Mid-October

With much of the 2013 soybean crop harvested, what can I comment on?

Observations

  • I believe that soybean planting date did affect the 2013 soybean crop. Our soybean crop planted May 1, 2013 yielded approximately 70 Bu/A.
  • Some varieties weathered the stresses of 2013 better than others. From our Soybean Management II experiment, we observed the following 2013 yield data:
    • Asgrow AG 2731 RR2Y      70.3 Bu/A.
    • Asgrow AG 2933 RR2Y      74.1 Bu/A.
    • Asgrow AG 2931 RR2Y      75.5 Bu/A.
  • The “Critical Considerations” data set from the Agronology 10 Research Center at Walcott, IA showed that 17 of the 19 plots from this data set received a direct fertilization (N-P-K) for the soybeans.
    • Of these 17 plots which had N, P, K fertilizer applied, 16 also had a micro nutrient component. By the way, these 19 plots’ average yield was 81.8 Bu/A.
  • The late season addition at R3-Rgrowth stage of a fungicide and insecticide treatment did improve our soybean yields in 2013, as seen in Table 1.

Table 1: Influence of a Fungicide and Insecticide on 2013 Soybeans Treatments
Product                     Oz/A              Yield (Bu/A)                        Harvest Moisture (%)

None                           —–                    67.3                                            12.0

Stratego YLD                8                      70.4                                            11.9

Stratego YLD                8                      71.1                                            11.8
Leverage 360              3.8_________________________________________________