About Take Action

Why Take Action?

Farmers’ freedom to operate is being threatened by the increase and spread of pesticide resistance. The consequences include short and long-term economic challenges, decreasing land values, the uncertain regulatory pathway to access crop protection tools, crop losses and other challenges.

What is Take Action?

Take Action is a farmer-focused education platform designed to help farmers manage herbicide, fungicide and insect resistance. The goal is to encourage farmers to adopt management practices that lessen the impacts of resistant pests and preserve current and future crop protection technology.

Take Action on Weeds is a farmer-focused educational platform designed to help farmers manage herbicide resistance. The goal is to encourage farmers to adopt weed management practices that lessen the impacts of herbicide-resistant weeds and preserve current and future herbicide technology. Established in 2013, Take Action on Weeds was the foundation of the Take Action program.

The four areas of focus for Take Action on Weeds include:

  • Weed biology
  • Cultural practices
  • Herbicides
  • Economics

Resource development for Take Action on Weeds is led by program advisors Kevin Bradley, University of Missouri; Bill Johnson, Purdue University; Christy Sprague, Michigan State University and many other contributing weed scientists.

Take Action on Diseases is a farmer-focused educational platform designed to help farmers proactively manage fungicide resistance. While the issue of fungicide resistance is not a severe as herbicide resistance, the goal of the program is to help farmers stay ahead of the problem.

The four areas of focus for Take Action on Diseases include:

  • Scouting and identification
  • Disease development
  • Cultural practices
  • Economic thresholds

Resource development for Take Action on Diseases is led by program advisors Carl Bradley, University of Kentucky; Daren Mueller, Iowa State University; Kiersten Wise, University of Kentucky and other contributing pathologists.

Take Action on Insects – Corn is a farmer-focused educational platform designed to help farmers implement Bt stewardship practices. The goal is to encourage farmers to adopt management practices that lessen the chances of Bt-resistance development.

The three areas of focus for this program include:

  • Refuge planting and management, whether a structured refuge or use of integrated refuge
  • Use of multiple insect resistance management strategies, such as:
    • Implementing cultural insect resistance management practices, such as crop rotation
    • Using pyramided traits
    • Rotating Bt traits
    • Rotating and using multiple modes of action for insecticide seed treatments, soil-applied insecticides and foliar-applied insecticides
  • Scouting in season to determine efficacy of control measures in place and identify whether further action is necessary for effective control

This arm of the Take Action program is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association and the Agricultural Biotechnology Stewardship Technical Committee.

Take Action on Insects – Soybeans is a farmer-focused education platform designed to help farmers implement insect-resistance management practices. The program encourages farmers to adopt practices that lessen the chances of insects developing resistance to insecticides.

The four areas of focus for this program are

  • Cultural practices
  • Scouting and identification
  • Economic thresholds
  • Insecticide efficacy

Resource development for Take Action on Insects is led by university entomologist program advisors, including Jeremy Greene, Clemson University; Bob Koch, University of Minnesota; Fred Musser, Mississippi State University; and Nick Seiter, University of Illinois.

This arm of the Take Action program is brought to you by the soy checkoff.

How did it begin?

Take Action started with industry-wide collaborative discussions about the growing threat of herbicide resistant weeds. Parties included representatives from major ag chemical companies, land-grant university weed scientists and soy, corn, cotton, sorghum and wheat commodity groups. The group agreed to focus education on four pillars of information, including:

  • Weed biology
  • Cultural practices
  • Herbicides
  • Economics

Though much of the initial work has been driven by the soy checkoff and university weed scientists, the intent is, and always has been, for many partners to use the Take Action education platform.

In 2016, Take Action expanded to help farmers address other types of resistance, including fungicide and insect resistance.

Why should your organization be a partner in the Take Action education effort?

A focused, industry-wide effort using common language can increase the frequency and reception of the message. We have great strides to make in changing farmers’ behavior, and working together can make a stronger impact.

What are some of the ways your organization can be a Take Action partner?

  • Use existing Take Action materials, like the herbicide, fungicide and insecticide classification charts, at field days, farmer meetings and farm shows.
  • Integrate the Take Action messages into your resistance management activities.
  • Include the Take Action logo on your communications efforts about pesticide resistance. If you would like to use the Take Action logo, you will need to complete and sign the Take Action Trademark License Agreement. Please return the signed agreement to Robin Miller, robin.miller@obpagency.com.
  • Place Take Action ads, or your product ads in conjunction with the existing Take Action ad buy.
  • Provide a primary point of contact to provide input and advice on the direction of Take Action and the education and materials created as a part of the effort.

Sources and Credits

Resource development for Take Action on Weeds is funded through a United Soybean Board grant awarded to Purdue University. Content is provided by program advisor, Bill Johnson, Ph.D., Purdue University; Kevin Bradley, Ph.D., University of Missouri; Mandy Bish, Ph.D., University of Missouri; Mark Loux, Ph.D., Ohio State University; Christy Sprague, Ph.D., Michigan State University; Aaron Hager, Ph.D., University of Illinois; Bob Hartzler, Ph.D., Iowa State University; Prashant Jha, Ph.D., Iowa State University; Rodrigo Werle, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sarah Lancaster, Ph.D., Kansas State University; Larry Steckel, Ph.D., University of Tennessee; J.D. Green, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Travis Legleiter, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; and Joe Ikley, Ph.D., North Dakota State University.

Resource development for Take Action on Diseases is led by Carl Bradley, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Kiersten Wise, Ph.D., University of Kentucky; Daren Mueller, Ph.D., Iowa State University; and Damon Smith, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Resource development for Take Action on Insects is led by Jeremy Greene, Ph.D., Clemson University; Robert Koch, Ph.D., University of Minnesota; Fred Musser, Ph.D., Mississippi State University; and Nick Seiter, Ph.D., University of Illinois.

Take Action is supported by BASF, Bayer, Corteva, Pioneer, FMC, Syngenta and Valent, along with cotton, corn, sorghum, soy and wheat commodity organizations, the United States Herbicide Resistance Action Committee, United States Fungicide Resistance Action Committee, United States Insecticide Resistance Action Committee and the Weed Science Society of America. The United Soybean Board neither recommends nor discourages the implementation of any advice contained herein and is not liable for the use or misuse of the information provided.

Links embedded on this site may take you away from the Take Action website. The United Soybean Board/Take Action is not responsible for the content and/or claims made by websites not overseen by the soy checkoff.