36 percent of Michigan’s soybeans have been harvested, eight points ahead of the five-year average.
According to Christopher Bauer, Pioneer agronomist, has heard of many producers with average to above average yields. Soybean seed size has been playing a big role.
“There’s two basic soybean yield components—you’ve got seeds per acre, which is a function of plants per acre times seeds per plant,” he says. “The other one is seed size, which can be estimated in several ways—seeds per pound is the most common measurement.”
Bauer says he’s been hearing that soybean seed size this year has been larger than average.
“A quick example: let’s say you’ve got 230 seeds per square foot with an average seed size of 3,000 seeds per pound—that would come out to around 55, 56 bushels per acre,” he says. “Let’s say stress led to smaller seed size and you’ve only got 3,500 seeds per pound—that’s going to be eight bushers lower at 47, 48. Then if we had ideal late season weather, which would therefore lead to larger seed size, 2,500 seeds per pound, then you’d be coming in around 11 bushels higher at around 66.”
He adds that seed size essentially comes down to late-season stresses. This agronomy update has been made possible by Pioneer.
