ILSoyAdvisor Blog

It’s been a fast and furious spring here in south-central Illinois. The first half of April was a wash and what seemed to be an endless pattern of heavy rains and cold weather. The sun finally came out to play. It didn’t take too many 20-hour days, and before I knew it, all the ammonia was on and 90 percent of the corn and soybeans were planted in about 12-days.  But as the dust settles, it still amazes me how quickly we can put in our crop...

The decision about when to plant a soybean field is very important, because it will set the stage for how well the crop emerges and if it will ultimately establish a vigorous stand. In recent years there has been a movement to plant soybeans earlier to take advantage of early season sunlight accumulation (building more nodes and canopy to capture more energy).  

Considerations for balancing the art and science:

If you double-crop soybeans after wheat, and want to your soybean crop to yield respectably, you must manage the previous wheat crop and the following soybean crop. 

Over a decade ago I interviewed some growers in southern Illinois who double-cropped soybeans mostly after wheat. One of the things I determined was that the growers focused primarily on growing wheat and maximizing its yield and soybeans were left to fend for themselves...

Scouting for early season soybean insect pests is beneficial in determining if your pre-planting management strategies are working as expected. Many growers are wisely choosing to treat their early planted soybean seeds with a minimum of an appropriate combination of fungicide/insecticide seed treatment product(s) because history has shown that those costly seeds can become life sustaining food for other natural creatures trying to survive in...