INVESTING CHECKOFF DOLLARS
Ed Anderson presents during the 2019 Farmer Research Tour.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN ISA RESEARCH & RESULTS FORUMS OFFER FOUR LOCATIONS IN 2020 BY KATIE JAMES
W
hile the Willie Nelson tune "On the Road Again" may not be involved in research findings, the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) Research Center for Farming Innovation took it to heart in planning its meetings with growers in February. The ISA Research and Results Forums will be hosted each Tuesday in February at four locations around the state — Storm Lake, Red Oak, Washington and Ankeny. “Farmer innovation is at the core of these forums,” says Scott Nelson, ISA director of agronomy. “We learned a great deal this year about improving farmer profitability in our trial results.” Nelson says the localized results from various trials will help farmers
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meet their profit and stewardship goals for 2020 and beyond. “We’ll be sharing the latest advances in crop protection, nutrient and soil management and soil fertility,” he says. Nelson is one of several presenters and says the goal is to keep the forums discussion based. “That was a key insight from last year,” he adds. “The important part of the meeting isn’t viewing our results but hearing from farmers on ideas of things we should be working on.” One southwest Iowa farmer who attended last year’s research conference in Ames took that opportunity seriously. Klint Bissell and his wife Aimee
grow soybeans and corn near Bedford. He says they approached the ISA research team about Molybdenum trials in 2018. “We found information from ISA that we wouldn’t be able to find ourselves because we don’t have the ability to analyze it as close as they can,” Bissell says. “We can’t see the half bushel of soybeans or the 10 bushels of corn difference that ISA can calculate.” Bissell was also curious about the impact of strip tillage. Unsure of how effective their tillage strategy was, the couple attended a session last year and learned their efforts were valuable for their bottom line. “The localized trials are the part
