38 Ate Today? Thank a Farmer. Better Farming | December 2023 crops: yield matter$ THE ‘SECRET’ OF HIGH-YIELD SECRETS Take your soybeans to the next level. By Dale Cowan Every year, it seems we attend agricultural conferences, and inevitably there is a session on “Secrets to High-Yield Soybeans.” Perhaps the biggest secret is that the soybean plant is intrinsically a high-yield potential plant. Often references can be found to theoretical yields in a stress-free environment of 120 to 160 bushels per acre. Indeed, the top soybean yield in 2023 was 203 bushels per acre by Alex Harrell from southwest Georgia – a different sort of growing environment with Group 4 variety under irrigation and a weekly evaluation of nutrient status by plant tissue and the combination of fertigation and foliar feeding with a host of products. The most interesting point is the harvest population was 77,000 plants per acre and 1,700 seeds per pound. The point of these yield competitions is to show maximum potential, not necessarily economics. Although, practices do get evaluated and things that are found to be practical do get applied to commercial fields over time. The biggest take-home point of why soybean yields are not optimized is often due to the combination of abiotic and biotic stresses that occur in a field randomly throughout the growing season – often at a critical growth stage that reduces potential yields. Participants in these yield competitions make it a point to alleviate any stress they see developing in the crop at any time during the growing season. This is a prerequisite to winning a yield competition; nothing is left to chance. What can we learn from these competitions? What do we to need watch for? What are the critical growth stages that form yield? One of the first inputs you learn from the yield competition is that participants are in their fields every week observing crop development. You never know what you might learn, but if you never look, you seldom learn anything. High yields are often associated with soils that support high yields or have the ability to respond positively to crop inputs. The term “soil health” is an overarching concept to describe resilience and yield stability. Obtaining healthy soil can be a long journey. Approaches I have been fond of for over 40 years are the use of complex rotations (more than two crops), reduced tillage, wise and judicious use of crop residue, and organic amendments such as manure and Andre Coutinho (left), crop specialist from Brigden, and Brian Cofell, AGRIS sales manager, in a field of healthy soybeans. The environmental footprint of printed magazines is far lower than of electronic devices. Paper is a renewable resource, is recycled more than any other material, and trees are regrown in managed forests. (Source: www.twosidesna.org) MAGAZINE SUSTAINABILITY Dale Cowan photo
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc0MDI3