Rachel Vann

The cost of soybean production is increasing. Nutrient inputs are at historically high costs at a time where there is increased variability in growing season conditions. Crops can experience multiple kinds of stresses and better information is needed on strategies that allow the crop to perform as well as possible while using a minimum of inputs. In North Carolina three of the most substantial production costs are seed, nutrient inputs, and water management infrastructure. This project further develops relationships between water stresses and nutrient uptake so that the response to stress conditions will protect the variety???s yield potential, optimize nutrients, and suggest water management approaches ??? addressing all the major cost centers. The larger outcome of this research and extension effort is in-season response to water challenges such that nutrient input may be reduced, applications timed to environmental stress and profitability improved. The ability to utilize UAV data to assess plant water and nutrient stress in-season as it occurs and ultimately use the data to prescribe an appropriate course of action is necessary to protect soybean crop profits. This process will provide a framework to quickly assess areas in the field and allow for corrective measures to protect the crop from climatic conditions that ultimately would cause severe yield reductions.

The NC State Soybean Extension program seeks to provide data-driven best management practice recommendations to soybean stakeholders in the state. To deliver these best management practices, a two-fold approach will be deployed that focuses on 1. collaborative research conducted across the United States; the backbone of the USB-supported Science for Success project and 2. North Carolina centric research that address high-priority areas identified in the NC Soybean Producers Association 2023 RFP. First, to collaboratively deliver soybean best management practices, the Science for Success team, comprised of University-based Soybean Extension Specialists across the US, will conduct common-themed research protocols to amplify our resources and deliver robust soybean best management recommendations to growers across the nation. The USB-supported outreach group leverages QSSB funding at the local level to generate best management practice recommendations of national relevance. This allows researchers to quickly capture a range of yield and environmental variability (ie 50 sites of data/year nationally verses 4 sites data/year locally) when determining production practice impact on soybean profitability. The continued success of the Science for Success project, led by NC State University, is contingent on the support of QSSB-funding for localized research efforts. This proposal seeks to request continued support from the NC Soybean Producers Association for collaborative research efforts with focuses for 2023 on biological seed treatments and harvest timing and desiccant interactions with yield, seed quality, seed composition, and profitability. These collaborative research trials will be deployed at 3-4 sites across North Carolina and 30-50 sites across the US annually. Second, the proposed research will investigate foliar products, including foliar fungicides, foliar fertilizers, and desiccants, that play a role in maximizing profit in North Carolina soybeans, particularly in high-yield situations where soybeans are planted before mid-May with a MG???5 variety. These trials will be employed in 3-4 locations across North Carolina annually and production practices within each location will be determined using data generated by the NC State Soybean Extension program from 2019-2022 on optimal planting dates and maturity groups to maximize yield in North Carolina.

This project aims to begin addressing the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association???s priority to help growers evaluate AgTech on their operations by first incorporating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the breeding program to estimate maturity. Not only will UAVs increase the speed and accuracy of data collection and accelerate variety release to meet the changing needs of growers, the best practices for UAV-based maturity estimates determined from this study can form the basis for growers looking to replace more traditional scouting on their operations for harvest aid (desiccant) application. Harvest aids are often used to remove any remaining green tissue to increase harvest efficiency and maintain seed quality. As the demand for early maturing varieties increases in North Carolina, one of the biggest challenges facing growers is timely harvest needed to prevent a decline in seed quality. However, application timing, based on maturity, is key to prevent crop damage and yield loss, and UAV-based maturity scouting could help address this issue. In this proposal we will determine if using a UAV can accurately estimate maturity by beginning on a research plot level to determine how well UAV-based maturity estimates compare to ground ratings. Furthermore, the most cost-effective camera and processing pipeline will be determined so that future grower equipment and software investment will be well-informed. Using the best practices developed, the project will scale to mid-sized research fields for additional evaluation and validation. The funding will be used to purchase UAV imagery processing software as well as to fund a graduate student that will lead the project. Overall, this research will determine whether UAVs can accurately estimate maturity and the best practices for doing so, both of which lay the groundwork for growers to use them on their own operations to assist in maturity scouting to aid their desiccant application decisions that protect seed quality and profits.

Evaluate condensed tannins as a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) repellent. This will be a field-based project. White-tailed deer use will be established in multiple soybean and cotton fields throughout North Carolina. Once baseline data are established, the treatment (condensed tannins) will be applied to sections of the field. White-tailed deer use of the field will be evaluated post treatment.

There is tremendous interest from growers and the agricultural industry on the soybean production issues that arise across the state annually. To date, this information has only been available through word-of-mouth, however having real-time access to this knowledge could be transformative in informing scouting and subsequent management decisions. This foundational project will support utilizing technology and strong relationships across the North Carolina soybean sector to develop a dynamic webpage that captures soybean production issues and summarizes them in a publicly available, visually appealing, and educational format for the benefit of the North Carolina soybean sector. A collaborative group of Extension Agents, Consultants, Private Industry, the NC State Plant Disease and Insect Clinic, and NC State Extension Specialists will collaboratively develop a public facing webpage (available through NC State and the NC Soybean Producers Association) that will house arising issues from the field and provide concise information about the issues, associated photos, and recommendations to resolve the issue when appropriate. The collaborating individuals will submit information associated with field problems using an app and the program manager will summarize this information and populate it into the public facing webpage. We envision 2023 as a beta-testing year and the webpage will be improved and expanded upon in subsequent years. We intend to invite broader collaborators to contribute to the webpage in subsequent years but will focus on a subgroup of collaborators during the beta-testing phase to ensure we can handle the initial process with excellence. The webpage developed through this project amplifies currently available soybean expertise across the state into educational benefit for the North Carolina soybean sector and beyond.