Tips on Managing Delayed Planted Soybeans, Karen Zuver
We’ve woken up to some frosty mornings in Michigan. Soybeans might handle the frost a little better than corn, but frost damage can make the beans difficult to harvest.
According to Karen Zuver, a Pioneer agronomist, farmers will have to adjust some of your combine settings to accommodate for that damage.
“We’re going to want to stay on top of that by looking at our combine settings, making sure we have things set, checking behind the combine after we’ve ran a few to make sure we’re not losing too many and also check in our bin to make sure we’ve got good, clean soybeans,” she said.
Soybean harvest has been tough with rain, and moisture levels have been variable. Ideally, Zuver said soybeans should be at 13 percent moisture, but she recognizes some might not be that dry.
“With those higher moisture beans, you’ve got to think about your dryer settings to get too to reduce those temperatures in dryers to make sure we don’t seed coats cracking,” she said. “Then making sure we get those soybeans down low enough so they store well.”
She said soybeans attract moisture, so if you’re drying beans, dry them a point or two below your target moisture because yield losses can happen if the beans are too dry.
“If we wait too long, we can suffer harvest loss on the other side if we’re harvesting too dry beans, we can see harvest loss in the field,” said Zuver.
For more information, contact your local pioneer agronomist.
