Paul Jasa, William Kranz, and Daran Rudnick were recently awarded the 2019 Excellence in Extension Team Award at the Extension Fall Conference for being part of the Soybean Management Field Days Team. For the past twenty-two years, the University of Nebraska Extension has partnered with the Nebraska Soybean to provide a turnkey research and extension educational experience. Each year, four farm operators, representing different soybean growing regions in Nebraska, are selected to host a Soybean Management Field Day site. Faculty representing production disciplines associated with growing soybeans are engaged in the development and implementation of field research at these four sites.
As part of the research process, soybean growers who are members of the Nebraska Soybean Board meet with researchers to provide input in identifying topics to be included in a replicated research effort. The Soybean Board provides complete funding to secure approximately 5-7 acres of land area from the grower. Funding to plant, implement field protocols, and harvest the plots are also provided by the Soybean Board. To complement this research, four field days were planned during the second week of August each year at each location. Faculty and private industry resources provide instruction during the field day. The average attendance for each site during the twenty-year period the field days have been held has been 461 soybean growers and/or crop consultants. Soybean growers in attendance during this time period represent annually an average of 471,826 acres. Participants also noted the average annual economic impact to their operations to be 3.89 million dollars. Following harvest of the replicated plots, each faculty member has the results analyzed and a written summary is published in a booklet entitled, Soybean Management Field Days - Research Update. The Nebraska Soybean Board provides funding for the printing and mailing of the results to 23,000 soybean growers statewide. A recent survey conducted by the Bureau of Sociological Research of participants who attended the field days during the time period 2014-2017, revealed 47% of the 509 respondents indicated as a result of the Soybean Management Field Day experience, they have changed soybean production, risk management or marketing practices. Congratulations to the Soybean Management Field Day Team on their award.