Pioneer agronomist: Plant soybeans early, but not too early

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Pioneer agronomist: Plant soybeans early, but not too early

A Pioneer agronomist is encouraging growers to nudge their soybean planting date earlier in 2021, but not too early.

Matt Montgomery in west central Illinois tells Brownfield late freezes in the spring of 2020 proved that robust seed treatments allow beans to stay in the ground for several weeks without significant yield loss.

“But, those robust seed treatments are NOT robust enough that I would be comfortable saying drop that crop in the ground and let it sit there a couple of months.”

Montgomery says it is safe to say that in most areas if it is corn planting weather, it is also bean planting weather.

“If we can start thinking about beans as being a suitable crop to go in the ground about the same time we are planting corn, then that is pretty much a low cost way to bump soybeans yield dramatically.”

He recommends nudging the date slightly earlier each year to progressively get more nodes and pods on plants without dramatically shifting your planting program.

Interview with Matt Montgomery

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