New NC State web tool delivers precise soybean planting recommendations

BeanPACK, a new soybean growers decision support tool designed to revolutionize on-farm recommendations, will be released Oct. 1, in time to inform statewide planting decisions for the 2025 growing season.

A webinar open to the public and tailored for growers, crop consultants and Extension agents will mark the official launch of BeanPACK. Register here.

The free open-source, web-based tool is informed by thousands of data points from North Carolina State University field trails conducted statewide over five years. It will allow the state’s 5,000 soybean growers to pinpoint their region and get site-specific recommendations for planting dates and maturity groups.

That’s important in North Carolina, where the climate varies and one-size-fits-all recommendations don’t always yield the best results for different locations across the state, said NC State Soybean Specialist Rachel Vann.

An interdisciplinary team effort

Vann, also an associate professor of crop and soil sciences and N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI) platform director for extension, engagement and outreach, conducted the large field trials on farms from the foothills to the coast, with the support of her field team. They also conducted tests at the Piedmont Research Station in Salisbury and the Upper Coastal Plain Research Station in Rocky Mount.

“There are risks of planting too early in our environment, and there are risks of planting too late, and I think that this tool will help guide growers to make decisions to be in the optimal range – not too early, not too late,” Vann said.

Vann used small plots at each of the study’s 20 locations to study the influence of different production practices on soybean yield and quality.

“There have been small wins and lots of production recommendations shared along the way, but by year three, we knew for the data to be most usable to the clientele that we were going to have to present it in a more dynamic way than the kind of static graphs that we’d been presenting in the past,” Vann said.

Powered by the Ag Analytics Platform

BeanPACK’s development has been powered through the N.C General Assembly funded Ag Analytics Platform, a partnership of NC State, N.C. A&T State University and SAS designed to bring farm insights on crops, climate and more. Funding for the project came from the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association, NC State Data Science and AI Academy and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative.

Vann teamed with Cranos Williams, of NC State’s departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Plant and Microbial Biology and the N.C. PSI to create BeanPACK, which allows growers to get more precise recommendations on core agronomics for their farms.

BeanPack “will take some of the guess work out when it comes to making planting decisions. The tool marks a milestone.

Somshubhra Roy, a Ph.D. candidate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, played an instrumental role in developing BeanPACK. To do so, he worked with Vann, Williams and Katherine Drake Stowe of the National Soybean Research Collaborative.

Spyros Mourtzinis, an agricultural statistician who works closely with the NC State Soybean Extension Program, and Jevon Smith, research computing manager with the N.C. PSI were also part of the project team.

Vann said that Roy “has been a total game changer, with the skill set in dashboard development he had and the kind of machine learning expertise he was bringing,” Vann said. “He’s done things that have allowed for elevated production recommendations to be made to farmers across the state.”

Following Roy’s work, the project team beta-tested the tool with the help of the N.C. PSI’s Extension Agent Network and growers across the state.

Developed alongside end-users

“BeanPACK was co-developed alongside the end-user and with the end-user in mind every step of the way. We got a lot of great feedback on improving the tool prior to public release, and we’ve spent several months incorporating this feedback to make the tool better.” Vann said. “Now we feel like we have a tool that empowers farmers with accessible, data-driven recommendations that they can use on their individual farms.”

Growers involved in the development stages have expressed enthusiasm for the tool. For example, John Fleming, of Tarboro, was among the tool’s beta testers. He said, “The tool is loaded with information and will assist growers in reaching the next level on soybean yields. I’m excited to see it released for North Carolina growers.”

Another farmer, Forrest Howell, of Beaufort County, expressed similar enthusiasm for the tool, saying he’s “thrilled about its potential.” It will take “some of the guess work out when it comes to making planting decisions.”

“The tool marks a milestone in helping growers make informed decisions, ultimately improving their productivity,” Howell added.

This post was originally published in Plant Sciences Initiative.