Agronomy Update: Research Study Results - Initial Report in a Series

2020 AGRONOMY TRIALS

The Dairyland Seed Agronomy Team plants a series of agronomy trials each year to explore some of the interesting questions and discussions that we encounter throughout the season. Our Wabash, Indiana, Research Farm and Mt. Hope, Wisconsin, Product and Agronomy Research (PAR) sites provide a great setting for strip trial demonstrations and studies. These studies might include seed treatments, soybean population, fungicide efficacy, starter fertilizer, silage cutting height and others. Wherever dealers or customers are interested, we also integrate some experiments into our on-farm strip trials such as planting rate, fertility and fungicide treatments.

In the coming weeks, we plan to share some of our preliminary observations and results from 2020 in this newsletter. We will also have a more comprehensive summary released later this year. We know that none of these studies are a replacement for experience on your farm. It can be tough to extrapolate results from Wabash and Mt. Hope to all acres, but we hope to inspire curiosity for further learning on your farm. We do our best to touch on concepts that you would encounter in your management decisions and hope to provide groundwork for you to further explore these concepts on your operation. We encourage everyone to use a portion of their acres each year for trying new things; be it fertility rates, crop protection products, planting rates, etc. Get out there and try it, learn and move forward!

None of this information would be possible without an extensive group of people that help each year. The staff at Mt. Hope and Wabash are passionate about executing these projects. They contribute greatly and are essential to this project. As are the on-farm volunteers who go above and beyond their normal plot planting and harvesting effort. Thank you!

WABASH RESEARCH FARM STUDY:  TIME OF PLANTING OF SOYBEANS

One of the agronomic study projects conducted this year at the Dairyland Seed Wabash Research Farm was time of planting for soybeans.  “Normal planting time” for this geography might be April 25 to May 15.  Some growers are interested in planting earlier, and some studies, as well as anecdotal on-the-farm evidence, suggest that earlier planting can be successful.

The study:

• Two varieties:  DSR-2640E and DSR-3146E (Group 2.6 and 3.1 relative maturities). 
• Planting dates were April 5, April 20, May 2, and May 23. 
• Two row plots, 175 feet in length
• 130,000 targeted planting population
• Harvest dates:  Sept 14 and Sept 19

Results: 

Table 1

Table 2

Discussion:

Weather in April and early May was abnormally cold, with adequate but not too much moisture. 

Observations:

• The April 5 plantings were very slow to emerge with total emergence occurring over about five weeks. 
• Final stands for the April 5 planting were reduced substantially- to about 60% stand.  See Table 1.  All other plantings achieved good to very good final stands.
• Both varieties reacted similarly to date of planting:  Earlier was better for yield

While we did not have physical space to conduct a replicated study for this project, the simple data does suggest that it can be highly successful to plant soybeans “early” – even with substantially reduced stands.  Of course, the success of any planting is highly dependent on the weather.  Given that the highest yields were obtained with the earlier (April 5 and April 22) planting dates, even though on-the ground observation showed much slower or more varied emergence, we would like to develop a more complete and replicated study for 2021. 

Corteva Technology Use Agreements

All growers with orders for any Corteva Agriscience brand seed product, regardless of crop or trait (including non-GM products) need to have a signed Corteva Technology Use Agreement in place by September 1. Growers should sign the Corteva Technology Use Agreement electronically at www.agcelerate.com. Signing electronically is preferable, however, paper copies are available at www.traitstewardship.com.

Brian Weller Western Region 507.456.3034	Dan Ritter Central Region 219.863.0583	Branden Furseth Northern Region 608.513.4265	Rod King Eastern Region 574.596.6721	Terry Jones Eastern Region 419.630.3115

Enjoying our Agronomy Updates? Suggestions for topics you'd like us to weigh in on? Drop us an email at dairylandseed@dairylandseed.com. We'd love to hear from you!