Seven Tips To Help Your Soybean Yields Skyrocket

Boosting soybean yields begins by understanding the needs of the soybean plant and its environment, then adopting the best agronomic practices and technology to optimize yield. Innovation is important, but it won’t do any good unless farmers apply basic management practices.

“There is definitely potential for steady increases in soybean yields through breeding and optimized production practices,” says Ed Anderson, Ph.D., executive director of the North Central Soybean Research Program and senior director of supply and production systems for the Iowa Soybean Association.

Anderson offers this checklist of soybean-production practices to propel soybean yields.

• Select the highest-yielding genetics and maturity groups. Consult with seed reps and crop advisers to plant varieties with the highest yield potential and the best defensive traits for your fields and environment.

• Use best practices for soybean production and management. Consider various tillage and conservation practices and plant full-season varieties early. Use a seed treatment to protect the seed and give the plants good emergence and stand while protecting the roots. Seek out research data or conduct your own experiments to find out which spacing and seeding rates work best in your soil and growing conditions.

• Analyze seed treatment needs and applications. Data indicate that many fungicides are consistently beneficial, but plant health and other seed treatments depend on your operation.

• Optimize soil organic matter and fertility. In the past, few farmers thought about adding nitrogen to soybeans. However, there is some data now to indicate that, in high-yielding environments, soybeans may benefit from more nitrogen. Look at the overall soil health and determine whether adding nitrogen will lead to higher yields.

• Manage traits, genetics, chemistries and the environment. Sustainability and consistently high yields depend on integrated approaches to preserving the effectiveness of genetics, traits and chemistries for weed, insect and pathogen control; nutrient management; and soil and foliar chemistry applications. Farmers must continually manage different modes of action, soybean production practices and genetics, because constant exposure to any one chemistry or trait is never a good thing.

• Conduct in-season field scouting for economical and effective insect and disease management. Although you can’t control the weather, you can control factors such as insect and disease pressure. Know when to treat for those pressures or ask for help.

• Utilize crop rotations. Consider effective yield-increasing rotations such as corn/soy and corn/soy/cover crop/hay. These rotations work nicely to break insect and disease cycles; allow more efficient management of weeds; and enhance soil health, water management and crop yields.

To learn more about new technologies to increase yield and how to experiment with different management practices on your farm, contact your state commodity association staff, university soybean researchers and extension specialists, crop advisers, and your seed and chemical sales and agronomy experts. Or check back for more checkoff-funded soybean-production advancements.

Source : unitedsoybean.edu