ILSoyAdvisor Blog

Rolling soybeans is probably not a common practice in Illinois with the deep prairie soils and relatively level terrain. But it has its benefits and ups and downs and is practiced in states like North and South Dakota, and areas of western Minnesota and northwestern Iowa.

Ground rolling prepares the field for harvesting by leveling fields, pushing rocks into the soil, shattering corn root balls and stumps, and smoothing the seedbed....

Recently, I was asked by a colleague which disease pathogens I find most often in early emerging soybeans. To start, I am happy to report that as soybeans are planted earlier each year, more growers are using seed treatments. Fungicide seed treatments can offer control early in the season, but keep in mind that not all of fungicides within seed treatments specifically protect or are registered to be used against the oomycete fungi like ...

What depth are you planting at and should you be planting deeper?

For a long time now the recommended soybean planting depth was 1 to 1.5 inches, while corn planting depth was 1.5 to 2 inches. But does that soybean depth still hold true today?

A recent article from Michigan State University stated that soybean planting depth still matters. Their field...

Can we use drones to better manage our soybean crop? We think so and intend to set out to validate it through a case study in 2016. So stay tuned and learn more.

The last two years we have heard a lot about using drones to capture images of crops and about everything else we can think of. There are a number of aerial platforms available now, some quite inexpensive depending on the type of aircraft and camera. Copters are much less...