Your First Pass in Wheat

Apr 022012
 

By Darren Hefty

It sure seems too early to be talking about spraying wheat, yet here we are.  The months of April and May offer some big challenges to your wheat yields, and with every challenge comes the opportunity to manage your crop for even more success than the next guy down the road.  Here’s a game plan to protect your wheat.

  1. Weed Control  - Scout your fields early because weed pressure hurts yield typically more than any other pest.  If you have grassy weed escapes, control them first.  Axial may be the best on foxtails and wild oats, but there has been ACC-ase resistance showing up, so Everest 2.0 and GoldSky may be good options on your farm.  If you have lots of grass and lots of broadleaves, spraying your grass herbicide separate from your broadleaf product will give you the best results, probably in the range of 3% to 15% better control.  Tankmixing will decrease performance, but will obviously reduce your number of applications.  When looking for a good broadleaf herbicide, WideMatch is the number one seller and the best on thistles and kochia.  However, Huskie is better on most other weeds.  Either way, you may consider a tankmix partner like Affinity or Edition.  Affinity and Edition are broad-spectrum, inexpensive herbicides, and they’re safer to the crop than 2,4-D.
  2. Disease Control – It’s easy to see the return on investment with weed control because you spot a weed and then kill it.  With diseases like tan spot or stripe rust, once you see them you are often too late.  For fungicides like Headline, Evito, Quilt, or Stratego, you need to protect your crop before the disease manifests itself with visual symptoms on the leaves.  Also, fungicides predominantly just protect the leaves they are sprayed on, so untreated leaves are not protected, and as the plant grows it may become necessary to spray a fungicide again to protect the new growth.  That’s why spray coverage and spray timing are so critical when using a fungicide.  During your first pass across the field with herbicide, you are usually at a great time to apply a fungicide, too.
  3. Insect Control – Do you have aphids, grasshoppers, or other harmful bugs in your wheat?  This year, buy a sweep net and check your wheat fields throughout the season.  Before you spray for weeds or disease protection, check for bugs.  If you have quite a few, it only takes a $1.50 to $2 investment to wipe out all those insects with a pyrethroid like Silencer or Declare.  The keys are to have insecticide on hand just in case and to scout your fields before you spray.  Bugs do far more damage to wheat than many people assume.
  4. Improved Growth – Nutritional products (like TJ Micromix, BoMnZn, or others) and plant growth hormones (like MegaGro) or combinations of the above may be just what your crop needs.  The way we look at it on our farm, we always want to be trying some new things and learning.  We’ve had good results using the products listed above, and we’ll try a few new ones as well to keep our yields moving forward.  However, you need to be careful mixing fertilizer products together with fungicides or “hot” herbicides like Wolfpack or 2,4-D.

The first pass you make through your wheat this year sets the stage for the success of your crop.  Consider these four things before you head to the field and try a few new things on a field or two.

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Herbicide-Insecticide Interaction and Yield Reduction

Apr 022012
 

By Brian Hefty

The first time I walked in a field sprayed with Accent herbicide after Counter insecticide was applied at planting time, I was shocked.  The corn looked burnt, about like severe drought stress.  I had heard that could happen, but I had never seen it.  That was in 1990.

When I asked the chemical manufacturers why this happened, I was told, in layman’s terms, that both Counter and Accent need to get metabolized by the plant.  The problem is that they can’t both get metabolized at the same time, meaning one, the other, or both become toxic to the plant.  Accent is an ALS herbicide.  Counter is an organophosphate (O.P.) insecticide.  Plus, Counter is very systemic in the plant.  Not long after that, we were using Lorsban (O.P.) insecticide and Hornet (part of Hornet is an ALS) herbicide on our farm.  I didn’t even think about it at the time, because I was told it should be safe, and it certainly appeared to be.

A few years after that, Roundup corn came out, so weed control in corn post-emerge was no longer an issue.  Roundup was about all that got used, and there was no interaction with Roundup and insecticide.  Several years later, rootworm Bt’s started to get released, so insecticide use dropped dramatically.  Now we definitely didn’t see any issues.

Here we are 22 years after my first bad experience with Counter and Accent, and we’re worried about the problem all over again.  Plus, it seems that HPPD herbicides (including Callisto, Laudis, Impact, Capreno, Balance Flexx, etc.) could have the same interaction issues with organophosphate herbicides as ALS products.  Some, like Laudis, claim to have no issues according to the label and the manufacturer.  Others, like Callisto, don’t recommend using O.P. insecticides in front of them.

Before I give you our suggestions, let me first say that you won’t always see an issue, even if you do the complete wrong thing.  I want to also remind you that corn is $5 a bushel or more for new crop, so every bushel of yield loss could be big.

If you want to use an organophosphate insecticide (or any insecticide that contains an O.P. component) use a non-ALS, non-HPPD herbicide.  O.P. insecticides include Counter, Lorsban, and Aztec.  Insecticides that are NOT O.P.’s include Force and Capture LFR.  ALS herbicides include SureStart and TripleFLEX (the Python in SureStart and TripleFLEX is an ALS), Hornet, Accent, Beacon, and others.  I listed many of the HPPD’s above.  Products that do not include HPPD or ALS include Status, Clarity, Buctril, atrazine, Harness, Surpass, Dual, Verdict, and many more.  Again, even if you use an O.P. and follow with an ALS or HPPD, it may not cause issues.  In fact, it may be labeled, like Laudis is.  I’m just trying to give you something to think about with all this discussion.

If you decide you really want to use an ALS or HPPD herbicide, that’s fine.  We would just encourage you to use a pyrethroid insecticide like Force or Capture LFR to be safe.  The last thing you need this year is a herbicide-insecticide negative interaction that hurts your yield.  You know that a rootworm insecticide will most likely pay if you have rootworm or other bug problems.  You know that Roundup probably won’t kill all your broadleaves by itself.  Just plan ahead for these things, and you should have no issues whatsoever.

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Soybean Seed Treatments

Apr 022012
 

By Darren Hefty

One of the best things occurring in the soybean industry over the last 5 years has been a major improvement in soybean seed treatments.  Coinciding with that has been a widespread acceptance among farmers that seed treatments are providing a positive return.  The questions now are which ones work best and what combinations of treatments can be used together?

First of all, there are five categories of seed treatment products:

  1. Inoculant
  2. Fungicide
  3. Insecticide
  4. Biological
  5. Fertility

Inoculant – I would classify inoculant as “live rhizobia bacteria” products designed to increase nodulation on soybean roots.  There are so many false claims in this category of treatments with every company claiming to have the highest bacteria counts and the longest life on the seed.  There are two things you need to know about inoculants.

  1. All rhizobia bacteria inoculants contain live bacteria that begin to perish the instant you put them on unplanted seed.  The sooner you get the seed in the ground, the more bacteria survive and eventually colonize on your roots.  From what we’ve seen, after 30 days, about 90% of rhizobia bacteria die on unplanted seed even with the best extenders on the market.
  2. Bacteria counts are nice, but can be deceiving.  Companies have gone to using concentrated product and/or frozen product that you must mix with water before applying.  By doing so, they can have a higher concentration of bacteria per gram in the container, but when you dilute them with water for application the counts are often lower than the “ready to use” formulations like ROOTastic.  We have found ROOTastic inoculant to have the highest effective bacteria counts and the best performance.

Fungicide – There are quite a few fungicide seed treatments out there, and most of them are pretty good.  The key is to find the ones that work best on the diseases you have in your area.  Pythium protection is still best accomplished with metalaxyl, and most fungicide combo products have it.

Insecticide – All of the main insecticidal seed treatment products use one of the neonicotinoid family of insecticides: Poncho, Cruiser, and Gaucho.  These are the three brand names associated with this family of chemistry, but there are several variations off of each one.  Most commonly, you find insecticides in pre-packed solutions with two or more fungicides plus one of the insecticides for around $10/unit.  My best suggestion is to look for a product with the best re-spray program in case you need to treat for insects later.  At Hefty’s, we offer up to 2 free resprays if you purchase a qualifying product like Inovate or Acceleron Fungicide/Insecticide pre-treated at one of our stores.

Biological – There are quite a few biological seed treatments out there.  We’re experimenting with a couple of them again this year.  We’ve had consistently good response using QuickRoots.  The challenge to measuring the performance of any of these products has been the settings on the yield map.  Quite commonly, we see 4 to 5 bushel per acre breaks on the yield map.  Either set your yield map to measure 1 bushel per acre differences or just weigh each round as you’re going through comparisons in your fields this fall.  Just a half bushel to a bushel gain will give you a great payback on many of these types of products.

Fertility – We’re getting a number of questions about seed treatment fertilizer products again this spring.  You have to watch out, because it’s difficult to put enough fertility on the seed to help the plant without putting too much on and causing some damage.   We’ll keep watching for good products in this category and let you know when we’ve found some.

Finally, consider combining products.  Inoculants are a must.  They are very inexpensive and have been shown to give a good return on investment.  Follow the label for guidance when mixing with fungicide and insecticide products.  All three can be safely used together, but you may not be able to have them mixed together long before planting.  The biologicals vary in their ability to be used in conjunction with fungicide/insecticide combo products.  QuickRoots allows for mixing with most of them.  We work with a large number of farmers who use QuickRoots plus inoculant plus a fungicide/insecticide product like Acceleron.  Such three-way mixes are fine, but you must watch for putting on more liquid than can be reasonably absorbed by the seed.

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Seed Corn Substitutions

Apr 022012
 

By Brian Hefty

It’s 2 days before you want to plant your corn.  You call your seed dealer.  He says, “Sorry, but your seed hasn’t shown up yet.”  Now what?

I’ve been around the seed industry for 30 years and the farm longer than that.  Remembering back through all those years, I don’t remember seed corn in as bad a supply situation as this year.  Here are the 5 key factors I believe have led us to where we are today:

  1. Corn profitability looks pretty good right now.  I’ve talked to many farmers who believe corn will be more profitable than soybeans or wheat this year.  That’s why they’re upping their corn acreage.  On our farm, we’re not increasing our corn acres.  Part of the reason is this – when everyone else goes one way, going the other way usually turns out pretty well.  What I’m hoping for is a great price for soybeans and wheat about 12 months from now when I want to sell a good portion of my 2012 crop.
  2. No major seed company wants to take big risks.  30 years ago, most seed companies were owned by private individuals.  If they made a mistake, they lost money.  Then they learned from that and tried harder the next year.  Now that large corporations own the seed companies, shareholders or boards of directors often choose to fire the person responsible for big mistakes.  What this means for you and me is no more oversupply of seed.  No company executive, in my opinion, wants to risk producing too much.
  3. Seed germination scores this year have been horrible.  Last year was awful in most areas for seed production.  Even experienced seed producers saw certain seed lots fail.  Plus, as the winter has gone on (a warm winter, by the way, which is terrible for storing seed) seed germinations have continued to drop.  Seed lots that may have been good last fall are now showing up bad.
  4. Plant breeders are producing great new hybrids faster than ever.  You would think this would be an advantage, but this year it’s not.  New varieties yield better, so everyone wants them.  The problem is new varieties have little supply.  On top of that, if you were a seed company, would you want to produce a whole bunch of an old number when you know the new varieties are better?  Of course not.
  5. South American production may arrive in the U.S. too late.  If we have an early spring, I believe there is little chance that South American seed will be here in time.  It rarely makes it to the Dakotas and Minnesota by mid-April, so I don’t know why this year will be any different.

The reason why I’m explaining all this is many seed companies are trying as hard as they can to fill your orders.  The seed you want just isn’t there.  However, there are other varieties that are available.  I believe there will be enough seed corn in the U.S. to plant 100 million corn acres.  It’s going to come down to this – do you want the seed corn that IS available or would you rather plant another crop, like soybeans?

Also, you’ll probably get mad about this when you don’t get your seed.  Right now I can almost guarantee you there isn’t one happy seed corn company or seed corn dealer in the U.S.  Everyone has been affected by this.  Every company has angry investors and stockholders.  It’s a major issue.  Just do your best to remain calm.  Take the emotion out of it so you can make a good decision for your farm.  Don’t give in on things like Goss’s Wilt tolerance, if that’s an issue for you.  If the only reason you’ve picked the variety you did was because it yielded well last year in a couple of plots, that’s when I’d switch with no problem at all.  Year after year we find that last year’s winners are often this year’s losers and vice versa.  Again, don’t get emotional.  Just think through what you really need and what you don’t.  Good luck!

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New Minibulk Tank Regulations

Apr 022012
 

By Darren Hefty

Unless you picked up some bulk chemical since mid-August, chances are your first experience with the new bulk tank regulations will be happening this spring.  With the federal rule changes that occurred August 16, 2011, ag retailers are no longer able to refill certain minibulk shuttles with pesticides.  Here’s a quick list of what you need to know to speed up your time at the dealership picking up crop protection products and get you back in the field.

  1. Minibulk pesticide tanks getting refilled at an ag chemical retailer must be DOT approved.
  2. These tanks must have tamper-evident seals or one-way valves.
  3. All minibulk tanks must be uniquely numbered.
  4. Most tanks must be leak tested or replaced every 2.5 years. 
  5. Contrary to earlier reports, there will be a few tanks “grandfathered” in.  Only certain Monsanto tanks will meet this requirement.  All other non-compliant tanks will not be eligible for re-filling.
  6. In our opinion, these rules are confusing, meaning you will most likely get slightly different answers to your tank questions depending on the retailer you talk to.  Nice… right?

You do need to be aware of these changes, but they shouldn’t scare you too much.  First of all, several chemical manufacturers have pre-packaged bulk product in new tanks you can buy at a discount this spring.  Second, we believe that many shuttles on farms today already meet these standards, so there’s no problem with getting them refilled.  If your tank doesn’t meet the requirements, you can either buy a new tank or most likely just have your tank re-tested and sealed.  Here’s what this process involves.

  1. Clean and rinse out your tank before bringing it in.
  2. If your tank doesn’t have a one-way valve on the bottom, we can switch your valve out for about $32 to $40.
  3. If your tank doesn’t have a tamper-proof lid on top, that can be replaced for $12 to $15 in most cases.
  4. Once your tank has the proper lid and unload valve, we pressure test tanks for no charge.  This involves putting air in the tank and watching for leaks.
  5. Once your tank passes the test, we document the testing, fill it up with the desired product, and you’re on your way.

Keep in mind that even if you’re unsure if your lid or unload valve will meet the new requirements, all tanks must have a lid or cap on when you bring it in.  Having it sealed up prevents dirt or other contaminants from entering your clean tank.  Also, tanks that don’t meet the new requirements may still be able to be used around your farm, even if that use is not for pesticides.  They just can’t be legally re-filled with a pesticide by a dealer.  Tanks that don’t meet the new criteria but were re-filled prior to August 16, 2011 can still be used this season. However, they will not be able to be re-filled again unless they are pressure tested and meet the other requirements necessary.

As always with minibulk tanks, there are some things to keep in mind, and these rules are unchanged from the past:

  • A retailer cannot legally refill a tank with a different product unless that tank has been thoroughly rinsed and cleaned.  By different, that means even two products that are similar, like Roundup PowerMAX and Roundup WeatherMAX.  Legally, you have to rinse and clean tanks any time you’ll be putting in a product that has a different EPA number, so even different versions of Roundup technically require cleaning.
  • A retailer cannot refill a tank that is not in good condition.
  • Most poly tanks are designed to last up to 6 years, but that’s only if they’re kept out of the sun.  Sunlight degrades tanks, so keep your tanks in the shade as much as possible, even if you plan to keep your tanks for just 2 or 3 years.
  • Minibulk tanks must be 56 gallons or greater with virtually all products.

 

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On-Farm Research

Apr 022012
 

Test Plots from the Hefty Farm

By Brian Hefty

If you are not trying several new things on your farm each year, you may be falling behind others when it comes to yield and profitability.  As Darren and I travel around the country and around the world, we find the best farmers have one big thing in common – they do a lot of experimenting because they are not afraid to fail.  However, most of these experiments are conducted on a small scale, and that’s what we’d advise you to do, too.

You may test different seed varieties, insecticides, fungicides, biological products, fertilizers, rates or application timings on any of these things – there are a whole host of things you can look at.  Keep in mind there is no silver bullet out there.  Nothing will instantly double your yields or your profits.  However, if you manage each little detail of your farm well, I absolutely believe it’s possible to achieve greater success than you’ve already reached, no matter what your starting point is.

If you are going to run some trials on your farm, there are a few key things you should try to achieve:

  1. Perhaps the most important thing is to make sure you take as many variables out of the equation as possible.  If you are testing a fertility product, for example, it would be nice if the seed planted, the herbicide used, and the insecticide applied were all the same.
  2. The most commonly overlooked part of running on-farm trials is to have enough replications.  If you can split the planter and have test – check – test – check – etc. 20 times across the field, your data will be much more statistically useful.  If you’re doing nothing more than splitting a field in 2, you in effect have 1 rep, 1 year, in 1 field.  The odds of getting useful and helpful information from this are considerably less.  If possible, I’d like to see 8 to 12 replications on anything you are testing.  When you do that, you can feel pretty confident in the data you get.
  3. Carefully check your yield data.  This is especially true with low cost inputs.  For example, inoculant may only cost you $2 in soybeans.  On $12 soybeans if you gain 1/3 of a bushel, you double your money.  The biggest challenge is correctly measuring your yield gain.  Will a 1/3 bushel difference show up normally on your yield monitor?  No way.  So how can you get accurate data?  First, I suggest calibrating your yield monitor.  Next, when you are looking at yield maps you may need to set different colors for every 1 bushel or less.  It can be done on most software programs.  Then, I recommend resetting your yield monitor’s total weight every pass through the field when you are harvesting test areas.  In other words, get a total weight from your yield monitor for each pass and each trial.  Finally, if you are very concerned about this, use a weigh wagon.  On our farm, our grain carts have scales, so everything is weighed right in the field.  Here again, though, you can make your data better if you give it a little extra effort.  If your scale only has 20 pound breaks, you can use weights placed on your weigh wagon to get a more accurate and exact reading.

I know it is work to do all these things, but if you can find even 1 thing each year that definitely makes money for your farm, that could dramatically help your bottom line.  Especially when commodity prices are good, there are LOTS of extra things you can do to bump yield and put a few extra net dollars in your pocket each year.

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March 2012 Newsletters

Mar 092012
 

March 2012 Ag PhD Newsletter Articles


The March 2012 Ag PhD Newsletter has been released. Click the thumbnails below to view PDFs of the Eastern and Western Editions of the newsletter. Individual articles are also posted to our site.

Eastern Edition (Adobe PDF)

Western Edition (Adobe PDF)
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Putting CRP Back Into Production

Mar 092012
 

By Brian Hefty

Due to high commodity prices, we are again seeing many CRP acres going back into crop production.  By the way, if you think that ALL CRP is coming out, keep in mind that there are still over 26 million CRP acres left in the United States today.  That’s a lot!  In fact, the CRP left in the U.S. is more than the total area contained in Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined!

If your CRP is going back into production, here are the top 7 pieces of advice we have for you:

  1. Don’t do extensive tillage on this land.  Over the last few years, your soil’s organic matter has increased.  That’s awesome.  You now have a field that can hold more water and nutrients while suffering less from the effects of compaction and erosion.  If you have to do some leveling, do it as non-invasively as possible.  The more you can leave your soil structure in place, the better chance you have to raise great crops long-term.
  2. Prepare for insects.  You will most likely have more wireworms and white grubs on this land.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ll probably have fewer bean leaf beetles and rootworms compared to your other fields.  I would strongly encourage you to treat your seed with insecticide, if it’s not treated already.  If white grubs are a major concern, you will need more insecticide than just a seed treatment to completely stop them.  Check with your agronomist to figure out the right product(s) for you, if necessary.
  3. Seed and seedling disease issues could be a concern, especially if you’re raising a grass crop.  Chances are your CRP consisted mostly of perennial grasses.  If you plant a grass crop like corn or wheat and you aren’t doing extensive tillage, you’ve done nothing to break the disease cycle.  This isn’t my biggest concern planting into CRP, but it is still occasionally a problem.  Just make sure your seed is treated with a good fungicide.
  4. If you want to plant a grass crop, use LOTS of nitrogen.  Because of all the organic material (I’m talking about plant residue here, not decomposed organic matter) on the soil surface and in the top couple inches of soil that is still breaking down, any applied nitrogen will probably go first toward that decomposition process instead of your crop.  Chances are you’ll need 50 to 100 additional pounds of nitrogen above normal.
  5. It’s probably easiest to plant Roundup Ready or LibertyLink soybeans into old CRP ground year one.  You won’t have to apply all that extra nitrogen (although 20 to 40 pounds of N wouldn’t be a bad idea).  You’ll also be able to more easily control any perennial grasses that come up during the season.  Just be sure to apply a very high burndown rate of Roundup BEFORE crop emergence.  Remember that you can only use 64 oz. total of PowerMAX during the year in-crop (that’s 3 quarts of 4# generic equivalent).  That may not be enough to stop your perennial grasses, but if you apply a burndown prior to emergence, you’ve still got 64 oz. left you can apply post-emerge.
  6. If you do plant soybeans, it’s a good idea to double-inoculate.  We’ve seen this pay off well for many farmers.  Keep in mind that inoculant only costs $1 to $2 an acre at a normal rate, so a double rate is no big expense.  However, since it has been many years since your field has had soybeans on it, it is definitely lacking in rhizobia bacteria that help soybeans produce their own nitrogen.
  7. Soil test and fertilize accordingly.  I have no idea if your ground needs a bunch of P, K, S, or micronutrients.  However, if you show me your soil test results, I can give you much better advice.

It is exciting farming a few more acres.  Putting CRP back into production can be a great thing, but it is certainly different than managing other crop land.  Good luck!

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Tiling In-Crop

Mar 092012
 

By Brian Hefty

We’ve probably put in 75% of the tile we’ve installed in standing crop!  As soon as I say this to most farmers, the response I commonly get is, “Don’t you ruin a bunch of your crop?”  After studying this for 5 years and looking at our yield monitor data, I can give you a definitive answer… No, we don’t ruin much crop.  In fact, I’d argue that we make this year’s crop even better.  Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned about tiling in-crop.

  1. Do it early in the season.  We will tile in standing corn until it’s about 1 foot tall.  We then tile through soybeans until they are about 1 foot tall.  This usually gives us 6 weeks to tile each spring/early summer.  We never tile before planting, because the way we look at is if the ground is fit to tile, it should be fit to plant/till/apply herbicide, and we want to get those jobs done as early as possible in the spring.
  2. Don’t use a blade to level out your soil.  After tiling, there is always dirt that you’ve pulled up.  Rather than taking a blade or disk or anything to level that out – because keep in mind we’re talking in-crop now – we suggest simply driving back along the side to push the dirt back toward the center and down a little.  We do not recommend driving right over the center of the trench.  You don’t want to crush the tile you just laid, so be a little careful.
  3. Spot projects are better to do in-crop than pattern-tiling.  This is pretty obvious, but if you’re going to put lines in every 30 feet, you’ll tear up more crop than if you’re putting a line in every 250 feet.  However, even if you had to do some pattern-tiling in-crop, it’s probably not that bad a deal.  If you are tiling, chances are your crop isn’t going to be fantastic to begin with.  If you get that tile laid early in the year, the crop has that much more time to recover and utilize your now well-drained soil.  Plus, always keep in mind that this fall may not be great for tiling.  A couple years ago, we literally had 2 days to tile in the fall on our farm.  That’s it.  Sure, the great fall of 2011 is fresh in your mind, but not every fall is like that.
  4. Plan ahead.  What we shoot for on our farm is the day after we finish corn planting, we go right into soybean planting.  The day we finish soybean planting, we go right into tiling.  You can only do this if you’ve done all your prep work this winter.  Get your tile on the farm now.  Get your permits done now.  Make sure you call One-Call several days in advance.  Get your plow and tractor ready so it’s hooked up, or if you’re using that tractor for planting, you can at least hook it up quickly once you’re done seeding.  Also, put your tentative tile design in place.  You can certainly adjust this when you’re out in the field, but this will help you and anyone assisting you so you can move quickly when the time comes.
  5. Tiling in-crop is actually really fun.  Once your crop starts to come up, you can already see areas in fields that are suffering, so you know you’re out there doing some good.  There’s usually lots of sub-soil moisture early in the season so your plow pulls easy and the water comes pouring out the end of the tile when you install it.  Seeing that is quite rewarding.  Also, I’ve found our guys get a lot more tile in the ground each day when the weather is warm and day length is long.  Tiling in June is WAY more fun than tiling in December.  If you’re not tiling in-crop, in my opinion you’re missing out on the best time of year to tile.
  6. The sooner you get your tile in the ground, the faster your yields go up.  If you don’t get your tile in this year, it’s another year lost in terms of high yield.  Beyond that, don’t forget that tiled land often has fewer seed and seedling diseases, less compaction, fewer high salt and high pH issues, and a lot fewer pieces of equipment that get stuck.

If you’ve never tried tiling in-crop before, do some this year.  Once you do, I’m guessing you’ll soon adopt the same strategy we have on our farm, which is tiling in-crop every year as much as we can.

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Soybean Germination Problems

Mar 092012
 

By Darren Hefty

When you pick up your soybean seed this spring, make sure you look at the seed tag to check the germination score!  The industry standard for many years has been 90%, but since soybean seed quality is so poor this year, there will be a lot of 80% and 85% beans sold.  This isn’t a complete disaster, though.  It’s not like germination in corn, as soybeans can compensate very well for the occasional missing plant.  However, I think it’s important to understand why germination scores are so lousy in 2012, and what you can do to maximize your stand even if your seed isn’t perfect.

The one thing that may be hard to accept with all this is that even if your beans are 80% or 85%, you probably won’t get a discount on them for 2 reasons.  First, seed supply is very tight.  If you don’t want your beans because you don’t like the germination test, you may not be able to find beans that are much better, and odds are, someone will buy the seed you passed on.  Second, seed companies aren’t giving seed dealers any discounts that we know of at this time.  The seed dealer doesn’t have any room to discount the seed…that would have to come from the seed company.

The main reason why germination scores are low is most of the soybean seed is very dry.  For optimal seed quality, most seed growers try to harvest soybeans when they are between 12 and 14% moisture.  They had about 3 hours to accomplish that this fall, so even the best growers struggled to get the seed fields harvested before the beans got too dry.  Dry beans are more susceptible to cracking and internal damage which leads to seed quality issues.

When it comes to seed quality, think about this.  When did your seed company of choice clean your favorite variety?  If you ordered in the fall, chances are the seed company may have taken your seed right out of the field and cleaned it.  This would eliminate that seed running through an auger into a bin, potentially dropping to the bottom of the bin, then running out an unload auger back into a truck, dropping to the bottom of that truck, and so on.  My point is there will be a lot less handling of your seed if you or your seed dealer order it and take it early rather than waiting until the last minute.

Plus, the early beans shipped in the fall and over the winter were probably the ones with the best germination percentages.  It’s a well-known fact in the seed industry that the best seed ships first.  That’s why we always advise you to take your seed early.

However, you want your seed treated by your seed dealer.  Hopefully your dealer took the seed early, and he has good germination percentage beans on hand.  Whether he does or not, using a soybean seed treatment can really make a difference.  In our lab we have found many soybeans with questionable sprouts that have considerably better sprouting and germination when treated with a fungicide.  This year, we believe adding fungicide to soybeans is an absolute must.

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