News

Trapped into planting soybeans following soybeans

An extension agronomist says while he does not recommend planting soybeans following soybeans, some farmers may feel they don’t have a choice.

Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota says he’s fielding a lot of questions about what to plant this year.

“The calls I’ve been getting are from people that are too far extended on loans, they got locked in on high land rentals.  And they simply just can’t make the inputs for corn.”

He suspects that is more of a motivating factor than the corn to soybean price ratio.

Naeve says if farmers can avoid planting continuous soybeans, they should.

“It’s really setting us up for long-term problems.  All the diseases are going to be a larger problem.  But frankly, I think the biggest issue for farmers is RoundUp-resistant weeds.”

Naeve says the first and most important step to managing water hemp and other resistant weeds is to grow more corn.

“But going back to more soybean is just going to blow up (what could be) small problems now…it’s just going to blow those problems up big time.”

Brownfield interviewed Naeve at the 2017 Minnesota Ag Expo in Mankato Thursday.