2005 Research Summaries

The following projects were funded during 2005-2006.

The Pennsylvania Soybean Board has invested a total of $31,359 in soybean checkoff funds in six research projects for the fiscal year which ends Sept. 30, 2006.

Here is a summary of funded projects.

• $5,000 to Penn State researchers to evaluate the performance of soy-based hydraulic fluid in College of Agriculture farm equipment. The field test started in 2004. It was expected that some two dozen pieces of equipment would be sampled and monitored monthly. If successful, as early results indicate it will be, all Penn State equipment will be converted to biodegradable hydraulic oil, including elevators. Joining th\e College of Agriculture in the multidisciplinary [project are the College of Engineering, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the College of Environmental Health and Safety and the Office of the Physical Plant. Cargill Inc. has donated a significant portion of the 6,000 gallons of hydraulic fluid needed for the project.

• $9,093 to Dr. Dennis Calvin of the Penn State Department of Entomology, to continue “fine tuning” a new soybean aphid Integrated Pest Management program for growers in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Calvin is evaluating the use of water pan traps to monitor the migration of soybean aphids into fields, investigating the interaction between the soybean planting date and the development of populations in the field, and looking into the effect of the timing of spray on protecting the yield of the soybean crop.

• $6,000 to Penn State researchers Gregory Roth, David Johnson and Mark Antle to conduct the annual soybean variety testing program. Test plots were established in Lancaster and Centre counties and includued maturity groups II through IV. Each plot was logged for yield, pod maturity, plant height, lodging, seed quality and seed size. The results are published annually in the Pennsylvania Soybean Peformance Report.

• $1,026 to Dr. Douglas Archibald at Penn State to enhance the annual report of the variety trials with data on the protein and oil content of the varieties. Protein and oil content are the two main nutritional quality parameters that are sought by the buyers of soybeans for feed and food, Dr.. Archibald noted, and could be provided at a cost of only $6 per specimen. The study was begun in 2004 and is scheduled to conclude with the 2006 crop.

• $4,240 to Penn State investigators David Johnson and Gregory Roth to evaluate the effect of early planting on the yield of early maturing and full-season soybean varieties under Pennsylvania conditions. They were to compare yields, maturity and harvest dates and determine if weather — Pennsylvania’s temperature and moisture — at various stages of soybean growth impacted performance. Trials were conducted at research stations in Lancaster and Centre counties.

$6,000 to researchers Sjoerd Duiker and David Johnson at Penn State to evaluate the use of cover crops as “tillage tools” for soybean production. The concept is that deep--rooted cover crops can penetrate compacted surface and subsoils and make way for the roots of the soybean crop to follow. “This research,” the investigators wrote, “will help soybean growers in Pennsylvania to be at the very forefront of no-till systems approach. It would help determine how soil compaction can be managed without nay tillage to make the no-till system successful.”