Michigan Soybean On-Farm Research Report 2023

Dec 28, 2023

By Mike Staton

2023 marks the 13th season of the Michigan Soybean On-Farm Research program, made possible by the checkoff investments of Michigan soybean producers. This year, 38 farmers around the state conducted on-farm research trials within 12 projects. Contained in this publication you’ll find the results from 52 individual trial locations. The research projects were developed with producer input and represent some of the most challenging production issues growers are facing.

Most of the projects were conducted at multiple locations and, in some cases, across several years, improving the reliability of the results presented in this research report. Agronomic and economic data is presented for each treatment. Breakeven yields utilized the projected USDA 2023-2024 average soybean price of $12.90 per bushel, the manufacturers’ suggested retail prices for all product(s) and application costs associated with the treatments.

Conducting these trials would not be possible without the strong partnership between the Michigan Soybean Committee (MSC) and Michigan State University Extension (MSUE). One example is the unique collaboration between MSUE and MSC to jointly fund Mike Staton, MSUE statewide soybean educator and on-farm research program coordinator. MSC has also provided funding for four MSU Extension educators (Eric Anderson, Phil Kaatz, Monica Jean and Jenna Falor) who were instrumental in lining up trials and working with on-farm cooperators. We also want to thank MSC’s summer intern Rachel Drobnak, as she collected and organized soil
samples and took stand counts for the trials.

Dr. Arnold Saxton, Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee, provided the SAS statistical procedure used for analyzing the 2023 trial results and provided valuable input regarding experimental design and statistical analysis.

Source : msu.edu

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.