“Variable”- if I had a nickel for every time I heard an agronomist use that term with me, I’d have a LOT of nickels! That’s the theme again this year though when we’re talking about soybean yield across Michigan. It’s all a matter of who got rain and who didn’t.
Pioneer agronomist Mike Swoish says there are a lot of farmers who have started soybean harvest in his area of Southwest Michigan.
“Yields are actually pretty respectable, especially if you think back to the end of June this year. If you look at pictures on my phone, I would not have guessed that you’d have anywhere near average soybean yields. They refused to grow in June. Between animal damage and the drought, they were not happy. Now, we’re getting some pretty close to average, if not slightly above average yield, which is I think phenomenal.”
Swoish encourages you to not let your soybeans get any drier than 13%.
“If you do that, we’re losing yield not only from a little bit more shattering, but we’re basically giving up our opportunity to sell water. So, you don’t want to do that. Try to harvest them as soon as possible. Even if you have to chew through some stems. It’s worth it from a financial standpoint.”
Swoish has heard reports of strong corn yield as well early on, over 200 bpa dryland in spots. He offers his best advice right now.
“Prioritize those fields where we do find either some stalkk issues or some ear mold issues. We don’t want to be docked if we can at all help it. Some combine settings can help in reducing the amount of vomitoxin levels we have from fields with ear mold. So, we want to prioritize those fields. We want to make sure we get all the grain out of the field we can and that it’s as high quality as we can possibly manage.”
Hear the full interview with Pioneer agronomist Mike Swoish below.
