Rachel Vann

Bio

Cell – 919-616-6775
Twitter: @NCStateSoybeans

Dr. Rachel Vann provides leadership for the NC State Soybean Extension Program focused on providing soybean stakeholders across North Carolina with agronomic information that will aid in increasing soybean yields, maximizing profit, and protecting soybean seed quality. She concurrently serves at the N.C. PSI Platform Director for Extension, Outreach, and Engagement. She is also the lead PI for the national Science for Success Initiative that delivers best management practices to US soybean farmers through robust research and Extension collaboration.

Rachel directs her Extension efforts towards both general soybean agronomic management and interdisciplinary pursuits to deliver value for soybean producers. The focus of her research program includes intensified rotations, appropriate soybean maturity group selection, ideal planting windows, rotational effects on soybean production, maximizing cover crop benefits to increase soybean yields, product evaluation, soybean seed quality protection, novel information delivery strategies, and grain pea production.

Rachel is passionate about disseminating research-based information using a diversity of strategies, including novel delivery strategies like Beans Gone Wild. Rachel conducts a variety of Extension Agent training activities annually and she teaches the Agricultural Institute and NC State Undergraduate course on soybean production each semester and a field-based graduate student course every other year.

Rachel grew up in Geneseo, Illinois and completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences with a minor in Crop and Soil Science (B.S. 2012). She completed her graduate degrees at NC State University. Her Master’s degree focused on cover crop management in organic corn production and organic canola production (M.S. 2015). Between her Master’s and Ph.D. she completed a U.S. Borlaug Fellowship in Costa Rica. Her Ph.D. focused on cover crop breeding and management and weed control in cotton (Ph.D. 2017). Prior to beginning her position at NC State as the Soybean Extension Specialist, Rachel was a Postdoc in the Organic Grains Program at NC State.

Publications

• Adjusting seeding rate across soybean planting date and maturity in the Southeast United States , CROP SCIENCE (2025)
• Artificial defoliation effects on full season and double crop soybean yields , CROP PROTECTION (2025)
• Does defoliation affect late planted soybean yield? , CROP PROTECTION (2025)
• How changes in cover crop termination timing affect soybean yield? A systematic review and meta-analysis , FIELD CROPS RESEARCH (2025)
• Impact of sulfur and nitrogen fertilization on seed composition of soybean , FRONTIERS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS (2025)
• Mid-season pest management implications for protecting soybean seed quality in North Carolina , AGRONOMY JOURNAL (2025)
• Soybean yield response to management practices (4-40 years) and soil health parameters , FIELD CROPS RESEARCH (2025)
• The external potassium availability determines the effect of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis on salinity tolerance in soybeans , SYMBIOSIS (2025)
• Understanding green stem in soybeans , CROP FORAGE & TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT (2025)
• E FFECTS OF SHALLOW SURFACE DRAINAGE DITCHES W ITH CONTROLLED SUBSURFACE DRAINAGE M ANAGEMENT ON CROP YIELDS IN NORTH CAROLINA , JOURNAL OF THE ASABE (2024)