By Brian Hefty
What will give you the best payback in the short-term and long-term yet this year? That’s a tough question to answer, and it obviously varies depending on the area you are in. Here is how the discussion has gone with many farmers in the upper Midwest over the last few years, as well as the results.
Option 1 is usually to keep planting soybeans. Darren usually advises people to go no earlier than 1 full maturity group than they normally plant. For me, I just want the beans to finish in the fall, so I don’t care if I have to plant a 00 in a Group 2 area. The yields on the 0s and 00s have gotten so much better over the last few years, but when you plant really late it is tough to get much for yield. Planting in late June is often still pretty good in terms of yield as long as the beans beat the frost. Our advice is to plant in narrow rows when seeding late and to still take fairly good care of those beans. If you need to spray for bugs, do it. I’m not saying to invest a fortune into a late-planted crop, but I am saying you need to give those beans a fighting chance. If you want to know what we have done in the past on our farm when facing a late plant situation, this is ALWAYS the way we go – we keep planting soybeans until we are done.
Option 2 is to take prevent plant. We have never done this on our farm, because I don’t want NRCS or anyone else to ever say that any of my acres aren’t true non-wetland farm ground. In the short term, that has meant we’ve planted soybeans in early July a few times and sacrificed a slightly better short-term income, but that was a trade-off I was willing to make. If you go prevent plant, we strongly encourage you to seed a cover crop soon. On the agphd.com website under the Resources tab in the Agronomy Resources section we have some info on cover crops, including the benefits and types of cover crops that fit each need. A combination of radishes, soybeans and millet is very common, but it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The main thing is to keep something growing out there to reduce erosion, keep the weeds down, and keep the soil life active so next year’s crop can turn out great.
Option 3 is to plant something else. You may try sunflowers if it’s early enough, but when it gets really late most farmers have gone with millet just to get some feed for livestock. It’s really hard to go with something you’ve never planted before, so most people take either Option 1 or Option 2.