Dow’s Insect Resistant Soybean Trait Conkesta will be the brand name for Dow AgroSciences’ novel insect-resistant trait that, when commercialized, will provide soybean farmers with the broadest spectrum for insect control against lepidopteran pests. Upon regulatory approvals, Conkesta will be offered as a stack with the company’s Enlist soybean traits in elite and high-yielding varieties.…
With consideration given to the value of numerous seed treatments being applied to soybeans, it is important to know what seed treatments have merit and why seed treatments should be used. The soybean board asked a consortium of private agronomists to run field trials on common seed treatments. Traditionally molybdenum and bacterium to aide rhizobium…
Do fungicides pay for themselves in North Carolina soybean production? The soybean board asked a consortium of private agronomists to explore this question. The group includes Tidewater Agronomics, Fowler Crop Consulting, McLawhorn Crop Services, Protech Advisory Services, and IMPACT Agronomics. The research was funded by the soybean board and conducted on private research farms across…
Early emergence in soy is the exciting and mostly untested assumption that farmers can realize more yield by getting the young plants to emerge (1) as early as possible, (2) as quickly as possible and (3) as uniformly as possible. Dr. Ron Heiniger and Dr. Jim Dunphy at North Carolina State University think that early…
At the North Carolina Agriculture & Biotechnology Summit on November 18-19, thought-provoking speakers explored the intersection of science, politics and economic development in the biotechnology industry. There was a healthy component of farmer participation on the podium, but unfortunately not enough farmers were able to attend to push the coffee break discussions towards addressing the…
The controversy over GMO labeling occupies a central place in the discussion around food systems and farming. This was evident at the recent N.C. Agriculture & Biotechnology summit during a panel moderated by Tamar Haspel, a journalist at the Washington Post. Another panel at the conference raised the issue of a society caught in a…
The board of the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association approved a $1 million grant to North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to develop the Plant Sciences Center Initiative. The new center will be housed on NCSU’s Centennial Campus and will greatly expand the university’s capacity to work on multidisciplinary, collaborative projects…