Kentucky State University received nearly $600,000 in funding to study nitrogen management in soybean production to improve seed quality for producers in Kentucky and beyond.
The research, titled “Optimizing nitrogen management in soybean, integrating manual and high throughput aerial phenotyping,” is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture for 2023-2026.
“I’m very excited about this research project because of the urgency to improve seed protein concentration,” said Dr. Anuj Chiluwal, assistant professor of Agronomy and the project director for this research.
The soybean is one of the most important crops in Kentucky and in the United States, with a national production value of about $61 billion. However, many soybean producers are struggling to meet the minimum protein threshold for high quality animal feed.
“There is an urgent need to improve soybean seed protein concentration to make U.S. soybean competitive in a global feed market,”
Previous studies suggest that low protein concentration may be tied to nitrogen levels, so this project will evaluate what levels and timings of late-season nitrogen fertilizer application are most effective on soybean yield and seed composition.
Source: kysu.edu
Photo Credit: Kentucky State University
Categories: Kentucky, Crops, Soybeans, Education