United Soybean Board and Purdue University Partner to Deliver Farmers a New Ag Climate Dashboard
The Ag Climate Dashboard offers tools to help monitor extreme weather events in addition to crop growth, pest threats and climate anomalies. (Purdue Agricultural Communications)
ST. LOUIS (September 11, 2025) — With support from the United Soybean Board (USB), the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) recently launched the Ag Climate Dashboard – a centralized digital hub designed to help U.S. farmers access climate and agricultural data, decision-support tools, and state-specific resources all in one place.
Developed in collaboration with Purdue University and other trusted partners, the Ag Climate Dashboard streamlines access to real-time weather data, National Weather Service forecasts, Climate Prediction Center outlooks and historical records. The platform also integrates interactive tools for monitoring crop growth, pest threats, climate anomalies, and extreme weather events — providing farmers with practical, science-based insights to support daily decisions on their farms.
“Farmers know firsthand how weather can make or break a season, and having the right data at the right time is critical,” said Ed Lammers, Nebraska farmer and Supply Lead on the United Soybean Board. “Farmer investments through the Soy Checkoff helped make the development of the Ag Climate Dashboard possible. It’s tools like this that deliver real value back to the farm by putting the right data at our fingertips to make more informed decisions throughout the growing season.”
The dashboard emerged directly from farmer feedback. In 2023, the MRCC hosted workshops where producers voiced the need for a single, user-friendly hub to access multiple climate tools. By consolidating existing resources, the dashboard helps farmers make better-informed decisions to improve yield, profitability and sustainability.
Available tools include regionalized fieldwork planning tools, crop and disease forecasting and localized climate summaries. In addition, Purdue’s Degree Day calculator for tracking crop progress and the Iowa Environmental Mesonet Pest Forecasting Map for identifying pest threats serve as valuable tools for soybean and corn farmers. Future enhancements, such as irrigation planning tools and ZIP-code specific mapping features, are already in development based on farmer requests.
Austin Pearson, climatologist at the MRCC and Indiana State Climate Office, shares, “The forecasting tools help farmers understand what pests — whether weeds, insects or diseases — could be an issue and when management is crucial.” Beth Hall, director of the MRCC and Indiana State Climate Office, adds, “This is just round one of the dashboard. We really wanted to provide people a taste and hopefully get them excited about the future.”
The Ag Climate Dashboard is now available on the Midwestern Regional Climate Center’s website. View Purdue University’s full press release on the Ag Climate Dashboard.
About United Soybean Board: United Soybean Board’s 77 volunteer farmer-leaders work on behalf of all U.S. soybean farmers to achieve maximum value for their Soy Checkoff investments. These volunteers create value by stewarding investments in research, education and promotion with the vision to deliver sustainable soy solutions to every life, every day across the priority areas of Health & Nutrition, Innovation & Technology, Infrastructure & Connectivity and Exports. As stipulated in the federal Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the Soy Checkoff. For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit unitedsoybean.org.
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