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Soybeans an equal to corn at planting

Photo courtesy Iowa State University

An agronomist says farmers should give soybeans equal treatment to corn as planting season nears.

Leslie Lloyd covers parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin for Bayer Crop Science.

He tells Brownfield corn tends to take priority in the spring because it’s typically planted before soybeans.

“Growers historically have done a super job with corn.  They pay attention to the planting depth and seed-to-soil contact.  And they’ve done a really nice job of getting that consistent stand.  But sometimes, when it comes to planting soybeans, they tend to lose that.”

Lloyd says research continues to verify the correlation between earlier planting dates and higher yields.

But as farmers consider additional soybean acres as a way to reduce input costs, planting into wet, cool soils comes with greater risk.

“So one solution would be using seed treatments, backing off on seed populations, and paying a little bit more attention to our depth and planter balance.  (really) All the things they already do on corn and do that on soybeans also.  I’ve seen that pay real dividends.”

Lloyd says many growers may actually have their priorities backwards, as soybeans require nearly twice the amount of soil moisture to generate consistent stands compared to corn.

 

 

 

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