Extension Variety Trials to Include Soybeans in 2016

The Extension variety trials in the Blacklands counties of Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington will include soybeans this year.  According to Beaufort County Extension Director Rod Gurganus, agents will plant two or three replicated, small-plot trials in the region.  Seed companies are invited to enter up to two varieties per maturity group.  Entries can be…

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Evaluating Production Practices on Your Farm

Continuing to improve soybean yields and increase profits requires constant research to fine-tune production systems. This includes research at our traditional levels like university, industry and consultant partners but it also includes research with innovative growers. One of the best ways for you to determine if a new product or practice is right for your operation…

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Enhancing Effectiveness Through Sprayer Technology

Sprayer technologies, including variable-rate application technologies, sensors and control systems for site-specific crop management, can help farmers improve effectiveness while reducing inputs and costs. THIS ARTICLE FROM USB explores technological advances in spraying technology, how the advances benefit farmers and new technologies on the horizon in a Q&A with Joe Luck, Ph.D., assistant professor of…

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Ending Hunger In Our Lifetime?

At the United Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization director-general, José Graziano Da Silva, stated that the upcoming generation has the prospect to become the first “Zero Hunger Generation” in history.  While to UN estimates that it will need another $267 billion annually to fight against rural and…

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Early Emergence in Soy is a Yield Booster

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…

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Donate Deer to Feed the Hungry and Help Farmers

The North Carolina Wildlife Federation and the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission have partnered on a program to help farmers manage whitetailed deer through hunting and to help local food banks through donations of venison.  The program works through local civic organizations, youth groups and hunt clubs that seek to encourage donations of venison to…

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Do Seed Treatments Pay on Soybean in North Carolina?

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…

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Do Fungicides Really Pay for Themselves in N.C. Soybean Production?

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…

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Do Foliar Fungicides Pay and When?

“Should I apply a foliar fungicide and if so, when?” is a question North Carolina soybean growers struggle with every year. Application of a foliar fungicide can help reduce disease pressure and protect yield potential, but they are costly. With low commodity prices, growers are looking to reduce costs. Are fungicides a smart investment? To…

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Diversity Is Key To Weed Management

Many of you are probably familiar with the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association’s effort to eliminate herbicide resistant weeds, Weed Free NC. This campaign promotes taking a zero tolerance approach to getting rid of these weeds from pre-season field preparation and the use of pre-emergent products to post-emergent products before weeds are too large to…

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