By Darren Hefty

If I switch to 100% LibertyLink or 100% Xtend this year, will they yield and have a good defensive package?

With all the new things coming in soybeans, it has been really fun putting together the Ag PhD Field Day and also doing large and small scale research with new soybean traits and genetics on our farm and across the country.  Here’s a quick rundown on some observations and future plans.

YIELD

Will the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend varieties yield?  The great thing for me about Xtend regulatory approvals getting delayed the last few years has been we’ve had more time to look at the varieties, and the new varieties have just kept coming.  Will they yield as good or better than the Roundup Ready 2 Yield varieties?  The answer is simply YES.  Will every single variety be the best yielder you’ve ever planted?  Don’t be ridiculous!  There are some great varieties in the RR2Ys.  However, would I feel comfortable planting all my acres to Xtend?  Absolutely.  We have raised more than 90% Xtend on our farm for two years in a row, so it’s something we’ve done with good success.

Will the LibertyLink varieties yield?  The LibertyLink trait has been approved for quite a while, and the varieties are proven winners.  Yes, there are enough good beans here that you could plant LibertyLink to your whole farm.  Nationwide, the number of acres planted to LibertyLink increased by about 40% this year.  That doesn’t happen if they aren’t good.

DEFENSIVE PACKAGE

The yield is there with both Xtend and LibertyLink.  However, placing the right varieties to face your toughest agronomic challenges is the key to success.  While seed companies can get herbicide tolerance genes into nearly any variety, defensive traits are not so easy.  Traditional approaches are being used to get things like root knot nematode resistance, iron deficiency chlorosis tolerance, and phytophthora resistance into the plants, but that can take some time.

Here are a couple holes to consider where you may need to stay with Roundup Ready 2 Yield varieties this year.

  1. Phytophthora resistance genes – If you want to plant Rps 3A genes to your whole farm to fight Race 4 or Race 25 strains of phytophthora, chances are you can’t find enough of them in any single trait platform in certain maturities.  The option is to variable variety plant in a field or to plant something else where needed.
  2. Iron Deficiency Chlorosis – There aren’t enough great IDC beans in the industry.  Add a product like Soygreen to the very good ones and fix your drainage problems.
  3. Nematode resistance – This is probably more of an issue on the root knot nematode than soybean cyst nematode, but if you need resistance there really is no substitute.  Find the best product regardless of trait to avoid big issues.
  4. Frogeye – If you’re in an area where frogeye leaf spot is severe, yes you can spray fungicides.  However, good varietal tolerance also helps.  You may need to plant more than one trait package to get that.

HERBICIDE APPLICATION

If you’re spraying the maximum labeled rate of Roundup on your crop multiple times, you will likely see yellow flash in areas of your field.  Using dicamba on Xtend beans (once it is labeled for that application) or Liberty on LibertyLink beans offers you a safer option.  If you have Roundup-resistant weeds, using Xtend or LibertyLink offers you a more effective option for weed control, too.

Don’t be scared to plant a different trait package on your soybean acres.  There are good yielding varieties to choose from in nearly all maturity zones.  Make sure you find the ones with the defensive characteristics you need to be successful this year.