ILSoyAdvisor Blog

There is concern among soybean producers that micronutrient deficiencies and foliar diseases are causing yield reductions in Michigan. As such, there is a tendency among soybean producers to apply supplemental nutrient sources and fungicides even without sound experimental evidence to support these practices. In 2015, a farmer was interested in testing the effectiveness of a foliar spray containing Prudent Presto Red Label (6-18-5) plus boron...

For soybean growers facing high seed costs and low commodity prices, any insights into reaching optimal seeding rates and planting times can help raise profit margins.    

The Plant Management Network (PMN) has released a new presentation entitled “Risk and Benefits of Changing Farmers' Common Soybean Seeding Rates...

• Bioreactors are passive filtration systems that can reduce nitrate losses from farm fields.
• Most bioreactors are simple pits filled with wood chips; bacteria on the wood chips remove 25 to 45 percent of the nitrate in runoff water.
• Research summarized in a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality highlights their potential applications and provides insight into design options.

URBANA, Ill. –...

Soybean seed is very sensitive to planting depth, so producers need to be careful and get their crop off to a good start. Planting depth surveys revealed that only 20 percent of the fields planted with drills were planted at or near the intended depth. An even bigger concern is that in 68 percent of the fields, the seed was planted too deep, a condition known to delay emergence.

Under most conditions, soybeans should be planted between...