PA Soybean Farmers Support PA Animal Agriculture and Crop Research
HARRISBURG, PA (March 28, 2012) – Research projects designed to support Pennsylvania’s animal agriculture industry and provide reliable crop production data to soybean growers have been awarded checkoff grants totaling $256,426 by the Pennsylvania Soybean Board.
The all‐farmer board, which administers the national soybean checkoff program in the commonwealth, approved four grant requests for research benefiting animal agriculture, the largest domestic user of soymeal and the largest sector of Pennsylvania’s agricultural industry. Additionally, the Board approved eight research projects focusing on crop management practices that will directly impact the state’s soybean producers, as well as funding for one education‐ related project.
Funding grants were approved for the following projects:
Research in support of Pennsylvania’s dairy, swine and poultry producers
• $ 20,184 to Penn State to investigate the potential of increased protein supply from soybean meal on milk production and milk protein yield.
• $3,878 to Penn State to help develop a feed cost database, website and smart phone app to calculate, monitor and manage dairy feed costs.
• $25,900 to University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton School of Veterinary Medicine for research into improving swine production and profitability with a regional control program for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), potentially the most economically devastating disease faced by swine producers.
• $1,500 to University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton School of Veterinary Medicine for funding of a GIS (geographic information system) poultry database. The database will assist in the management of diseases of importance to Pennsylvania egg and poultry producers.
Crop research
• $ 7,000 to Penn State to manage the annual soybean variety trials at Penn State’s research farms in Lancaster and Centre Counties. The continuing search for higher yielding varieties, the onset of new diseases and insects, and the new focus on value‐added traits in the future is essential to soybean producers in Pennsylvania. 2012 marks the 21st consecutive year for the trials, which are designed to evaluate soybean varieties for their performance under Pennsylvania conditions.
• $7,740 to Penn State for research into common pokeweed management in field crops.
• $33,882 to Penn State for the Pa. On‐Farm Soybean Research Network. In the coming year, this on‐farm product testing network will focus on three projects: evaluating the response of Approach, a new strobilurin fungicide marketed for control of white mold and other common soybean foliar diseases; evaluating the effectiveness of molybdenum seed treats, especially on fields with low pH; evaluating Invisa, a growth regulator which could potentially help retain pods under stress conditions by helping to manage ethylene levels in the soybean plant.
• $9,852 to Penn State to evaluate the effects of manure application on soybeans.
• $20,600 to Delaware Valley College for studies to measure cover crop effectiveness in capturing nitrogen fixed by soybeans for successive year corn crop and helping prevent nitrate contamination of groundwater on medium textured soils.
• $36,079 to Penn State to establish a sentinel plot program in Pennsylvania soybean fields. The program will be run in collaboration with Penn State Extension to provide soybean growers with statewide assessment of insects and diseases active in soybean fields.
• $16,903 to Penn State to continue previous Pa. Soybean Board‐funded research into slug management tactics in no‐till soybean fields.
• $17,908 to Penn State, for a study of sustainable strategies for increasing resistance of soybeans to the bean leaf beetle and Mexican bean beetle. These beetles are also vectors of bean pod mottle virus (BPMV), a problematic viral disease of soybeans.
Education
• $55,000 to the PA Friends of Agriculture Foundation in support of the Mobile Ag Classroom. Inside the 32 ft. mobile lab, complete with heat, air conditioning, supplies and a certified teacher, children perform hands‐on science experiments, each teaching a lesson in agriculture. The mobile lab contains 12 work stations and travels to a different elementary or middle school in Pennsylvania each week. The lab accommodates up to 900 students per week by teaching five to six 50‐minute science classes per day.
About the Pennsylvania Soybean Board
The Pennsylvania Soybean Board is a farmer-controlled Board responsible for managing Pennsylvania’s share of funds received from the nationwide Soybean Checkoff program. The funding is available under an assessment program, approved by Congress in 1990, under which soybean farmers contribute 50 cents of every $100 they receive for their beans at the first point of sale. Funds are used to develop markets, educate consumers, and research new ways to utilize and produce soybeans more efficiently.
For more information, go to pasoybean.org.
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