$8,000
Institution Funded:
Michigan State University
$8,000
Brief Project Summary:

Most farmers plant a single rate of soybean or corn seed across an entire field. Planting a single rate across an entire field does not take into account within-field variation leading to over- and under-seeding areas in the field. With the development of precision agriculture techniques, farmers now have the ability to make their farming operations more sustainable by using variable rate seeding (VRS) where seeding rate is either increased or decreased in zones of a field based on past crop yields and soil characteristics. New information is required to help farmers target specific fields where VRS technology is likely to provide agronomic and economic benefits. The overall goal of this...

Unique Keywords:
#soybean utilization
Information And Results
Project Deliverables

Farmer focus groups (to identify limitations with VRS adoption and cooperators) are already established at the beginning of this project, and will continue until project completion including evaluation of delivery content. A survey instrument was filled out across three meetings (50 participants) in 2018 to identify grower needs. Results produced from focus groups and field research will also be disseminated to farmers and agri-business personnel through statewide, regional, and county-based winter extension meetings and summer field tours. Other sources of dissemination will include farmer and industry meetings, commodity-focused meetings, social media, postings on MSUE Field Crop Production webpage, scientific meetings, and peer-reviewed journals. Impacts will be estimated using focus group and by the number of attendees at events, evaluations conducted at each event, and website traffic.

Final Project Results

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.