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Wisconsin December-planted soybeans struggled with warm winter

Photo: Ryan Nell shows one of his December-planted soybean plants

The Wisconsin farmer that experimented with planting soybeans in December says it might have been too warm over the winter. Ryan Nell farms near Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. He says, “Some of them are going to make it. I don’t think it will be enough to be a harvestable stand.”

Nell used treated seed before the hard freeze on three acres.  He dug up a few of the plants over the weekend and says the seed treatment couldn’t hang on long enough. “It’s pretty nasty under there. Those beans, the ones that are growing are not even pretty. There’s a lot of insect damage. Wireworms are on the seed. Seedcorn maggot is around the seed.”

Nell tells Brownfield he’s replanting, but he’ll still be able to monitor the December planted seed progress. “We’re going to replant, and we’re going to shift the planter over seven and a half inches and let these beans grow as much as possible. They won’t be terminated or nothing. They’re just going to grow alongside the ones we’re going to replant, so give it maybe another month or so as the beans are growing and everything, we’ll be able to tell exactly how many actually did make it.”

Nell says the December planting also had experiments in planting depth and plant populations, so he will still be able to get some data from the plants.

Nell’s December 10th soybean experiment covered about three acres of using three different seed depths after strip-tilling, with 140-thousand and 200-thousand plants per acre populations in silt loam soil with drain tile. he also has experimental soybean plots planted in March and early April.

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