Farmers find no-till hits on many soil health principles, bring many benefits.
Heather Beaner’s seat on the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff Board is her voice in directing how farmer checkoff funds are spent. The Spink County farmer, a former U.S. Air Force lawyer, says the Soybean Checkoff projects she favors involve the management of pests unique to Northern soybean growers. “The pests that we face, while there is some version of them around the other soybean growing areas in the country, they’re specific to us in this colder, more western climate,” said Beaner, “and so I really appreciate the research that South Dakota State University (SDSU) does.”
Checkoff Board members, including Beaner, meet periodically with SDSU researchers to determine which projects get priority. “And they’ve got some really fascinating pest control – either weed, or bug infestation, or things like white mold – that hit our South Dakota soybeans in a way that other states just don’t have the same problems to the level that we have or the nuances that come with living this far north.”
The On-Farm Research Program collects data from on-farm soybean research across the state. The data is gathered from farmers, like you, and provides real, meaningful results to SD Farmers.
