Southeast-Purdue Agricultural Center (SEPAC)

The center is located on hard-to-manage, slow-to-drain, high-silt soils typical of the region. Some research conducted here helps producers understand how best to deal with these difficult soils. 

Did you know?
 
 

• In 1985, Eileen Kladivko and George Van Scoyoc, professors in Purdue's Department of Agronomy, began studying the movement of water and chemicals to and through tile drains in silt loam soil at SEPAC. "We want to be able to clearly describe what happens to agricultural fertilizer and pesticides and how that affects ground and surface water," said Van Scoyoc. The researchers found only small amounts of pesticides moving through the soil and out of the drains. "We've also found that pestidies move into tile drain water only the first month or two after application, but nitrate shows up in tile for months," said Kladivco. The researchers are looking for management strategies that minimize pesticide and fertilizer movement into water.
• Each year some of Indiana's 4.5 million acres of soybeans are lost to chewing insects or to diseases that enter insect-caused wounds on plants. "If we can grow soybeans with resistance built-in, farmers can worry less. And there will be less need for insecticides," said Rich Edwards, Department of Entomology at Purdue. Edwards found that the longer, stiffer, and more closely packed the hairs on soybean plants and pods, the less insects like it. At SEPAC and other sites, Edwards worked with soybean breeders like James Wilcox to produce new soybean lines, many of which get resistance from both hairiness and chemical make-up. The breeders selected lines that yield and stand well in the field. In the future, the group hopes to get these genes into commercially available, high-yielding varieties of soybeans for Indiana.

For more information about the Southeast-Purdue Agricultural Center, contact: 

Donald Biehle
4425 E, 350 N
P. O. Box 216
Butlerville, IN 47223-0216
(812) 458-6977

E-mail: djbiehle@seidata.com