Staying on the cutting edge of the soybean industry means prioritizing research to find inventive ways to continue moving the needle for Wisconsin soybean farmers.  

The Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board (WSMB) approved funding for the continuation of several University of Wisconsin Extension research projects for fiscal year 2025. 

“We’re helping to fund the tools for our farmers to be more profitable,” Jonathan Gibbs, WSMB president, said. “As a board, we seek to sponsor projects that are looking ahead to battle production challenges and ultimately improve our bottom line, and that all comes from having robust conversations as a group.” 

Take an inside look at the projects below!

Pest management 

It’s 2025, and just like a scene out of the movie “A Bug’s Life,” there’s no better time to listen in to what all those pests are scheming in the soybean field. Newly approved pest management research will work over the span of four years to implement a new and innovative methodology centered around the award-winning “Insect Eavesdropper.” Focusing on the top 12 identified soybean pests prevalent in the region, the research will meticulously deploy cutting-edge sensor systems to eavesdrop on pest feeding activities within soybean fields. Researchers plan to use the data to ultimately formulate precise pest control strategies that contribute to the timing of insecticide use for soybean agriculture practices.  

Upon commercialization, the Insect Eavesdropper will be the first to roll out in Wisconsin soybean fields.  

Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) testing 

Wisconsin soybean growers lose more yield (up to 50%) to soybean cyst nematodes than to any other disease. Understanding nematode biology is key to recognizing early infestation and managing its negative economic impact. Expanding upon an ongoing WSMB project and to further tackle this issue for growers, researchers will continue analyzing SCN resistance and develop better control measures against harmful nematodes. 

Integrated soybean production systems 

Over the last decade, Wisconsin soybean farmers have been challenged with relentless extreme weather fluctuations, yet experienced record yields and profitability due to novel management changes and technologies. This research will continue to manage and enhance Wisconsin’s SCN testing program and soybean yield contest and develop best management recommendations for cover crop and second year soybean productions systems, drone applications, overcoming limitations of biological nitrogen fixation in high yield systems and refining crop planting order to maximize farm profitability. 

Wisconsin Soybean Yield Contest 

WSMB is continuing its support for the popular Wisconsin Soybean Yield Contest, which notched a record number of entries in 2024 and has been in existence for over a decade. The contest is sponsored by the Wisconsin Soybean Program and organized to encourage the development of new and innovative management practices and to show the importance of using sound cultural practices in the state’s soybean production. Details for the 2025 Yield Contest will be announced later this spring. Dr. Shawn Conley, a University of Wisconsin researcher who was approved to conduct several checkoff-supported research projects, oversees the Yield Contest. 

White mold management 

White mold of soybean remains a significant concern for Wisconsin soybean farmers, but ongoing research is making sure the strategies growers have on hand are stronger than the threat. Putting a microscope on white mold, this checkoff-supported research will analyze the potential of biocontrol products and cultural control practices, such as tillage, to improve sustainable management of white mold across the state.  

Researchers will also dig deeper into complex ecological interactions of the white mold/soybean pathosystem in an effort to better understand how Wisconsin farmers can manage this disease sustainably.  

Overcoming herbicide weed resistance management challenges 

Wisconsin researchers are constantly on the front line in the battle against weeds, including two of the most troublesome weed species in Wisconsin soybean production: waterhemp and giant ragweed.  

A recently approved research project by WSMB is taking that fight up a notch, with the expansion of integrated waterhemp and giant ragweed management trials across the state in an effort to determine cultural practices to help Wisconsin soybean farmers maximize weed suppression. Research will also continue to identify and document the distribution and extent of herbicide resistance through comprehensive greenhouse screenings of weed seed samples submitted by growers and agronomists, and on-farm trials to demonstrate the economic and agronomic feasibility of targeted herbicide application systems.  

The University of Wisconsin-Madison research team also plans to replicate its Wisconsin Extension Weed Management Workshop in the fall of 2025 and host a handful of summer field days at its key research sites to provide soybean growers, agronomists and consultants the opportunity to visit its WSMB-sponsored weed management research plots and gain access to the latest research-based weed management insights developed by its program.  

Agricultural Forecasting and Advisory System for Soybean in Wisconsin 

Farmers devote time and resources each season on foliar disease, insect and general agronomic management of soybeans. 

The efficiency of these high-stakes decisions could be improved through the development of sophisticated decision-support systems. Soybean disease, insect and cover crop termination models could be built into online dashboards that are supported with weather information supplied by the Wisconsin Wisconet Mesonet weather station network. The initial infrastructure is in place to expand multi-model decision support tools to support on-farm soybean management decisions. The models and algorithms could be incorporated using traditional or machine learning strategies.  

Thus, the objectives of this project overseen by Damon Smith are to: 1) To incorporate new disease and insect pest models in a decision support system (DSS) linked to the Wisconsin Wisconet Mesonet weather network; 2) To incorporate cover crop termination model(s) in a decision support system (DSS) linked to the Wisconsin Wisconet Mesonet weather network; 3) To engage stakeholders through design thinking to validate and improve the utility and user-experience of the expanding DSS.  

These objectives will help expand models available for soybean pest and agronomic management decision making and provide those tools in a single web-based decision support tool that is optimized for Wisconsin production using the statewide Wisconet Mesonet weather network. 

Keep in the loop 

For the latest information on WSMB checkoff research visit soybeanresearch.info and coolbean.info.