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July 2019

How Does Drought Affect Soybeans?

We can easily see corn showing signs of drought or heat symptoms, but signs of soybeans under drought stress aren’t as obvious. When soybeans suffer from heat and water stress, their responses vary due to their cellular structures, metabolic processes and physiological development, which all can directly and indirectly cause soybeans to exhibit symptoms based on their response. Early season soybean stress may cause leaves to be smaller or limit vegetative growth, thus more energy and efforts may be given to root development. A more obvious sign may be leaf flipping, which is like corn rolling. Soybeans flip leaves [...]

By |July 30, 2019|

The Hormone Roller Coaster of Soybeans

A soybean doesn’t care about obtaining 100 bu per acre or if it gets 10-18 podding sites or if it is planted on April 15th or June 15th. A soybean plant is genetically programmed to develop a root system to bring in nutrients and water, and to produce nodules and nitrogen with rhizobia. Soybeans care about developing a canopy that captures sunlight to produce energy to produce a single offspring, and more would be great. Like humans, plants have hormones that signal action within and throughout the plant. Plants use these different hormones to initiate cell division and expansion [...]

By |July 26, 2019|

Soybeans – Ever so Short

The ILSoyAdvisor received a question from central Pennsylvania last week: “My question is that my growers are seeing flowers on plants that are almost 1.5-foot-tall, which is much smaller compared to what we saw last year (or in normal years). I am wondering what happens to plant growth after the plants begin to flower. In other words, do plants keep growing and keep producing more nodes after they start flowering? My understanding was that once the plants start flowering, they don’t grow much in height and or nodes. Is that true?” This is a very good question and 2019 [...]

By |July 25, 2019|

What Drives Pod Count?

Soybeans yield are increasing over half a bushel per year now. Some of that increase is from genetic gain and the rest is from better management. Soybeans have the uncanny ability to produce hundreds of pods per plant, but most never make it past flower or early pod stage. If you want to increase your soybean yields, track what is happening to pod counts during the season and see if you can do something about it. As soybean flowering wanes and pod fill commences fully over the next 30 days it will be a good time to check pod [...]

By |July 22, 2019|

PODCAST: Jump-Starting Slow Growth Soybeans

CCA Soy Envoy Tracy Heuerman discusses the slow growth seen by soybeans early this summer and what it means for your fields as fall approaches. Listen and learn tips about how to make the most of your soybean crop this season.

By |July 21, 2019|

Managing Japanese Beetles

It appears that 2019 could be a very heavy Japanese Beetle year. To prepare for dealing with this pest, below is some information on managing Japanese Beetles in both corn and soybeans: Soybeans: Now that most of our soybeans are flowering, we should scout them for percent (%) defoliation. To determine if an insecticide application is needed, estimate the percent defoliation on randomly selected leaves in at least five different areas of the field. Here is an illustration that can help in determining % defoliation: An insecticide application should be considered if: 1. Fifteen percent defoliation during flowering (or [...]

By |July 19, 2019|

What You Need to Know About Managing Nitrogen in Wet Years

Managing nitrogen is one of the most difficult and unpredictable things that grain producers need to do.  In a world where environmental concerns come to the forefront more and more, nitrogen management deserves attention. Fall application of nitrogen is popular among retailers and farmers in Illinois. One reason is that it spreads the spring workload out. The first caution with fall applied nitrogen is that it is not recommended south of Illinois Route 16. There have even been years when fall applied was a bad idea south of I-72. It is also not recommended when soil temperatures are above [...]

By |July 18, 2019|

Management guidelines for soybeans under stress

In many parts of the state we have been plagued by saturated soils from a very early time. We continued to get record rainfall from April, when most farmers would think about planting, all the way through today. This has caused not only late-planted soybeans, but soybeans that in a lot of cases were planted into less than ideal soil conditions and are experiencing continued saturated soil conditions. This has caused soybeans to take a long time to emerge and they seem to have struggled to grow ever since. Recent warm weather has helped pushed beans along a little, [...]

By |July 15, 2019|

Pod Number Counts Most

We often talk about evaluating the components of yield from plant population to pod number per plant to seed number per pod and seed size. However, the number of pods a plant can set, retain and grow to maturity appears to be the most promising factor to influence with good management practices. Seeds per pod and seed weight have a much smaller impact on final yield. There are three facts we should acknowledge: Dr. Fred Below’s Six Secrets of Soybean Success research has proven that each additional pod added on a soybean plants adds two bushels per acre. Early [...]

By |July 10, 2019|
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