Purdue Web site knows beans about soy production

"Cool Bean," a Web site provides soybean growers a clearinghouse of information about the row crop.

"'Cool Bean' covers all facets of soybean production within Indiana and the Eastern Soybean Belt," said Shawn Conley, Purdue Extension soybean specialist and the Web site's creator. "The site has a searchable database where users can find information on all subjects related to soybeans, whether it be in weed science, entomology, plant pathology or crop production."

Conley's site does for soybeans what a longstanding Purdue Web site does for corn. Bob Nielsen, a Purdue Extension corn specialist, maintains "King Corn."

"Cool Bean" contains links to soybean rust resources, a soybean expert list and numerous contacts within Purdue's Department of Agronomy. Conley posts Purdue soybean research data and PowerPoint presentations he gives at workshops and conferences. The site also features video.

"We have a section called 'Video Crop Diagnostics' where we provide short video clips from the field about such things as scouting for soybean aphids, scouting for soybean rust, assessing stand loss and how to estimate yield," Conley said.

The video clips are between two minutes and three minutes in length and are available in both dial-up and high-speed Internet connection formats. Clips currently posted include:

• "Soybean Growth Stage R5 and R6" and "Estimating Soybean Yield" — Conley.

• "Scouting for Soybean Rust" and "Sudden Death Syndrome" — Greg Shaner, Purdue Extension plant pathologist.

• "Scouting a Soybean Field for Aphids" — Christian Krupke, Purdue Extension entomologist.

"In the upcoming crop season we'll continue to add short videos from the field of real production problems happening today and what we can do to solve them," Conley said.

"We're trying to provide an all-inclusive Web site for the soybean grower."

Writer: Steve Leer, (765) 494-8415, sleer@purdue.edu

Source: Shawn Conley, (765) 494-0895, conleysp@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
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