Soybean Farmers And Information Sources

Agricultural researchers and Extension personnel have a responsibility to effectively communicate new and/or updated crop production information to producer and industry clients. One important aspect of this is for agricultural professionals to recognize how the myriad avenues for these communication efforts are developing/changing and being used by soybean growers.


Shrinking Extension budgets and increased constraints on producer time necessitate that information transfer be done in an increasingly efficient manner. This often means less one-on-one contact between producer and specialist. The result is that both parties must adopt and adapt to new technologies to send and receive production information.

Needless to say, this leads to increased communication through internet access. This allows crop specialists to:

  • Post current information using the least amount of time in a forum that is available to the most people.

  • Communicate critical, timely information to producers quickly.

  • Update information as needed by continually revising internet-based material when new technology about the subject becomes available and by ensuring that links to other internet postings are continually functional.


A recent direct-mail and online survey conducted by Vince Davis and Shawn Conley entitled “Characterizing Extension Value, Computer Technology, and New Media Use of Midwest Soybean Growers” and published in Crop Management sheds new light on how information is being transferred to and accessed by soybean growers.

Important points/results from the direct-mail survey are:

  • Use of smartphones (internet capability) was 45% by producers managing 2000+ acres, and computer use was greater than 90% by producers managing 1500+ acres.

  • High-speed internet use was 83% or greater by producers managing 1500+ acres.

  • Soybean growers managing 2000+ acres rated print material, personal one-on-one communication, and the web/internet as equally important methods of receiving information.

  • Growers managing 1000+ acres rated seed and crop input dealers, crop scouts, and University Extension as equally important sources of information. Crop scouts received the highest rating of importance by growers managing 2000+ acres.


Important points/results from the online survey are:

  • Producers used the internet most for accessing weather information and soybean production updates.

  • The majority of respondents routinely followed four or more soybean information sources that included Extension, company, association, and farm news/magazine related sources.

  • The web/internet was rated as the most important method of communication.

  • University Extension was rated as the most important source of information, followed by seed and crop input dealers and personal crop scouts.

  • Face-to-face winter meetings, face-to-face summer field days, and newsletter articles were rated as the most important Extension teaching methods. One-half of the respondents rated webinars/web conferencing as important Extension technology transfer techniques.


I realize that this survey was done using Midwest soybean farmers. However, I know that Mississippi soybean producers are as progressive and forward-thinking as those in the Midwest, so I believe results from such a survey conducted in Mississippi would mimic the above findings. That being stated, the following points resulting from the Midwest survey are important as we look to future technology transfer.

  • The internet has or will become the major source of soybean production information for producers.

  • Seed and crop input dealers and crop scouts are highly rated as sources of information. However, they will still rely on public researchers and University Extension as a source of reliable information.

  • With the internet becoming such a powerful technology transfer tool, it is imperative that information that is posted on the web be verified for accuracy by the author. It is very tempting to skip this step. Producers should check with several sources and/or the authors of blogs and postings to ensure the validity of posted material that they deem questionable or ambiguous.


University Extension has and will continue to increase use of internet methods to transfer information to producers. For example, within the last year, the Mississippi Crop Situation blog and the Arkansas Row Cropsblog have been started to provide producers with up-to-date information about crop production issues. Also, this website (www.mssoy.org) is being continually updated with soybean production information.

I look forward to being a part of this burgeoning information transfer medium. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed in this forum.

I have posted a Nematode White Paper entitled “Managing Nematode Pests in Soybeans” in the Insects/Diseases section of this website.

The MSU Dept. of Agricultural Economics recently published a Farm Policy Brief entitled “Speeding Up CCPs and ACRE”. This brief examines using harvest month prices as a substitute for marketing year average (MYA) prices in the calculation of payments under the Counter-Cyclical Payment and ACRE programs. By using the harvest month prices for various crops, which are highly correlated with MYA prices in this study, the payments could potentially be issued much sooner than under the current system that must wait for the final calculation of the MYA price. This modification to commodity programs to use harvest month prices rather than MYA prices appears to have few effects on program costs or producer risks.

larryheatherly@belsouth.net

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