Innovations

Winfield Answer Plots addressing issues in Minnesota

An agronomist with Winfield who covers southwest and west central Minnesota says cool wet weather last week harmed soybeans.  Mark Glady tells Brownfield near freezing temperatures had farmers he works with ringing his phone off the hook.

“…about beans that were just at the cracking stage at the soil level last Saturday when we started getting rain.  We stayed cool for two to three days.  We’re losing 20 to 30 percent of our stands, meaning the soybeans are just dying.  They’re brown and they’re dead.”

He says he’ll be walking fields this week to see if there are still 100,000 plants per acre left.  If not, there is time to replant.

“Yield potential is still strong for soybeans.  (I) looked at some numbers from University of Minnesota planting date information and a late May planting date still gets you somewhere in that 96 to 97 percent of an optimum yield.”

Glady says his counterparts on the eastern side of the state are also reporting similar problems in soybean fields.