The Focus on Soybean (FOS) webcasts are a resource provided by the Plant Management Network. These webcasts offer management tips, updates to production practices, and news about new and forthcoming technology for soybean producers to use to improve production.

Two recent FOS webcasts are available for open access through May 31, 2014. They are:

Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Use in Agriculture. Rory Paul of Volt Aerial Robotics provides an overview of basic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) types that have potential for agricultural applications such as crop scouting and mapping. The use of UAV’s in the aerial imagery acquisition process is discussed and compared with tradition methods now in use.

The MSPB is funding a YMD project entitled “Remote sensing of row crops with small unmanned aerial vehicles”. Multispectral canopy reflectance imagery will be collected by UAV from research plots and farmer fields and will be used to map canopy cover and calculate Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI). The NDVI has been shown to be a good estimator of both plant growth vigor and plant stress.

The multispectral data from the UAV field-scale data acquisition in the MSPB project will be compared to those from traditional spatial data acquired by both grid soil sampling and yield mapping. This may determine correlations between sampling methods that can be used to provide better estimates of yield and yield-limiting conditions, and improved irrigation scheduling.

No-Till Soybean. Dr. Chad Lee of the University of Kentucky discusses the benefits and disadvantages of using no-till, minimum till, and conventional tillage to produce soybeans.

A detailed discussion of the various tillage systems that can be integrated into a soybean production system in the Midsouth is available here.

I have reposted 26 MSSOY White Papers/Articles in a 2-column format. This should improve their readability on all devices. Drop me a line with your thoughts.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting Annual/Final Reports from MSPB’s projects in the Research and Reports section on MSSOY. Be sure to check from time to time to find out the results from checkoff -funded research in Mississippi.

Also, check the video page on MSSOY to see recent postings of presentations about improving soybean irrigation and details about the new Farm Bill.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Apr. 2014, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net