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Some no-till fields planted early are showing problems.

Tom Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

May 31, 2013

2 Min Read

Mark Lawson is a technical rep for Syngenta, but he also farms. He recently did some scouting of no-till fields and noticed several signs of the season. Most of them related to no-tilling into soils that were still too wet for the slot to close properly.

"Patience is a virtue when it comes to no-till," he says. "I've seen slots not closed and soybeans breaking their necks trying to get through ground once it dried up and became hard."

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So it wasn't a good year to plant wet. The problem is that from Lawson's area near Danville all the way south in Indiana, except perhaps for a couple days in east-central Indiana, consistent rains every three to four days have made getting the crop into the ground a challenge. Some people planted on May 15 into soils that they would have pulled out of on April 15. Who could blame them?

Actually that refrain was heard quite a bit when farmers gathered at dealerships or wherever their paths crossed, and on Facebook and Twitter. The gist of most of the messages was that the soil was borderline, but it was May 15 or May 20, not April 15 or April 20, so they were going to plant anyway.

The result may be less than perfect stands, according to Lawson's early scouting reports, at least in some no-till fields. However, if you pay attention to Shaun Casteel's recommendations and previous Purdue Extension research, you don't need more than 80,000 plants per acre to achieve nearly 100% potential of soybean yield. Casteel is the Purdue Extension soybean specialist.

"Stands are going to look thin, but they could still be more productive than you think," says Larry Huffmeyer, another Syngenta rep and farmer in Ripley County. The problem will be convincing the younger generation, and maybe older landowners on share leases, that there are enough beans out there.

About the Author(s)

Tom Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

Tom Bechman is an important cog in the Farm Progress machinery. In addition to serving as editor of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Tom is nationally known for his coverage of Midwest agronomy, conservation, no-till farming, farm management, farm safety, high-tech farming and personal property tax relief. His byline appears monthly in many of the 18 state and regional farm magazines published by Farm Progress.

"I consider it my responsibility and opportunity as a farm magazine editor to supply useful information that will help today's farm families survive and thrive," the veteran editor says.

Tom graduated from Whiteland (Ind.) High School, earned his B.S. in animal science and agricultural education from Purdue University in 1975 and an M.S. in dairy nutrition two years later. He first joined the magazine as a field editor in 1981 after four years as a vocational agriculture teacher.

Tom enjoys interacting with farm families, university specialists and industry leaders, gathering and sifting through loads of information available in agriculture today. "Whenever I find a new idea or a new thought that could either improve someone's life or their income, I consider it a personal challenge to discover how to present it in the most useful form, " he says.

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