Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Pat Donald opened the meeting with roundtable introductions. Deb Neher made announcements related to local arrangements and collected a $35 registration fee from those in attendance. Written state reports from George Bird, Jamal Faghihi, Pat Donald, and Jim Smolik (in absentia) were circulated to all attendees. Tom Welacky and An MacGuidwin plan to distribute their written reports after the meeting. Verbal state reports were presented for the final year of the committee?s three objectives. Deb Neher introduced University of Toledo personnel who made presentations to the committee. First, Dr. Frank Calzonetti, Vice Provost of Research, provided an overview of research at University of Toledo. Later, Drs. James Locke and Jonathan Frantz, USDA-ARS employees located at University of Toledo through a cooperative agreement, presented an overview of their research initiatives related to the greenhouse industry of northwestern Ohio. Jonathan Frantz provided a web page for his web cam (http://164.107.87.37/view/view.shtml) that he uses to remotely monitor greenhouse experiments located at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster. In the afternoon, most discussion focused on future project proposals for the group. The existing project will terminate in mid-September 2004. The annual and final reports are due later in the year and will be reported by our Administrative Advisor, Steve Pueppke, at the national meeting in March 2005. To recreate a committee structure, interested participants can potentially begin anew as a Technical committee with a September 2004 start date, and operate as such for up to two years. Under this arrangement, a successor to NC-215 could exist in 2007. It was noted that success depends on including representation from additional NC states that have not previously been active in NC-215.

1. The yield advantage (YA) concept = (resistant-susceptible)/susceptible *100 has been introduced as a potential means of standardizing expression of the benefits of resistant varieties. 2. Collaborative research between USA-ARS Beltsville scientists and Agriculture Canada on EnviroSoil, a registered fertilizer by the Toledo company, NViro, has been completed. Although the mechanism has not been identified, the preparation has some effect on reducing soybean cyst nematode (SCN). 3. SCN risk index means have been calculated for soybean growing counties in Michigan and elsewhere in the region. 4. NC-215 co-sponsored and provided leadership to a well-attended Nematode Community Workshop at the 2004 Annual of Meeting of the Society of Nematologists.

The following major collaborative publication has been submitted for publication: Soybean Cyst Nematode-Resistant and Susceptible Cultivar Yield in Infested Soil in North Central USA. P. A. Donald, P.E. Pierson, S. K. St. Martin, P. R. Sellers, G.R. Noel, A. E. MacGuidwin, J. Faghihi, V.R. Ferris, C. R. Grau, D.J. Jardine, H. Melakeberhan, T.L. Niblack, W.C.Stienstra, G.L. Tylka, T. A. Wheeler, and D.S. Wysong.