Planting season is a big deal for farmers. The decisions made here will determine the ultimate potential yield of your crop. As Dr. Heiniger says, “Planting day is the most important day of your season. It’s your super bowl. It’s the day you want to perform your best.”. And for a few years now Dr.…
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Farmers have to track, analyze and respond to an incredible amount of data to make the best decisions for their farms. Data management systems can help make sense of it all, although getting started and understanding which system is right can be daunting. USB is publishing a four-part series that will explore how to decide…
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The North Carolina Soybean Producers Association is dedicated to investing in research projects that help farmers increase both their productivity and profitability and over the last few years the Association has funded a number of exciting projects to get growers thinking about the crop a little differently. Some of those projects include investigating maturity group…
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The name of the game among producers in commodity markets is to support prices by winding down stocks. In this blog post we begin by exploring this relationship and then illustrate the lengths that producers, should, in theory, go to achieve tight stocks. In short, the relationship between ending stocks and price is often so…
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The last several months have ushered in some exciting developments for North Carolina soybean exports. In January, Scoular announced they would be building a high-speed container loading facility at Wilmington, a reflection of the compelling economics of containerized exports from NC, and the culmination of a series of meetings and conversations between the Nebraska-based company…
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Over the last two weeks, we have discussed results from a planting date by maturity group study the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association sponsored. If you missed those posts catch up here in Part 1 and Part 2. As a quick reminder, 8 different varieties (four late 4’s, two early 5’s, and two late 5’s) were evaluated…
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Last week we started discussing data from some planting date by maturity group research that the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association sponsored, and a group of crop consultants carried out. If you missed that post, catch up here. As a quick reminder, 8 different varieties (four late 4’s, two early 5’s, and two late 5’s)…
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How can soybean producers push yield limits on modern soybean varieties? One way may be to alter our “traditional” planting dates and maturity groups. Planting date and variety selection play a major role in determining yield potential in any given year. Many growers have been experimenting with varieties of different maturity groups and earlier planting…
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One of the next new things in the soybean world may be in-furrow applications. While this is still a relatively new practice, the idea of using fungicides, insecticides, or starter fertilizers is promising as it may help start the plant off to a faster growth trajectory. In-furrow products differ from seed treatments as they theoretically…
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Want to improve sustainability on your farm? There are things you can be doing now, even before planting. Research shows that most U.S. soybean farmers are already sustainable and they implement a variety of sustainable practices on their farms. But there are always opportunities for improvement. Here are some things to think about that can…
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Proper variety selection is one of the most important steps a soybean producer can make. It is important to devote some time to selecting the right variety for the right environment as this decision is one of the first steps to maximizing yields. If we compare the top 10% of soybean varieties grown within a…
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It is important for soybean farmers to implement practices to ensure the land they farm will allow them to farm it for years to come, and are always improving to be able to do so. Farmers can put sustainable practices in place that allow them to improve yields and profits without a huge investment, and…
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