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Michigan Soybeans, MSU highlights midseason research

Michigan soybean farmers saw checkoff dollars at work during a field day Thursday.

Research director Mark Seamon with the Michigan Soybean Committee tells Brownfield this year growers have experienced extreme wet and extremely dry conditions.

“In some places, it’s been pretty good, but some of those dry areas turned wet overnight so some of those folks are having to deal with the dry conditions early, then turning into some disease problems like phytophthora and maybe some sudden death syndrome started at that time, so now dealing with those,” he explains.  “In some cases, fields are reaching close to maturity and seeing some degradation.”

White mold concerns are intensifying and Seamon says growers attending this week’s soybean research field day had a chance to ask Dr. Marty Chilvers about his trials.

“Dr. Chilvers is working on lots of research projects to deal with that as well as other diseases so it’s really helpful for a lot of growers this season,” he says.

Seamon is also encouraging growers who think their soybeans are doing well this year to enter the Michigan Soybean Yield Contest which is open for sign up till the end of the month.