ILSoyAdvisor Blog

Soybean planting date. Plant early. What’s early? February? March? Before corn? Simultaneously with corn? These questions and many, many more come up in discussion whenever this topic is broached. And it comes up often these days. Over the past few seasons, agronomists have been recommending that growers move soybean planting dates earlier to get higher yields. Growers have responded by adopting earlier planting in greater numbers than many...

Every meeting this winter presenters talked about planting soybeans early. We must remember that the first major factor in raising any crop is the soil conditions at planting time, not what the calendar says. To ensure the crop gets off to the best start possible, seed should be planted into good soil conditions. 

We want all the plants to come up within 24 (if not 12) hours of each other under ideal emergence environments. Otherwise...

Although the USDA has forecasted corn acres to be up in 2019, there will no doubt continue to be some acres of soybeans-following-soybeans. For many growers, soybeans require less input cost and the ability to forecast a more consistent yield, making soybeans a desirable crop when the farm economy is down. Growing soybeans multiple years in a row may not be as easy as it sounds, however. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin suggest as...

In the past, a higher soybean population was planted because growers used a drill and wanted a faster canopy to intercept light to reduce weed competition. With the greater use of residual herbicides (don’t skip the pre-herbicide), increased populations to aid in weed control aren’t as important anymore. In a recent webinar, Early Season Weed Control for Improved Weed Resistance Management, Dr. Bryan Young with Purdue University shared that...