(AgriNews) – It’s called the Corn Belt for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t mean soybeans can’t play an even more important role in increasing farm profitability.
In recent years, there have been increased efforts to aggressively manage soybeans for higher yields, but there is concern that lower commodity prices won’t allow that option.
Lance Tarochione, DeKalb and Asgrow technical agronomist in west-central Illinois, said in an Illinois Soybean Association-hosted webinar there are ways to shoot for high yields despite soybean prices back in the single digits.
To grow high-yielding soybeans, growers should be willing to try new things and to treat their soybeans with the same management that they do corn.
“I think we’re a little bit corn centric in Illinois, and we tend to fertilize more for corn, spend more time with hybrid selection on corn than we do variety selection for soybeans. We brag more about our corn yields than we do our soybeans,” Tarochione said.
“Not everyone has the environment, patience or even the passion to grow 100-bushel soybeans today, but what we ought to be focused on is if you’re raising 50-bushel soybeans today, how do we get up to 55 or 60, not how do we get to 100.
“There’s a lot steps to go from 55 to 100. Baby steps, I guess — let’s get to 60 or 65 before we worry too much about 100. Yield contests are fun to see what we can do but don’t’ always reflect what is practical or profitable.”
Set Goals
A realistic goal for a farmer is to out-yield the five-year average by 10 percent or more or to exceed previous records many growers in Illinois hit in 2013 or 2014.
Tarochione said key yield drivers are sunlight interceptions, nutrient uptake, stress mitigation and maximizing potential pod sites.
“Sixty to 70 percent of the flowers on a soybean plant will never form a pod. And once that pod is formed, not every one of them is going to have four beans in it. There will be a lot of twos and threes,” he said.
“Getting the most pods we can and then filling those pods is really the trick. If you get one more pod per plant, three beans per pod and a final stand of 120,000 plants that will give you an additional bushel per acre.”
High-Yield Tips
Tarochione identified the following keys to higher soybean yields:
* Identify issues that have been encountered in past seasons and choose the right varieties to keep them from reappearing.
* Plant a full range of maturities. Later maturing varieties take advantage of moisture, but full-season beans usually perform better.
* Plant at the optimum time for your geography, not necessarily after corn is planted.
* Optimize fertility, gauging soil nutrient levels and applying nutrients as needed.
* Balance canopy development. Do not over-seed or canopies can become too thick.
* Minimize stress from insects, disease or lack of nutrients.
“Basically, if you can get the plants up, get a good stand, get a good canopy achieved by the second or third week of June, feed that crop through the season, get some good weather and do everything you can do to minimize stress from insects, diseases and nutrient deficiencies, that generally about the best you can do to try to achieve high soybean yields,” Tarochione said.
The options for improving profitability are increase yields, sell better and reduce costs.
“What I like to look for is finding yield gains that don’t add significantly to cost while minimizing costs that do not sacrifice yield. I think there are a lot of producers this year that are trying to save their way to prosperity, and that’s very difficult to do,” Tarochione said.
“A lot of studies have shown that during times of low commodity prices producers that do the best job of maintaining profitability do it by achieving a lower breakeven price by producing more bushels rather than cutting production costs.”
Cost-Effective Boosts
His proven low-cost yield enhancers are:
* Plant earlier if you can and conditions allow.
* Control weeds earlier, before they exceed 4 inches tall.
* Narrow row spacing to something 20 inches or less — might not be “low cost” if this requires additional equipment. Weigh costs versus increase yield over acres and years.
* Plant the best genetics you can and plant at least five different varieties.
* Use fuller season varieties but have a range from mid to late season.
* Harvest as many acres as possible at or near 13 percent moisture.
* Lengthen your rotation — may not be “low cost” if you are not successful managing your corn on corn.
Practices that add cost, but not yield are tillage — data shows no-till soybeans yield, as well as tilled — seeding rates in excess of 140,000 per acre, silver bullet products and practices without the support of a holistic systems approach to higher yield and additional fertility that is not a yield-limiting factor.
“The timing, intensity and duration of weather events are really the 800-pound gorilla on the farm that is the single largest factor in your soybean yields,” Tarochione said.
“We can do everything right and Mother Nature can still throw us a curveball and what should have been 80-bushels beans has turned into 50-bushel beans and that really frustrates people. But the fact that they had the potential for 80-bushel beans is something we need to focus on.
“Weather is going to interact with all of our inputs and management decision for your soybean crop, but we still need to be doing the things right so that when we get lucky and have that perfect weather environment come along we can take advantage of it and achieve those high soybean yields.”
