June Soybean Planting

May 23, 2022

Heavy rains this week will likely push planting soybeans back in to the first week or two of June. I have taken some calls from growers concerned about if the longer season soybean varieties that they had been planting should be changed to a shorter one with getting them in later than they wanted to. If we were planting corn, I would say yes at this point we would need to find a variety that is shorter season because GDD’s have been lost and a shorter season corn could possibly yield the same and be drier at harvest. With soybeans though we have to think a little “backwards." Soybeans run on sunlight and photo period, meaning when they sense a decrease in sunlight in the fall they start to shut down. By planting a longer season variety these soybeans will grow more in less time than a shorter season one, resulting in taller beans and more places to set pods. It does not scare me to keep planting the 3.5-3.9 RM varieties that we have out there now. I am confident in the research and expertise of the technical agronomists from the seed companies on this topic. There is still time to put this crop in and it is not time to panic yet. If you have questions or would like to talk to a seed rep or a tech agronomist from one of our seed companies about any topic give your local SFG agronomist a call we would be happy to bring them out to your farm or field to discuss this with you.