OSU Extension: Soybean growers needed for project

WOOSTER, Ohio — A new soil fertility specialist with Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences is looking for a few good growers to help update fertility recommendations for Ohio soybeans.

Soil fertility

Steve Culman, a newly hired Ohio State University Extension specialist in soil fertility, is part of a team of college experts seeking soybean growers to participate in a project to look at phosphorus and potassium in soybeans as part of an overall effort to update the Tri-State Fertility Recommendations (Ohio, Michigan and Indiana) for soybeans.

“The project, which is sponsored by the Ohio Soybean Council, involves casting a broad net to collect data from a large number of farms across the state to determine updated phosphorus and potassium fertilization rates for soybeans,” he said.

Team members

The team is made up of scientists from OSU Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of the college.

The team includes Anne Dorrance, soybean plant pathologist; Laura Lindsey, soybean and small grains production extension specialist; Andy Michel, field crops entomologist; and Greg LaBarge, extension field specialist in agronomic systems and one of the leaders of Ohio State’s Agronomic Crops Team.

30 soybean growers

Culman said the team is hoping to work with about 30 growers for the project. Growers would have a large degree of flexibility in the layout and management of their fields in the experiments, which could involve either applying additional fertilizer to plots or applying no fertilizer to plots, he said.

“We are ideally looking for farms that help capture a diversity of soil types and soil test phosphorus and potassium ranges,” Culman said. “Since our research farms typically have high phosphorus and potassium levels, low soil test phosphorus and potassium farms are of particular interest. “We are also looking for small fields less than two acres in western Ohio to rent for contracted fertility work.”

Pay

Growers can determine the fertility rates, and farmers and educators will be paid for their time and effort, he said.
To participate, interested farmers should contact Culman at 330-263-3787 or email culman.2@osu.edu.