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Early soybean planting is changing field observations

A soybean researcher says producers are changing production practices, and that is bringing field observations they’re not used to. 

Shawn Conley with the University of Wisconsin says more soybeans are flowering before June 21^st and it’s all about farmers pushing super-early soybean planting. He says, “Flower induction is being triggered early on in the growing season, so if we’re planting early, say for Wisconsin growers, or Iowa, Northern Illinois, we’re planting before that May 1st time period.”

Conley says it becomes a growing degree unit race to get those flowers to pop early, and part of the reason is white mold and weed control. “Either white mold, or some of the new herbicide labels where you need to be making these applications for white mold at R-1, or you can no longer spray herbicide after first flowering, then we run into some label issues and not getting weeds controlled or missing that window when we should be applying white mold fungicide applications.”

Unlike a few years ago, Conley now advises producers to push for early planting with a multiple mode of action pre-emergence herbicide and follow with a post-emergence treatment.  And, if battling white mold, spraying the flowers at the right time is critical.

Conley was a presenter at the Agribusiness Classic in Madison, Wisconsin.

Listen to Shawn Conley discuss soybeans, weed resistance, upcoming research and other topics with Brownfield’s Larry Lee here: