By: Matt Reese, Ohio Ag Net
With the likelihood of 2018 farm economics again favoring soybean production, soybeans being planted after soybeans could be on the rise this spring.
With consecutive years of soybean production, yield potential declines and the potential need for additional inputs and precautions increases. Continue reading Concerns With Continuous Soybeans in 2018
By: Anna Casey
Chris Murray is a fifth-generation farmer in Champaign County, Illinois. Like most farmers in the heartland, he grows both corn and soybeans, but says it was a particularly good year for the bean.
“We’re still probably going to be in one of our top five best soybean years we’ve ever had,” Murray said.
Farmers in the U.S. grew more soybeans in 2017 than ever before, according to USDA data. Nearly 89.5 million acres were planted this year, an increase of more than 25 million acres over the last decade. The plant, native to Asia, has become ubiquitous across the American Corn Belt, but the crop was virtually unknown to the region until the middle of the 20th century. And the soybean’s rise can be traced back to one enterprising Illinois industrialist, A.E. Staley. Continue reading How Did the Soybean Become Such a Common Crop in The U.S.?
After statewide bans, multiple lawsuits and countless disgruntled farmers nationwide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has required the makers of dicamba, a controversial weed killer, to revise its label.
The label changes and new training requirements shift more responsibility into the hands of farmers to ensure if they apply dicamba, the herbicide does not spread to neighboring fields. The problem is the weed killer has been shown to easily go airborne and move far from its intended area, harming or killing plants and other crops along the way. Continue reading Dicamba Restrictions Added
By Laura Lindsey, Ohio State University Extension
Soybean plants have a high demand for nitrogen as soybean grain contains a large amount of protein. An 80-bushel per acre soybean crop requires approximately 302 pounds of N per acre. As soybean yield increases, many farmers question if nitrogen supplied through fixation and the soil is adequate to maximize yield. Continue reading Are Soybeans Responsive to Nitrogen Fertilizer?
By Peggy Kirk Hall, Asst. Professor, Agricultural & Resource Law and Ellen Essman, Law Fellow, Ohio State University
This fall, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an agreement with Monsanto, BASF and DuPont to change dicamba registration and labeling beginning with the 2018 growing season. EPA reports that the agreement was a voluntary measure taken by the manufacturers to minimize the potential of dicamba drift from “over the top” applications on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton, a recurring problem that has led to a host of regulatory and litigation issues across the Midwest and South. The upcoming changes might alleviate dicamba drift issues, but they also raise new concerns for farmers who will have more responsibility for dicamba applications. Continue reading What Will Dicamba Changes Mean For Farmers?
By: Laura Lindsey, Wayde Looker
2017 Ohio Soybean Performance Trials
Yield results for the 2017 Ohio Soybean Performance Trials are available online at: https://stepupsoy.osu.edu/soybean-production/variety-selection/ohio-soybean-performance-trial Seed quality information will be available within two weeks.
The purpose of the Ohio Soybean Performance Trials is to evaluate soybean varieties for yield and other agronomic characteristics. This evaluation gives soybean producers comparative information for selecting the best varieties for their unique production systems. New for 2017- Varieties were grouped, tested, and analyzed by maturity (early and late trials). Conventional, Liberty Link, Roundup Ready, and Xtend varieties were tested in the same block to allow for head-to-head comparisons. A double asterisk (**) is used to denote the variety with the highest yield within a yield and maturity grouping. A single asterisk (*) is used to denote varieties with yield not statistically different than the highest yielding variety.