Website Gets Soybean Research into Farmers’ Hands

Anew website is putting Soybean Checkoff-supported research data into the hands of farmers. Cate Newberg has led the effort to establish the Soybean Research and Information Network (SRIN). “I believe that soybean research is only effective when it gets into the hands that can use it,” said Newberg, “and so we want to be able to provide as much information as we can to farmers so that they can make judgments and decisions based on this research.”

Newberg is the program manager not only for the Soybean Research and Information Network but also for the National Soybean Database. The SRIN, she says, is important to individual growers because they already have an excessive amount of information to keep track of. “Most farmers aren’t aware of all the research the checkoff is funding, especially on a nationwide level,” said Newberg, “so we capture that information in the National Soybean Database, and we go back in and try to take those projects and make them in a more digestible fashion, so to speak, so that farmers can see what their state is researching and the results of that research.”

The network provides farmers easy to consume information on past and present checkoff-funded research projects, according to Newberg, the program manager of the SRIN. “We take that information to communicate that to farmers, so they’re not overwhelmed by reading hundreds of research projects,” she said, “but now they can read it and understand what the final results were and how it benefits them.”

The primary purpose of the Soybean Research and Information Network is to communicate the information that’s in the National Soybean Database. That information is heavily research-specific making it even more important that it’s accessible to everyone. “Our main audience is farmers, but we also reach a lot of the state soybean offices and a lot of their staff, as well as researchers and institutions and academia. It’s just a resource that’s out there to say ‘everything you want to know about the research topics we cover are available for you to read,’” she said. “And if you want to dig deeper and find out more about that project, you can simply go into the database from the link right on our article to find out every specific thing about that project.”