Accolades for an interactive tool more than 30 years in the making and its corresponding media campaign — that’s what the two first place “Best of NAMA” awards from the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) represent for The SCN Coalition. The SCN Profit Checker won first place in Digital Tools and the campaign promoting the calculator placed first in Media Relations. Knowing what went into the lauded tool makes victory all the sweeter.
Three decades of research in one award-winning tool
Throughout his 35-plus year career at Iowa State University, nematologist Greg Tylka and his longtime staff collected soil samples from experimental plots in soybean fields across Iowa to track the presence and virulence of soybean cyst nematode (SCN).
The work was supported in large part by Iowa soybean farmer checkoff funds, and the results sounded the alarm that SCN populations in fields throughout the state were developing steadily increasing reproduction on the very commonly used source of SCN resistance known as PI 88788. These alarming findings laid the foundation for the public/private partnership known as The SCN Coalition that’s dedicated to beating the pest.
Data from the 25,000+ samples Tylka and staff pulled from university research plots was used to create an algorithm that provides farmers a custom estimate of SCN’s toll on a specific field, using just a handful of field details.
By putting that potential impact in dollars and cents for their fields, the tool shows farmers how much is at stake, driving home the need for active SCN management.
Media relations spread the word
Year after year, SCN is ranked as the No. 1 yield-robbing pest to the U.S. soybean crop — reinforcing the need to show farmers just how much the pathogen is costing them. But first, farmers and their crop advisors needed to be made aware the tool existed.
To alert farmers as well as their crop advisors and agronomists about this practical, user-friendly tool (and supporting resources), The SCN Coalition and its integrated communications agency, MorganMyers, a G&S Agency, concentrated their efforts on those whom research shows farmers trust the most: farm media, university/extension specialists, and state soybean associations and checkoff groups.
This strategic campaign paid off in a significant way, with major farm and seed industry publications sharing the story and garnering coverage in national ag print publications as well as farm radio and TV. The SCN Profit Checker was also a cover story feature in the Summer 2024 issue of Progressive Farmer.
Enduring commitment drives change
The goal of The SCN Coalition is to increase active management of SCN, and the first step to beating the pest is a soil test. This tool has made farmers more aware of how SCN is impacting them personally, and that has helped drive an increase in testing.
In 2020, quantitative research showed 19% of farmers were soil sampling for SCN. A repeat of that testing in 2024, revealed 27% of farmers were testing their soils for SCN.
“Winning campaigns like this drive real progress in the war against SCN, showcasing the power of public-private partnerships and the value of long-running efforts to combat threats to production,” says Dylan Mangel, University of Nebraska plant pathologist. “The SCN Profit Checker would not have been possible without decades worth of field samples collected and analyzed by Greg Tylka and his staff. This work honed our understanding of SCN and its impact and generated a tool that adds true value to the soybean industry.”
