By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

These meetings, held between harvest and planting, are a time when land-grant extension and research personnel can share their findings and latest best practices with farmers in hopes of improving the following year’s crop.

Winter production meetings are an off-season staple to earn about new research and find ways to improve the next season's crop. (U of A System Division of Agriculture image)

UNDATED — Winter production meetings are a long-held tradition of agriculture’s off season, combining information, conversation and digestion — usually of catfish or barbecue — but sometimes even the most well-planned agendas can go up in smoke.

Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist, and Scott Stiles, extension economics program associate for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, are both veterans on the winter production meeting circuit. Over the decades, the two have made dozens of appearances, and traveling thousands of miles to these county meetings, speaking to farmers across the Delta and the Arkansas River Valley.

“Over the years, we have had meetings in all types of venues,” Stiles said. “We've had meetings in warehouses, restaurants, churches, extension offices and research centers, country stores and country clubs, hunting clubs, civic centers, grain elevators, fire departments, community colleges, airports, armories, cotton gins, fairgrounds, and farm shops.

“If it had a roof and four walls, we've had a meeting in it,” he said.

Technology changes

PowerPoints and videos may be the current standard for presentations, but that wasn’t always the case.

“For my first meeting, I went to the Oil Trough Country Store for the Independence County meeting. That was so long ago that we used transparencies and an overhead projector,” Stiles said.

“We met kind of off to one side of the store while lunchmeat was sliced for customers and the local quilters met in another corner of the store,” he said. “It was a hoot.

“I recall we had a meeting in a chemical warehouse down in south Arkansas once,” Stiles said. “We sat on boxes of chemical instead of chairs. Some of us got our pants all messed up with Prowl or some yellow herbicide. We all realized it when we were driving home and wondered what the smell was.”

Quite alarming

However, there is one meeting in Cross County in the early 2000s that brings a twinkle to the eyes of both Ross and Stiles.

The meeting took place in an almost-new fire station. In a previous year, the presentations went on in an adjoining meeting room and lunch tables were set up in the bay with the fire engines. This time, the usual meeting room was in use, so the production meeting took place in the fire engine bay. This proved awkward, as light streaming through the garage’s big windows washed out the slide presentations, Ross said.

Being scheduled in January or February, “it was really, really cold outside, and cold inside the garage, even with the doors closed,” Ross said.

Two or three presenters had given their talks, and then Trey Reaper, who was the soybean verification coordinator at the time, stepped up to speak.

“Trey was about halfway through his talk, when the alarms went off,” Ross said. “And if you’ve ever been in a fire station when the alarms go off, it’s pretty loud.”

Then, “the firemen come out and put their gear on, and then they started the trucks,” he said. “They didn’t open the garage doors before they started the trucks. So here are these diesel engines just sitting there producing exhaust.”

Stiles said “the trucks had filled the station with a blue cloud of diesel exhaust and we all coughed the rest of the meeting. Nobody heard a word we said.”

“They finally opened the doors and this cold blast of winter air comes through and we’re all grabbing papers and stuff and coughing, and it’s about 20 degrees cold than it was,” Ross said. “It was pretty comical.”

“That was about the funniest experience I've had at a production meeting,” he said.

2025 winter schedule

With any luck, the 2025 slate of meetings will be less eventful.

Please note that the meeting times may be subject to change due to inclement weather or other factors. Be sure to contact the local county extension office for location, times and other details.

JANUARY

Jan. 9 – Conway County – corn and soybeans
Jan. 10 – Poinsett / Craighead counties – rice and soybeans
Jan. 16 – Greene County – technology
jan. 24 – Miller / Little River / Lafayette counties – corn, cotton, soybeans and rice
Jan. 30 – morning: Cross County – corn, rice and soybeans
Jan. 30 – afternoon: White County – corn, rice and soybeans
Jan. 31 – morning: Greene County – corn, rice and soybeans
Jan. 31 – afternoon: Clay County – corn, rice and soybeans

FEBRUARY

Feb. 5 – Clay / Greene counties – cotton and peanut
Feb. 6 – morning: Arkansas County – rice and soybeans
Feb. 6 – afternoon: Jefferson County – corn, rice and soybeans
Feb. 6 – Mississippi / Crittenden counties – corn, cotton and agricultural economics with Hunter Biram
Feb. 7 – Jackson / Independence counties – corn, rice and soybeans
Feb. 10 – Woodruff County – corn, rice and soybeans
Feb. 11 – morning: Ashley / Chicot counties – rice and soybeans
Feb. 11 – afternoon: Lincoln / Desha / Drew counties – rice and soybeans
Feb. 12 – Crittenden / Mississippi counties – soybean, rice and agricultural economics with Hunter Biram
Feb. 13 – Prairie / Lonoke / Pulaski counties – rice and soybeans
Feb. 14 – Craighead/Poinsett counties – corn and cotton
Feb. 18 – Ashley / Chicot / Desha / Drew / Lincoln counties – corn and cotton
Feb. 20 – Phillips / Monroe / Lee / St. Francis counties – corn, cotton and agricultural economics with Scott Stiles
Feb. 21 – Randolph / Lawrence counties – corn, rice and soybeans
Feb. 27 – Clark County – cotton, corn, rice and soybeans
Feb. 28 – Phillips / Lee counties – rice and soybeans

MARCH

March 4 – Craighead / Poinsett / Greene / Mississippi counties – peanuts
March 4 – Arkansas River Valley – rice and agricultural economics with Ryan Loy
March 6 – St. Francis / Monroe County – rice, soybeans and agricultural economics with Ryan Loy.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.

By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — For a decade, the Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge has been planting seeds for students contemplating a future in research.

The idea behind the program was simple: Pique the interest of students from grades 6-12 to consider a science fair project involving soybeans, and by extension, agriculture.

Alyssa Butler, was a 17-year-old senior at Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Arkansas, in 2021, when she won both her regional-level competition in the Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge. She is now pursuing a degree in agriculture, inspired by the competition. (Courtesy photo)

Karen Ballard, a now-retired extension professor who conceived the program, gained the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board as a partner to help fund the outreach work of the Soybean Science Challenge.

“Many students, even those in cities near farming areas, have never thought of research in agriculture as a career,” said Julie Robinson, professor-community, professional and economic development for the Cooperative Extension Service. Robinson has administered the program for five years. “The humble soybean is more than just livestock feed. It’s the basis for biofuels. Its fibers are used in making fabrics and foam for seat cushions. Its oils replace petroleum bases in paints, candles and inks. Soybean meal can be used in making adhesives.

“Over the decade, we’ve seen our student researchers put their own creativity and brainpower into creating plastics, computer climate models or evaluating the effects of radiation on soybean growth,” she said.

While the program offers cash prizes as an incentive, “even more importantly we’ve seen the program work. Many of the participants who have had their enthusiasm stoked by the Soybean Science Challenge have gone on to continue their research in college,” Robinson said.

Confidence and comfort zones

The challenge has been a career-builder for Alyssa Butler, who won five times at the regional and state levels. She is an undergraduate student working as an extension program associate in plant pathology.

“The Soybean Science Challenge was the first time I ever pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and did any form of public speaking,” Butler said. “I was terrified and self-critical, but after knowing I did good enough to make it to state, I had more confidence in myself than ever.

"When I competed at the state level and won first place at Soybean Science Challenge, I was so proud of myself and all my research,” she said. “For me, it wasn't just about winning or the prize that came with it, it was about the fact that weeks of hard work, stepping out of my comfort zone, and pushing myself paid off.”

Butler said when she worked on her first experiment, looking at Southern root-knot nematode resistance, she gained a deeper appreciation for plant pathology and knew she wanted to continue research in that field.

“It is one of the best opportunities that high school has to offer,” she said.

Keith Harris, extension ag education program associate who coordinates the challenge, said he finds gratification in seeing the program fulfill its mission by “students showing an interest in research, specifically agricultural research, and them seeing agriculture as an industry with career options.”

The next decade

A decade later, “we are still focused on engaging student researchers through regional and state science fairs,” Robinson said.

The program has done some growing of its own over the decade.

“We have expanded the program to include teacher in-service, Grow Your Own Protein, and a variety of classroom curriculum available for free,” Robinson said.

The Grow Your Own Protein program provides edamame seeds for schools, community groups. 4-H clubs and others to grow edible soybeans in their own gardens. There’s also a “soybean store,” where those interested in taking part in the Soybean Science Challenge as a student researcher, can request a variety of soybean seeds, including conventional soybeans, soybeans tolerant to Roundup and tofu soybeans.

2023 winners

Last year, 15 students were named 2023 Soybean Scholars after their projects won the Soybean Science Challenge at district and state science fairs.

First-place went to Bennet Chen, 14, a freshman at Little Rock Central High, for his project, “Forecasting the future; a predictive modeling approach to deciphering climate change's impact on county level soybean yields.” Chen won the 2024 Soybean Science Challenge First Place Award at the State Science and Engineering Fair held at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on March 30, and the Senior Division SSC Award at Central Arkansas Regional Science and Engineering Fair held at UA-Little Rock on March 1.

How it works

The 2025 Soybean Science Challenge is now open for entries.

Students interested in participating are required to complete six online course modules before submitting their science project to their district science fair, the state science fair or the Arkansas FFA Agriscience Fair.

Each project submitted is assessed by judges from the Soybean Science Challenge. The project must focus on soybeans to qualify. Winners of the Soybean Science Challenge special award win a cash prize. The winning students’ teachers also win a cash prize if their student wins at a regional science fair.

“The Soybean Science Challenge allows us to engage young people and demonstrate the vast opportunities within the agricultural industry,” said Brad Doyle, Poinsett County soybean producer and chairman of Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board. “Their fresh perspectives, skills and innovative ideas are vital to the growth and sustainability of our industry.”

For additional information on the soybean science challenge, visit the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board website at www. themiraclebean.com.

To learn more about the program, see its 10th anniversary video.

Arkansas winter ag production meeting schedule kicks off Jan. 9

Technology changes

Quite alarming

2025 winter schedule

Arkansas Soybean Science Challenge: A new decade of students using their bean