Blog

Crop Sciences Professor Emerson Nafzinger presents a crop report on the 2017 soybean growing season, discussing weather factors, management techniques and crop inputs. Using this year’s yield results and insight from the past several years can contribute to 2018 planning.

Key Takeaways

Planting

• Some evidence indicates that seeding at 100,000 – 120,000 might not be enough.
• Seed treatments and insecticides improved stand, but did not affect yield much.
• Early planting meant higher yields than late plants.
  • Plants and roots needed every growing day they could get in order to make high yields.

Growing Conditions

• Even with poor growing conditions, yield results were pleasantly surprising.
  • Northern Illinois received sufficient rain in July.
  • Dryness impacted the entire state in August and September.
  • For the months of June – September, much of Illinois saw above average sunshine.

Soil Results

• There was a 5 – 8% lower yield for continuous soybeans versus corn-soy crops.
• No-till and tilled soil saw minimal differences in yield.

Diseases & Crop Inputs

• 2017 saw low insect/disease pressure.
• Dicamba damage at one test site had little effect on yield.
• We saw little to no lodging in 2017
• Roundup Ready Xtend® varieties Increased
• Nitrogen on soybeans saw few positive results, but several years of study indicate that high-yielding fields benefit more from nitrogen inputs.

Summary Takeaways

• Soybeans are more resilient than we expect.
• Planting early produces higher yields.