ON THE ROAD AGAIN

ISA RESEARCH & RESULTS FORUMS OFFER FOUR LOCATIONS IN 2020

BY KATIE JAMES

While 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 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.

Roger Wolf facilitates a discussion at last year's research forum.

Joseph L. mURPHY/Iowa Soybean Association

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 that brings it home.” he says. “If you are wanting to improve or change anything on your farm, these research forums are an easy way to see if your ideas could work.”

A key presentation this year will share results of a conservation and profitability study that ISA led in 2019. It analyzed the impacts of cover crops, tillage and other conservation practices.

“The fact is we can make money on cover crops and reduced tillage,” says Heath Ellison, ISA senior conservation agronomist.

The study concluded that reduced tillage can save $265 million for Iowa farmers annually.

“One of our study participants showed that tractor time dropped from 300 to 100 hours and fuel consumption was reduced from five gallons to one gallon per acre by moving away from conventional tillage,” Ellison says.

In addition to innovative conservation findings, Research and Results Forum attendees will hear from the ISA Analytics team about an online, interactive decision aid tool developed by ISA and Iowa State University to summarize 15 years of historical on-farm replicated strip trial data.

“These are the most relevant research data collected by farmers, reflecting real-world production challenges across the state,” says Peter Kyveryga, ISA director of analytics and Forum presenter.

The online tool allows farmers to enter their input costs and grain prices and combine them with data from replicated strip trials. Farmers can also input soil and weather conditions to produce individualized odds of economic returns to a variety of field management practices, products and technologies.

“This tool distills complex data into an intuitive guide to help farmers make critical evidence-based economic decisions,” Kyveryga says.

RESEARCH & RESULTS FORUMS

Hear from ISA researchers as they link agronomy, production, conservation and analytics to help you be more profitable. Participate in roundtable conversations with fellow farmers to address your concerns and challenges. Learn how you can engage in policy discussions on issues impacting your farm.

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