Variety selection is the most important factor in soybean production.
Every farmer, whether he has 50 or 50,000 acres, should have a small experiment on his farm with replicated strips across the field. The data he collects can be used with other trial information to help choose effective varieties.
Since there isn't any yield difference between the best SCN-resistant varieties and the best SCN-susceptible varieties, we recommend farmers start planting them at low SCN populations.
Remember to look at your own pasture before looking across the fence.
In Iowa, we have a 32,000-an-acre plant population, spray, and harvest. There is no in-season management. It's all in the seeds.
It's not about increasing yield, it's about maintaining yield. Look at it as a house. The foundation has to be solid.
The matrix is more complex with soybeans. You might have 10 fields and have to select six different varieties to deal with all the variables. Soybeans are also more sensitive than corn to the environment during seed fill.
Despite its prolific reproduction ability, the good news is that soybean aphids are still easy to manage because they are very sensitive to insecticides. There are enough available products labeled for the soybean aphid to do the job.
There is no doubt that we have to thank the corn breeders for getting the kind of corn yields we have gotten this year, despite the drought.
Growers need to be ready like they were in 2005.
