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Beware of beans after beans

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A soybean specialist says if growers don’t have to, they should NOT plant soybeans after soybeans.  Bill Wiebold with the University of Missouri Extension says the temptation to do that is real because of the projected higher prices for beans and the lower prices for corn. But, he tells Brownfield, there will be a price to pay, “They can make the decision to do soybean after soybean but realize that the yield potential is going to be less. So that ought to be calculated into the economics.”

Wiebold says not just yield – but disease pressure and soil erosion – are other risks of planting second-year beans, “It may not be noticeable the first year but surely if we do this too often, both diseases and erosion will increase.”

He says Missouri is unlike other Midwestern states because soybeans outnumber corn acres – mainly because of some less-corn-friendly soils, “And, those soils, in the northeast part of the state, in fact, do have a clay pan under them and they struggle with corn and that’s where you see your highest ratio of soybean to corn acres.”

If growers have thinner soils – planting beans after beans, he says, will require better management, “Make sure you have the right variety. You may want to think about having cover crops in that field. And, make sure that you monitor the field so that erosion doesn’t get to be a problem, diseases don’t get to be a problem. And, so, you know, careful stewardship of that field will be important.”

He suggests scouting often for Soybean Cyst Nemotode (SCN) and other diseases and avoid doing second-year soybeans on sloped land.

 

 

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