USDA economist Keith Menzie says the U.S. is valued as one of the most reliable and high-quality suppliers of soy in the world, a trend he expects to continue over the next 20 years. Rising incomes in the developing world and increased demand for meat, which in turn creates increased demand for protein to feed…
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As growing season begins, it’s an important reminder that the EPA has classified three formulations of dicamba as Restricted Use Pesticides for 2018, BASF’s Engenia®, DuPont’s FeXapanTM and Monsanto’s XtendiMax®. As a Group 4 herbicide, and one of only a few in this site of action available for post-emergence use in soybeans, it’s an important…
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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…
Details“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…
DetailsDo 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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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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Farmers are able to get back in flooded fields, assess damage to crops and meet with insurance adjustors. The question of “how bad do my soybeans look” and “do I have to harvest my flooded soybeans” will be on a lot of minds. For farmers with beans that went underwater, it is important to document…
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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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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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Did you watch the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons in the big game last Sunday? Not only was it a great game, it was a big eating day, in fact the second biggest eating day of the year. Fans eat billions of chicken wings during game festivities, not to mention pizza loaded with…
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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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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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