Seed treatments have gained in popularity over the last few years, but are they a smart investment for soybean farmers? And if so, what kind of treatments are your best options? You are faced with many choices of products that can be placed on the seed. With millions of dollars are spent on seed treatments…
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Soybean seed supply is limited for 2016 plantings. The extremely limited supplies will be in maturity groups 6 and 7, and supplies of late group 5 seed may also be very tight. Watch for announcements from the seed companies in the coming days about seed availability, germination rates, and incentives. Expect some suppliers to tag seed…
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With greater than 80% of the soybean acreage in North Carolina setting pods, now is the time to be on the lookout for pod feeding insects. Pod feeders are the most dangerous insect pest as they directly attack soybean yield by feeding on the seeds/pods. Corn earworm and stink bugs are the two most serious…
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Walking and scouting fields is important for a number of reasons but as we move into July, identification of insect pests is key to maintaining maximum yields. I recently met a bed bugs exterminator expert who told me that understanding the insect population in your field, allows you to formulate the most effective and profitable…
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With over 50% of the North Carolina soybean crop now in reproductive stages, it’s time to begin thinking about how disease pressure may affect the yield of your crop. Scouting is critical to determine which diseases are present and if a fungicide application may be helpful in protecting yield. A number of diseases are common…
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Fall is the time to think about nematode numbers in your fields. Nematodes are microscopic roundworms which may feed on the roots of plants. There are hundreds of different species of nematodes, but most are not economically important. Two that are of economic importance to North Carolina growers are root-knot nematode (RKN) and soybean cyst…
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While it is far enough along in the season to not be concerned about rust for the majority of our soybeans in North Carolina, some very late planted beans may still be at risk. Read the rust update below from Drs. Jim Dunphy and Lindsey Thiesen if you have beans that haven’t reached R5 yet.…
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‘Roundup Ready 2 Xtend’ (RR2 Xtend) soybean varieties are now becoming available for planting. Farmers should be aware of some significant concerns about use of these varieties. As of May 2, 2016, these seed were not approved for sale in Europe. Processors and elevators may require special conditions for purchasing these beans from growers. Perdue…
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In July, NCSU announced the release of three new conventional group VI and VII soybean varieties. The development and release of these three high yielding varieties are the culmination of many years of joint research projects and collaboration between the USDA and NCSU, much of which was funded by either the North Carolina Soybean Producers…
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Soybean growers in Pitt, Green, Lenoir, Wayne, Duplin, Sampson, and Robeson counties are eligible to apply for a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant program through your NRCS office. This special program, called SmithfieldGro was begun by Smithfield Foods and the Environmental defense fund to help grain farmers improve their productivity, profitability,…
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You have spent the entire season caring for your soybean crop, hoping to produce the best crop possible. After all the time and inputs spent on the crop, too much is at risk to do a poor job harvesting. Spending a little time on combine efficiency may help increase yields by up to 10%. Studies…
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Regardless of the crops we grow or work with, the one thing we all have in common in the ag industry is complaining about the weather. It’s either too wet, or too dry or too hot, or too cold. When talking soybeans specifically, water stress (either too much or too little) is one of…
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