February 11, 2025 • 39 mins
Unlock the secrets to smashing the 80 bushels per acre barrier with strategic soybean fertility management. Ever wondered how a simple nutrient misstep can turn your lush soybean dreams into a tangled mess? Join us, Jeff Mueller and Bill Backus, as we spill the beans on avoiding common pitfalls and maximizing your yield, especially when commodity prices aren't in your favor. Learn about the vital G by E by M yield triangle and how potassium plays an unexpected yet critical role in your soybean success story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBackus.
And thanks again for joining usas we dive into the world of
soybeans, covering varioustopics and providing insights to
the soybean industry.
Bill, how are we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Doing great.
I can't believe it's alreadyFebruary.
I mean January just flew by andwhat the heck?
Where did that month go?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's been crazy.
You know lows in the negative,35 wind chills last week and
this week we're going to be inthe mid 50s.
So it's all over the board.
But the one factor I think wecan all agree on is we're dry
and, uh, we, we could use somemoisture.
(01:07):
I'd rather have it in rain thansnow, but we could sure use
some moisture.
And through a lot of themidwest, I'm gonna gonna be
going into the spring, uh, maybea little drier than we'd like
to, but, uh, I'd rather be indrier conditions than wet
conditions going into the springor, uh, at spring planning time
.
So today we're going to betalking we don't, maybe not so
much today, but maybe I shouldpull back on that a little bit.
(01:29):
We're actually, for the nextfew episodes, we're going to be
talking more about some thingswith maybe some of the
mechanisms of soybeans, talkingabout some of the fertility,
which is what we want to hit ontoday, but also in the next
couple episodes, you know, wewant to talk about some of the
mechanics of, you know, rowspacing and population, some of
those things.
As you know, we're preparing.
(01:51):
It's hard to believe.
You know, we're only a couplemonths away from starting to put
the first seeds in the ground,which is seems crazy.
Every year it seems to get herefaster and faster going through
there.
But today, you know, we kind ofwanted to hit on fertility with
soybeans and some of the thingswe can look at and maybe some
things we can take into questionor we can make a decision on
that will help increase some ofthat yield out there.
(02:13):
Because, you know, as we know,this whole podcast is designed
on maximizing that return oninvestment for the farmer out
there and maximizing the yieldswe have out there.
So you know, one of thequestions we're going to start
out with, bill, is, you know wetalk about over-fertilizing
soybeans or applying it at thewrong time can have detrimental
results to soybean yields.
What does optimum fertilitylook like in soybeans?
(02:35):
You know, especially in a yearlike this year where you know
commodity prices are down, everybushel matters right now.
So what are some of the thingsthat we can think about there,
bill, talk about a little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, no, great, great question, Jeff, and really
looking forward to the nextseveral sessions as we get
through this.
So the fun thing about whatwe're doing is everything's
going to be.
We're going to talk about the Gby E by M yield triangle here
in a little bit.
But the one thing that I wantto start with if you can't break
80 bushels on your farm,something is limiting.
(03:08):
I mean, you got to figure outwhat that is right.
So a lot of people look tofertility, a lot of people look
at you know, and we're going totalk today about nitrogen, we're
going to talk about phosphorus,we're going to talk about
potash, we're going to talkabout sulfur, we're going to
talk about, you know, manure.
We're going to talk about allthose things and how they
interact with that.
But you know, I thought we'dstart with just a little bit of
a story time.
You know, I had a customerseveral years ago.
We were doing a little trialwith him and we had it all set
(03:31):
up.
You know, during this time ofthe year we had the plan put in
place.
We're going to put corn on oneside and we're going to put
beans on the other and kindammonia, basically, on the corn
plot.
What was going to corn?
So on the bean ground as you'rerotating through.
Well, we also had a little bitof corn on corn in there too.
(03:54):
So, inadvertently, the customapplicator just kept on going
and actually put it on.
Too much of the plot.
So we had, where it was goingto, soybeans, ended up having
anhydrous ammonia on it.
So I think it was about, offthe top of my head, about 120
pounds of anhydrous ammonia thatwe had put down there.
So, lo and behold, right, well,we still have to put a soybean
(04:15):
pot in.
What are we going to do?
Well, let's go ahead and plantsoybeans on it anyway.
And you probably guess whathappened if you're listening,
you know.
So we thought, well, let'slower the population.
We know these things are goingto grow.
You know, six, seven, eightfoot tall.
Just get super, super tall andgo down on us.
We really lowered thepopulation, we put them out
there and, lo and behold, yeah,that's exactly what they did.
(04:35):
Even by lowering the population,I think we had like 80,000.
We planted really thin andthought, well, let's try that.
They.
And thought, well, let's trythat.
They still got big and growthyand put all their effort into
vegetative growth and we reallydidn't get, you know, the yield
that we're looking for, ofcourse, because they lodged and
just kind of went down.
So you know one of those thingsyou think about over
fertilizing, you know puttingthe wrong nutrient on the right,
(04:57):
wrong time, and you know wetalked everything about putting
it on at the right time.
You know, those are kind of thebig things that we really,
really want to look at.
So so, jeff, you know, if youthink about it, what is the most
important nutrient in soybeanproduction?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know, really the most important nutrient in
soybean production is the onethat probably a lot of producers
don't even think about.
You know, when it comes tosoybeans and you know it's
nitrogen.
And the reason it is we don'tthink about it so much is
because soybeans is a plant thatcan fixate its own nitrogen
through the nodules and we'regoing to talk about that here in
a little bit.
But you know that's key andcritical with soybeans.
But there's also a slew ofother nutrients.
(05:36):
You know the two main ones, themacros.
You know P and K.
You know potassium andphosphorus make make huge
differences there also.
But also some of the secondarynutrients.
You know sulfur is one thatwe're going to hit on a little
bit today going through there.
But some of those micronutrientsit's you know you see that
picture of that that waterbarrel, you know it's got all
(05:56):
those slats on it.
You know that hold that barrelis only going to hold as much
water as the as the lowest slatout there.
So if we're down on somethingof a macro or a micro nutrient
that we have out there,something in our fertility
program is off, that barrelisn't going to fill up all the
way, it's only going to fill uppart of the way.
So that's really what we'retrying to dive into today a
(06:18):
little bit is some of theimportance of some of the
nutrients we're going with, butagain, nitrogen is first and
foremost.
That is the most important whenwe're dealing with soybeans.
And that brings me to my nextquestion and Bill, you bring it
up a lot and it is the key andcore behind producing high
yielding beans and understandingyour fields.
It's the G by E, by M, so it'sthe genetics by environment, by
(06:42):
management, and you know,discuss a little bit.
You know what effect does the Gby E by M have?
You know, like on a soybeanyield?
You know pods per acre, theseeds per pod, the seed weight
per.
You know the seed weight or theweight per seed that you have
out there.
How does that affect some ofthose factors that we're dealing
(07:02):
with when we're talking aboutsoybean production?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, yeah, you go back several episodes, you
re-listen to the one that wetalk about G by E, by M, but
again, the genetics, you knowthe triangle, if you will, the
genetics on the bottom and theenvironment on the one side and
the management on the other.
And really, you know, as wethink through, there's
interactions that go on withselecting the right variety,
putting in the right place andthen doing the right management
with it.
Right, so management can be,you know, fertility, and we're
(07:29):
going to focus on that piece ofthat triangle here today.
So you think about thefertility that you have already
inherent naturally in your soiland then you think about that's
what's there, that's available.
You also get to look at pH,right, so we think about pH and
what's actually available.
So if we're too low a pH below5.5, we'll talk about those
specifically here in a littlebit.
You know you got some thingsthat are getting limiting.
(07:50):
We get above 7.5, which we justtalked about Previous episode.
We talked about IDC.
You know iron gets limiting, sowe start getting into those
different factors that we got tounderstand on getting that
sweet spot, getting that sweetspot other we put together.
But, you know, really thinkabout, like you said, you know,
pods per acre, how do weinfluence that?
How do we influence the seedsper pot, how do we influence the
weight per seed?
So all of these uh nutrientshave have a certain function
(08:13):
that really work together in, inharmony, if you will to, you
know, create that soybean.
So, as you mentioned, nitrogenbeing the most important uh, you
know soybeans are very high inprotein, right, so simply a
building block that it has tohave to create that protein.
And if we don't have enough ofthat, you know that gets
limiting and that startschanging.
(08:34):
You know the number of pods peracre because we have so many
plants that we put out there, westart looking at limiting our
seeds per pod and we startlimiting our weight per seed.
Think about, you know,phosphorus and potash and so on
and so forth and everything thatwe have going on there and uh,
so on and so forth.
So, uh, just a just a big pieceof that puzzle that we have
looking at, and there's just alot of pieces of this thing that
(08:55):
we want to dig into.
We're going to continue digging, you know, through our series
here, but today we're gettingfocused on you, on how does
fertility influence the G, by E,by M.
So that's really a great piece.
So, jeff, let's start off withpotassium.
Let's start looking at whatthat does here.
What does K is?
A lot of people see it as K,but what does potassium do in
(09:18):
the soybean plant?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah.
So potassium, really what itdoes is it's going to influence
photosynthesis and help regulatethe metabolism within that
soybean plant.
It is a key and criticalcomponent to the stomata opening
and closing in the leaves.
So really, what happens thereis when that stomata that we're
talking about opens and closes.
That's talking about releasingwater vapors, releasing gases
(09:41):
through that plant or bringingthings into that plant.
So really it's a key, criticalfactor with soybeans Individuals
or farmers and you know it'shard to realize this, but you
know we always talk about corn,we talk about removal from that
plant and you know we need itfor the corn and we don't really
hit so much on the soybeans.
But soybeans, when you harvestthem, they actually remove about
(10:03):
1.4 pounds of potassium perbushel that's produced.
So if you think about it, ifyou had 70 bushel beans, you're
removing around 85 pounds ofpotassium out of that field per
acre, where if you have 200bushel corn, you're only
removing 50 pounds of potassiumper acre.
So you're actually utilizingmore or taking out more
(10:23):
potassium with soybeans than youare with corn.
One of the things behindpotassium it is naturally a
higher level fertility.
In a lot of the soils that wehave, especially over here in
Nebraska we get more of that butin a lot of the areas it's one
of the probably the three mainones that of the N, p and K the
three main ones that probablygets applied the least amount
(10:46):
from a lot of cases just becauseof its prevalence we have out
there.
But you know, if you thinkabout what's all in the soil,
it's basically broke down intothree categories.
We have the readily available,because it's a very mobile
nutrient within that soil.
We have the readily available,which is only like 2% of the
potassium in the soil.
We have the others that we seeslowly available.
(11:06):
You know what's tied up in theclay layers that we have and
then really anywhere from 90 to98% of it is actually tied up in
a mobile mineral.
So it has to actually be brokendown through microbes breaking
it down or through slow release,mineralization occurring within
that soil.
So again, you may have a lot inthat soil but it really makes a
(11:32):
difference on what is readilyavailable for that plant and
what is not.
So again, it's key in acritical component.
You will see where you haveinstances.
Where you have less soilmovement, you'll have less
readily available potassium.
Think about no-till situations,strip-tilled situations from
their minimal movement of soil.
You'll have a lot of it in thatupper layer, that top layer,
(11:52):
but down where the roots are atit won't be down in there
because that soil hasn't beenturned.
So you can run in somesituations or instances.
Instances like that and alsounder drought or compaction
you'll see it worse because youjust don't have that fluctuation
through that soil that'soccurring through there.
Low CECs, cation exchangecapacities can be worse, sandy
soils can be worse from some ofthose cases also, best
(12:14):
application for it is going tobe a broadcast application when
we're putting it through thereand we'll hit on that a little
bit more.
But that's really what thepotassium does.
It's that photosynthesis andthat metabolism and that stomate
activity that we have goingthrough there.
That's a key component.
So it's one to really thinkabout.
But we don't think about itthat often because it's as
readily available or I shouldsay as high of parts per million
(12:36):
we have in soil.
But we have to think of it froma readily available perspective
.
You know platform versus a, youknow what's the total potential
or total amount that we haveout there.
And then we talked a little bitabout potassium and this is
riveting information.
I know we can talk about someof the soil fertility, but you
know, you know what doesphosphorus?
You know that's the other,other than nitrogen and
(12:56):
potassium.
That's the other one of the bigthree that we talked about with
soybeans.
What's the value thatphosphorus brings to soybeans
and what does it do for theplant and how does it help us
produce high yielding soybeans?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah.
So, jeff, a great question.
Phosphorus is definitely acritical component to soybean
production.
If you look at everything thatwe do, especially through all of
our Midwest soils, you know alot of areas do have enough
phosphorus.
But when you start thinkingabout you know, especially
looking back to the pH scale,you know if we get below six we
have some issues.
It starts getting tied up.
It's not as readily available.
(13:27):
We start getting basicallyafter about seven and a half it
kind of goes down again and thenall of a sudden it gets above
about eight and a half and thenactually gets more readily
available when you get in thereas well.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So definitely a little more.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know fickle type nutrient that we want to look at
.
But you know fickle typenutrient that we want to look at
.
But you know some of the thingsthat mainly it really does for
us we think about.
You know, in every episode herewe've talked about soybeans.
We do kind of slip in a littlebit about roots, right.
So we want to have strong rootdevelopment and that's really
(13:58):
where phosphorus comes in thatearly season.
You know that shoot growth, weget up and growing, everything
about that.
Think about this nutrientreally being, you know, not very
mobile in the soil, veryimmobile, gets tied up and you
think about like you mentionedthere on potash.
You think about you know we'vegot a lot of no-till situations
going on, get stratified in thatupper layer, kind of gets tied
right in there and doesn't movewhere we want it to.
(14:18):
And you think about you knowthe, you know conservation
tillage.
We're trying to get to thatpoint as much as we possibly can
to conserve all of our soilsand really increase that soil
biology and that soil health.
As we think about everythingthat's going, you think about
the earthworms.
Earthworms are moving thingsback, up and forth, going up and
down that soil and that soilprofile.
When you get into a no-tillsituation they do a little bit
(14:39):
of that movement, but again very, very tight up.
So you think about soybeans allthe way through the end of the
season.
You think about stresstolerance.
You think about you know how doI maximize my ROI throughout
that entire season?
You know, basically, from startto finish, I want to make sure
you've got enough phosphorus outthere and really you know no
reason to go too high because,like for Iowa, we get into the
(15:01):
point of that nutrient basicallymoving through the soil or
getting flushed out, I shouldsay, and basically going down
into the Gulf of Mexico.
Right, we basically get thatbloom if you will down in the
Gulf and we don't really wantall that going on.
So we really could try to keepthat, as you know, because all
(15:22):
the soil movement, I guess fromthe erosion that we're talking
about there, we look at, youknow, because all the soil
movement, I guess from theerosion that we're talking about
there, we look at, you know,improving that nodulation, we
want to get into there.
We tie that all together.
So really some nice things thatare really critical and we
think about that nodulation backto that nitrogen fixation,
which that works together.
So big piece of that puzzlethat we want to make sure really
works together.
(15:42):
So, jeff, we think about, youknow, nitrogen, nitrogen
fixation.
We think about we talked aboutphosphorus.
You know how do soybeans getenough nitrogen to really take
care of business?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, no great question, bill.
And that's you know.
That's the one thing aboutsoybeans is it requires a lot of
nitrogen and a lot of peopledon't realize that.
And you know it's a uniqueplant and it has its ability to
fix its own nitrogen and it doesit through nodulation that we
have on the roots.
You'll see, early on thoseplants will be coming up and
then all of a sudden you'llstart getting these little knots
(16:13):
on the roots out there andyou'll start getting those
nodules starting to grow andfixate out there and they
actually, you know, pull in thenitrogen and it produces its own
nitrogen.
From that standpoint, you knowthere's some things to think
about with that.
Also, under ideal conditions,ideal fertility, you know there
is no concern with havingnodulation occurring out there,
especially if you're in arotation Corn on beans every
(16:35):
other year going that way,because you're always going to
have that bacterium out therethat helps with that nodulation.
We get over here in some of ourcases in Nebraska and in some
other areas too, as we getfarther west, where it's more of
a corn on corn acre and maybebeans are only going in there
every fourth or fifth year, somefields maybe it goes in once
every eight or 10 years, justdepends on what it is.
In those cases we need toreally make sure that we're
(16:57):
putting on an inoculant on thesoybean seed before we get
planted, something like a VaultIP.
What this does is it helps getthat nodulation, gets those
bacterium out there.
So when they get put out thereyou get that nodulation going on
.
Because if you don't havenodulation, if you don't have
that bacteria out there, youdon't have that nodulation going
on.
You are not going to get goodbeans.
You just don't have thatnitrogen fixation out there.
(17:18):
There's some stories out there.
Some people say you know, onceyou get to a certain level of
beans 70, 75 bushel you know youdon't have enough nodulation
out there to keep up with what.
You have to add somesupplemental nitrogen.
But we have a lot of peoplegrowing 80, 90, 95 bushel beans
every year not supplementednitrogen.
So a lot of it depends on thefertility out there.
And if you think about that, ahealthier plant, you get
(17:40):
healthier nitrogen fixation.
You're limiting that plantstress.
You get healthier nitrogenfixation.
You're limiting that plantstress.
So the healthier you keep thatplant which is keeping all that
fertility, all those nutrientsin sync and that plant's healthy
, it has better nitrogenfixation and it can maximize
that potential it needs and itjust is a healthier plant that
we talk about out there.
One other one I wanted to hit onreal quick.
So those are the three big ones.
(18:00):
We talk about N, p and K.
That's what always gets talkedabout, big ones.
You know we talk about N, p andK.
That's what always gets talkedabout.
One nutrient and personally myopinion it's a secondary one,
but sulfur.
Sulfur is one I think that is akey and critical component to
soybeans.
So can you give us a little bitof information, bill, or your
thoughts on why sulfur is a keyand critical component?
And maybe is there some othermicroorganisms, you know, the
(18:23):
organic matter, the soil health.
What are some of those thingsthat can really help maximize
that yield in soybeans out there?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, that's a great one, my personal favorite as
well, jeff when you think aboutsulfur.
So I'm going to slip in just alittle bit of a story time here
as well.
So, if I go back to my firstdays as retail, you know we were
starting to think about thisalready.
You know we were starting tothink about this already and you
know that's been over 30 yearsago and we start looking at, you
know, putting that elementalsulfur out there, basically in
(18:50):
our custom blends that we'reputting together and we're like
well, what, why do we need this?
What's going on here?
Well, you know, as we've, we'veacid rain, I mean, that's
really what it comes back to,way back, way back.
We haven't really had thatbecause we've kind of reduced
the amount of coal that we'reburning for years and we've done
a lot of pillage and you knowour forefathers did a lot of
plowing and basically, you know,kind of you know robbed the
(19:14):
soil of what we had and puttingit back in there.
So definitely one that I wouldsay, if you just go back in
history, we got to understandwhere and why and what's going
on with sulfur, and I think it'sa big piece of the puzzle.
So you just got them talkingabout nitrogen fixation.
So sulfur is critical to that,critical to that overall
mechanism, basically to allowthat soybean basically to fixate
(19:38):
and then also uptake it.
So it's kind of the pathway, soit allows that soybean to take
that all up.
So you think about the timing,you know.
You think about elementalsulfur we talked about that.
You think about ammonium sulfate.
You think about some differentforms that we can use basically
to put out there.
So one you don't even thinkabout, you know, when we put
(20:01):
spray Liberty, we put AMS inthere, ammonium sulfate, so we
get a little shot, very littleshot, basically within that tank
mix in there.
So not enough to really, youknow, do a lot, but enough to
kind of say, hey, it's another,you know, I'm putting some
ammonium out there and I'mputting some sulfur out there
with that ammonium sulfate.
So you tie those together.
(20:21):
Some guys are looking atammonium sulfate as a pretty,
you know, pure form, pretty,pretty readily available, type,
type, option.
You think about, you know,everything that we just got to
talk about with soilconservation, to talk about
biology.
Think about all the microbesthat are working together in
that soil.
Think about the CEC and howthey all tie together and that
whole system gets working.
(20:42):
So the healthier that soil is.
Of course.
You know Iowa, we got someorganic matter.
Nebraska, you know you gotlower organic matter that you
got.
So you really just don't haveas much really available.
So definitely, you know, as youget into some areas where you
have a lot of lower or you havelower organic matter, you maybe
have some sandier soil, somethings like that.
You know we're seeing aboutthat 10 to 15 pounds basically
(21:05):
per acre of a sulfur application, seeing some benefit in there.
So keep that in mind.
I'm not saying a blanketapplication of all that.
But you know, understand yoursoil tests, understand what's
going on in your environment,understand you know what your
biology is like, how healthyyour soil is and really
everything that you've got goingon in your system really to get
there.
So higher organic matter you'reprobably not going to see as
much response from it.
(21:25):
Lower organic matter, I thinkyou're going to see a pretty
good response.
You know if you are hittingthat wall of I can't get over 80
or 90 bushels, you knowdefinitely consider.
You know adding some sulfur inthere and kind of do some trials
and you know, do some stripstrip trials with that
application and see what you canget out of that.
You talked about healthierplants too, jeff.
I think when we go back to someof our previous episodes and we
(21:47):
talked about, you know, addinga fungicide at r3, revitec, for
example, or veltema, keepingthat whole uh plant healthier
all the way through, allowing itto to do the work it needs to
do sulfur part of that.
Sulfur is a big part of keepingthat system running.
It is the.
You know it's still a micro,but it's probably the number one
(22:08):
macro.
It's still a macro or it'sstill a micro.
Let me spit that out.
It's still a micro, but it'sprobably the number one micro.
It could potentially be a macroif we start really thinking
about what it's doing.
So it's a big piece of thatpuzzle.
So, jeff, we think about, youknow those are kind of the big.
You know NPK and sulfur.
We've talked about those.
You know there's some othermicros.
(22:28):
You know there's some zinc,there's some calcium, there's
things like that are allimportant as well.
But let's kind of shift gearsand let's talk about manure.
So so what about manure?
What about chicken?
What about hog?
What about cattle?
Uh, how, how do you use that?
You know what are the concernsaround that?
What?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
do you?
What do you think about?
Add manure to the whole?
Yeah, yeah, no great question.
And uh, you know we we comefrom states that there is a lot
of manure that goes out there insome cases.
You know a lot of cattle, a lotof hogs and a lot of chickens.
From that standpoint, you knowa lot of it.
Manure, to me, is one of thebest sources that you can
utilize out there, and thereason I say that is it gives
(23:07):
you immediate help, but it alsogives you sustained levels
within your field.
You start talking about thebreakdown of manures that you
have out there.
You know you're able to getsome of that benefit right away,
but you know it's usually abouta three or four year process
with the breaking down and ithelps going through that
standpoint.
So you're helping build up someof those levels too, not just
giving it all a shot at one time, but building up those levels
(23:30):
Going to depend.
Is it a dry from a lot, from acattle lot, from a hog lot?
You know dry lots.
Are you bringing it out thereand spreading it, or is it a
liquid?
More of a concentrated comesfrom a pit and the levels can be
very differentiating.
Chicken manure is one ofprobably the highest levels that
you can have out there innutrients, but it can be very
hot.
You can actually burn yourcrops if you put too high of
(23:53):
levels out there.
So again, knowing how you'regoing from there, then I would
say cattle manure is probably onthe lower of the three out
there because you have more froma lot standpoint.
You have more soil mixed inwith it, more organic matter
mixed in with it from thatstandpoint, and then hogs is
between that chicken and thecattle, lots from there.
But yeah, manure is an awesome,excellent choice that you can
(24:16):
have out there If there's everan opportunity put out there.
I encourage producers to dothat because not only do you get
that help immediately it maynot get all that you need, but
it helps you immediately in someof it but you get that buildup
going through multiple years ofbenefit through there from that
breakdown and that just comesdown to microbes breaking things
down.
You know, building up organicmatter, building up all those
(24:36):
things.
So if manure is an option thatyou can utilize out there and
it's economically very feasible,it's an excellent choice to use
for soil beans.
Now one thing to keep in mindthat if you have manure and
you're building that up, you canbuild some levels up pretty
good where you can get some ofthese beans can get pretty tall,
can get pretty rank because youhave that higher fertility out
there.
So, again, the key behind thiswhole thing is just making sure
(24:59):
soil sampling and making sureyou know what your fertility
level is out there and having agood, healthy soil.
We talk about a lot of thethings about do we add this, do
we put this on?
Do we do this, do we do that tomaximize those high yield
soybeans out there?
What it really comes down to ishaving that soybean plant being
happy.
That is probably the number onething to maximizing that yield
(25:20):
out there, because when you havea happy soybean plant, all the
mechanisms are working right,everything's fitting well, and
that's when you're going to getthe big return on investment
from out there.
So that was a great question.
On the manure, people tell meI'm full of manure all the time,
bill, but they don't use thatword.
But with that being said,application can be huge.
We know that.
What's the timing, when to putit on?
(25:42):
We know it was sulfur.
You know you have sulfatesulfur and elemental sulfur, and
they both one's immediate onetakes a little bit time to break
down.
You know ideally when or whatcan you apply in season.
When is probably the best timeto apply some of these Bill?
Is it in season rightimmediately, when it needs it in
the fall in the spring?
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah, no, great great question, Jeff.
You know so.
We talked about the PNK so wedidn't really get into the.
You know the MAP and the DAPand the.
You know just the potashoverall.
You know what you do there.
So typically that's what we doright.
We typically do the broadcastapplication with those, those
macros and get those out thereand or manure right, if you can
do the broadcast applicationsagain, getting them on at the
right time.
You know personal family farm.
You know we do a lot ofinjecting of the hog manure.
You know run that through andinject it right into that soil
(26:26):
and get in there and depends onwhere you're at right, depends
on what you're doing.
You talk about that.
That chicken litter you know ifyou or that turkey litter take
about your poultry overall, uh,used to work on a turkey farm
back in the day, so that that isa you know.
You know that is a, a uhapplication timing, getting it
out there, um, you know thatturkey operation actually did
some composting right so so youhad a lot of other things in
(26:48):
there, um, basically to create a, a, a overall environment
that's going to help the overalluh biology of that soil.
So you get all that figured out.
Then we think about in season,right, so we think about when do
we apply it?
So we've got to be verycritical and you got to think
about the timing.
So you think about the overallcharts on when, the when the
soybean plant is using most ofthe NPNK.
(27:09):
When you got to get there sothat's when you mentioned
earlier some people are thinkingabout they hit a level and they
think about spoon feeding somenitrogen in there.
You know we have seen that befeasible, but you gotta be very
careful with that because youcan get that, you know, at the
wrong time too much and reallyinfluence negatively, basically,
your soybean production.
So, understanding the different, you know different products
(27:33):
that can be applied in season,you know.
Put them in the tank, add themto your fungicide application,
basically R3, there's could besome, you know, low levels of
things that you can use there.
It really all kind of depends onunderstanding your situation.
But go back to your soil test,understand that you can get some
tissue sampling, understandkind of where those tie together
and understand what you'remissing at that critical point
(27:54):
in time.
So there's some things that wecan do, but most commonly, first
and foremost, I keep saying geteverything the pH balance where
it needs to be.
Make sure you maximize, youknow your potential, you know
for each of those nutrients asyou get in there.
We talked about IDC.
We got some higher pHs.
You got to understand what yourenvironment is and understand
what you're going to be yourbiggest bang for your buck,
(28:16):
basically on return.
So again, we think about that.
I think that's good.
Anything else to add there,jeff?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, no, yeah, and I think timing is critical,
really critical on that too.
And watching inferrals, youknow I'll get some individuals
say I'm just going to go aninferral.
But you have to remember youget some really high salt
contents on some of these thatyou can have.
Especially if you're putting aninferral, you can have some
pretty bad issues.
Just uh, you had your storytime earlier.
A quick one had a producer, uh,here that had some extra uh
(28:47):
starter fertilizer in their intheir planter tanks after they
did corn.
So they're like I got an extra,you know 10 gallons here, so
I'm just gonna go ahead and putmy soybeans in.
I'm gonna do a test, I'm gonnasee what it does and went ahead
and you know, and it was 10gallons, so he's put five on an
acre, so it was a couple acreand damn, you could see exactly
where those two acres werebecause we had not very many
(29:08):
beans came up and you knowthings like that.
And he's like what's going on.
You know it was a high saltcontent that we had right there
in that furrow and it took it upand it killed them off.
So again, you make a lot ofgreat points on that, bill.
It's timing, but also theapplication is critical in
making sure you're maximizingwhat you have out there also,
you know.
Another question I have for you,bill, is you know how do
(29:31):
soybean varieties influenceadditional fertility?
Because you know, that's onething we talk about a lot here.
But can a soybean variety havean effect on what type of
fertility, or does it need more,does it need less?
What?
Any quick thoughts on that one.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, before I go there, I'm going to add one
more thing on the chloride.
So you think about potassiumchloride.
You know that that is one ofthe things we use and, again, be
careful about that, because wegive some chloride, high
chloride soils.
You got to be careful aboutthat too.
So so think about that.
So, so, as You've got to becareful about that too, so think
about that.
That's one thing that justpopped into my head.
So, as we dig into, literallydig into the soybean plants and
the soybean varieties we'vetalked about the G by E by M
(30:08):
yield track We've talked about,you know, variety selection.
So when we talk about varietieshere, you know, on Spilling the
Beans, you know we're talkingabout.
You know we've done a lot withour satavo soybean varieties and
we really categorize thosedifferently.
We're using what we call avariety profile index.
(30:28):
We're profiling them tounderstand, you know, what is
their plant type?
Is it very main stem?
Does it add a lot of branches?
What kind of root type does ithave?
Is that very lateral rootgrowth?
Is that very deep penetratingroot?
What is the plant?
So one thing that I did, I dida little, I did a trial here a
couple of years ago kind of tooka high VPI and a low VPI
variety.
So a high VPI variety meansthat it branches a lot, has a
very lateral root system.
(30:50):
A low VPI soybean is a verydeep penetrating root and a very
main stem variety.
So they're completely oppositesin how they build yield.
So what I did is I added somefertility.
I was actually a dry pelletizedmanure, basically had a nice
balanced amount of N, p and Kand microbes in there as well.
(31:10):
I had some nice sulfur in thereas well.
That's kind of why I did thatand it ended up being like 200
pounds a acre because of therates that were in there.
So, without going into allthose details, but understand
that there were differences,because what I found is if I did
a pre-plant and I put that typeof a product out there, the
high VPI basically had anegative response.
(31:32):
So it just continued to grow,put all of its growth into that
vegetative type growth andreally didn't put it into yield.
The low VPI actually focused itsefforts and basically I had two
completely different or threedifferent completely
environments that I put it intoacross these trials and
replicated it as well.
And if you look at what thedifferences were.
(31:54):
Again, the low VPI actuallyresponded it was one plus one
equals two, which was neverhappens but it did.
Basically I got a nice responseof about three and a half
bushels out of the extrafertility, or yeah, no, I'm
sorry it was, it was the getthis right in my head it was
(32:14):
actually the fungicide was threeand a half bushels,
consistently across the boardbut for both of them.
But then basically I had anegative response and add more
fertility and then I had aboutan eight bushel response on
adding the fertility to the lowVPI and then it put the two
together and the fungicide andadding the fertility ended up
being 11 and a half bushelresponse, basically from the
check.
So so the low VPI, so focusedits efforts, basically was able
(32:39):
to respond to that extrafertility and didn't put it all
into growth.
So if you have that type ofenvironment, my point is today,
if you have that type ofenvironment, think about your
variety, think of how it's goingto respond to your fertility
program, think about theenvironment that you put it into
.
You know, because I hadcompletely different
environments that I put.
I had a slope, I had some, youknow, nice second bottom, I had
a high flat, I had somedifferent environments and that
(33:00):
really didn't change a lot.
The variety still, you know,responded similarly between the
two.
But when I added that extrafertility it tied it together
very nicely and what you foundis is the plant type that can
focus its efforts.
And you can understand, youknow how to respond there.
You can get there Now, I think,a high VPI, typepi type product
, you know, fed at the righttime, uh, basically in season,
(33:23):
to kind of give you morebranches and you got more more
to feed.
There I think you can get somesome nice responses.
So I would encourage you toconsider some.
You know, if you can do sometrials out there today, think
about what you're going to do.
That's kind of where we'redoing.
The podcast here now is is tostart this type of season,
because you got some time tothink about what you're going to
do in season, what trialsyou're going to run and how
you're going to set them up.
You know for the season herethis year.
(33:43):
So I think there's some neatthings we can do with that.
So that's kind of my thoughtson that jeff there.
So there's some.
There's more to follow on thatone, but I think that's a good
start to it.
So you know.
Any other comments, any otherareas discussed today?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
jeff yeah, no, just uh, and you made a good comment
there.
Just because it says you needsomething and you're applying it
doesn't mean it's the rightthing to do if it's not at the
right time or it's not put inthe right way, just like you
were talking about what you didthere and you actually saw a
negative effect.
So, knowing what you're goingin with there, you know.
So my biggest take home pointis you know, we so often discuss
(34:18):
everything on corn andfertility and we think, okay,
we're going to plant soybeansnext year.
Hey, that's great, I don't haveto worry about anything, I put
them in, I get my beans and gofrom there.
But then we may be disappointedwith what we have in some
yields or what we're seeingthrough there.
Fertility is as just asimportant in soybeans as it is
in corn.
Making sure those levels arethere, making sure it's applied
at the right time and makingsure it fits the need of that
(34:42):
crop that we have out there,because that's what you need.
We need bushel to get return oninvestment, and the only way to
do that is making sure we haveour beans being happy out there
and producing the best they can,and that comes from making sure
our fertility is right.
And probably my key take-homepoint to everyone who's
listening today is soil sample,soil sample, soil sample.
(35:04):
Know what your fields are, knowwhat you have out there whether
it's a 40-acre sample,composite sample, whether it's
two-and-a-half-inch grid samples, whatever but making sure you
know what your field levels areand what you have out there and
work to adjust those to makethose fit the soybean crop that
you have out there is going tohelp maximize that return on
investment.
(35:24):
From that standpoint, bill anyclosing comments or anything,
any take-home points or keypoints to our listeners on what
we can, any information we canprovide to help them maximize
some of their return oninvestments with soybeans.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, I think today, you know, we summarized each one
kind of as we went here todayand you know a little different
format, really, just you and I,you know, talking back and forth
, but a lot of key things thatyou think about, you know, from
fertility, right, you thinkabout, I've got, you know, my G
by E, by M, I get genetics, byenvironment, by management.
(35:58):
So environment you always thinkabout.
The first and foremost thing Ithink about is weather.
Okay, bring that back in.
Well, that's me.
The second one is is thefertility that you have and the
soil that you have, right?
So that is, that is theenvironment that you're planting
your soybean into.
So understand that, just justlike you said, jeff, you got to
take that.
However, you get the soilsample put together.
(36:19):
Understand what you did.
Understand, then, how to managethat after you've taken that
together.
So think about the soybeanvariety that you've selected,
how you put it in there, andthen we're going to talk about
the next several episodes.
We're going to talk about dataplanning, we're going to talk
about row space and we're goingto talk about seeding rate.
Talk about all those things andhow they tie together, and then
(36:46):
we're going to tie it back toreally what we're talking about
here today, really with soilfertility, because that is one
critical component of maximizingsoybean yield.
So again, I think we covered alot of great things, jeff.
Your wealth of knowledge onthis so great, great stuff,
great job, and definitely youknow this should be a really
interesting topic for a lot ofpeople.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, no, and, bill, thank you again for all your
insights and everything, andagain, it's probably the one
thing that gets.
Probably the one thing thatgets overlooked the most in
reality is the fertility levelsand making sure they're they're
where they need to be, and it'sone of the things that we can
fix the easiest or maybe Ishouldn't say fix the easiest,
but one of the things thatproducers can be the most
(37:20):
proactive with to help with someof those potential issues out
there and help maximize thatreturn on investment out there.
So, bill, thanks for joining metoday and, again, thanks for
all you for joining us today.
On Spilling the Beans, weinvite you to download the Grow
Smart Live app for moreresources and share this podcast
with other growers, and we hopeyou enjoyed what you heard
(37:40):
today.
So, with that being said, makeit a great day.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(38:07):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax CS,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
cryaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(38:27):
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The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
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Chitavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
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All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
owners, and use of any suchtrademark does not imply any
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Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
(38:48):
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
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Fastax CS is a restricted usepesticide.
Nemasphere, zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
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This information is providedfor educational purposes only
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Any sale of this product, afterregistration is obtained, shall
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
(39:10):
claims regarding product safetyand efficacy shall be addressed
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The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their.
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBackus.
And thanks again for joining usas we dive into the world of
soybeans, covering varioustopics and providing insights to
the soybean industry.
Bill, how are we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Doing great.
I can't believe it's alreadyFebruary.
I mean January just flew by andwhat the heck?
Where did that month go?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, yeah, I know it's been crazy.
You know lows in the negative,35 wind chills last week and
this week we're going to be inthe mid 50s.
So it's all over the board.
But the one factor I think wecan all agree on is we're dry
and, uh, we, we could use somemoisture.
(01:07):
I'd rather have it in rain thansnow, but we could sure use
some moisture.
And through a lot of themidwest, I'm gonna gonna be
going into the spring, uh, maybea little drier than we'd like
to, but, uh, I'd rather be indrier conditions than wet
conditions going into the springor, uh, at spring planning time
.
So today we're going to betalking we don't, maybe not so
much today, but maybe I shouldpull back on that a little bit.
(01:29):
We're actually, for the nextfew episodes, we're going to be
talking more about some thingswith maybe some of the
mechanisms of soybeans, talkingabout some of the fertility,
which is what we want to hit ontoday, but also in the next
couple episodes, you know, wewant to talk about some of the
mechanics of, you know, rowspacing and population, some of
those things.
As you know, we're preparing.
(01:51):
It's hard to believe.
You know, we're only a couplemonths away from starting to put
the first seeds in the ground,which is seems crazy.
Every year it seems to get herefaster and faster going through
there.
But today, you know, we kind ofwanted to hit on fertility with
soybeans and some of the thingswe can look at and maybe some
things we can take into questionor we can make a decision on
that will help increase some ofthat yield out there.
(02:13):
Because, you know, as we know,this whole podcast is designed
on maximizing that return oninvestment for the farmer out
there and maximizing the yieldswe have out there.
So you know, one of thequestions we're going to start
out with, bill, is, you know wetalk about over-fertilizing
soybeans or applying it at thewrong time can have detrimental
results to soybean yields.
What does optimum fertilitylook like in soybeans?
(02:35):
You know, especially in a yearlike this year where you know
commodity prices are down, everybushel matters right now.
So what are some of the thingsthat we can think about there,
bill, talk about a little bit.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, no, great, great question, Jeff, and really
looking forward to the nextseveral sessions as we get
through this.
So the fun thing about whatwe're doing is everything's
going to be.
We're going to talk about the Gby E by M yield triangle here
in a little bit.
But the one thing that I wantto start with if you can't break
80 bushels on your farm,something is limiting.
(03:08):
I mean, you got to figure outwhat that is right.
So a lot of people look tofertility, a lot of people look
at you know, and we're going totalk today about nitrogen, we're
going to talk about phosphorus,we're going to talk about
potash, we're going to talkabout sulfur, we're going to
talk about, you know, manure.
We're going to talk about allthose things and how they
interact with that.
But you know, I thought we'dstart with just a little bit of
a story time.
You know, I had a customerseveral years ago.
We were doing a little trialwith him and we had it all set
(03:31):
up.
You know, during this time ofthe year we had the plan put in
place.
We're going to put corn on oneside and we're going to put
beans on the other and kindammonia, basically, on the corn
plot.
What was going to corn?
So on the bean ground as you'rerotating through.
Well, we also had a little bitof corn on corn in there too.
(03:54):
So, inadvertently, the customapplicator just kept on going
and actually put it on.
Too much of the plot.
So we had, where it was goingto, soybeans, ended up having
anhydrous ammonia on it.
So I think it was about, offthe top of my head, about 120
pounds of anhydrous ammonia thatwe had put down there.
So, lo and behold, right, well,we still have to put a soybean
(04:15):
pot in.
What are we going to do?
Well, let's go ahead and plantsoybeans on it anyway.
And you probably guess whathappened if you're listening,
you know.
So we thought, well, let'slower the population.
We know these things are goingto grow.
You know, six, seven, eightfoot tall.
Just get super, super tall andgo down on us.
We really lowered thepopulation, we put them out
there and, lo and behold, yeah,that's exactly what they did.
(04:35):
Even by lowering the population,I think we had like 80,000.
We planted really thin andthought, well, let's try that.
They.
And thought, well, let's trythat.
They still got big and growthyand put all their effort into
vegetative growth and we reallydidn't get, you know, the yield
that we're looking for, ofcourse, because they lodged and
just kind of went down.
So you know one of those thingsyou think about over
fertilizing, you know puttingthe wrong nutrient on the right,
(04:57):
wrong time, and you know wetalked everything about putting
it on at the right time.
You know, those are kind of thebig things that we really,
really want to look at.
So so, jeff, you know, if youthink about it, what is the most
important nutrient in soybeanproduction?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know, really the most important nutrient in
soybean production is the onethat probably a lot of producers
don't even think about.
You know, when it comes tosoybeans and you know it's
nitrogen.
And the reason it is we don'tthink about it so much is
because soybeans is a plant thatcan fixate its own nitrogen
through the nodules and we'regoing to talk about that here in
a little bit.
But you know that's key andcritical with soybeans.
But there's also a slew ofother nutrients.
(05:36):
You know the two main ones, themacros.
You know P and K.
You know potassium andphosphorus make make huge
differences there also.
But also some of the secondarynutrients.
You know sulfur is one thatwe're going to hit on a little
bit today going through there.
But some of those micronutrientsit's you know you see that
picture of that that waterbarrel, you know it's got all
(05:56):
those slats on it.
You know that hold that barrelis only going to hold as much
water as the as the lowest slatout there.
So if we're down on somethingof a macro or a micro nutrient
that we have out there,something in our fertility
program is off, that barrelisn't going to fill up all the
way, it's only going to fill uppart of the way.
So that's really what we'retrying to dive into today a
(06:18):
little bit is some of theimportance of some of the
nutrients we're going with, butagain, nitrogen is first and
foremost.
That is the most important whenwe're dealing with soybeans.
And that brings me to my nextquestion and Bill, you bring it
up a lot and it is the key andcore behind producing high
yielding beans and understandingyour fields.
It's the G by E, by M, so it'sthe genetics by environment, by
(06:42):
management, and you know,discuss a little bit.
You know what effect does the Gby E by M have?
You know, like on a soybeanyield?
You know pods per acre, theseeds per pod, the seed weight
per.
You know the seed weight or theweight per seed that you have
out there.
How does that affect some ofthose factors that we're dealing
(07:02):
with when we're talking aboutsoybean production?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, yeah, you go back several episodes, you
re-listen to the one that wetalk about G by E, by M, but
again, the genetics, you knowthe triangle, if you will, the
genetics on the bottom and theenvironment on the one side and
the management on the other.
And really, you know, as wethink through, there's
interactions that go on withselecting the right variety,
putting in the right place andthen doing the right management
with it.
Right, so management can be,you know, fertility, and we're
(07:29):
going to focus on that piece ofthat triangle here today.
So you think about thefertility that you have already
inherent naturally in your soiland then you think about that's
what's there, that's available.
You also get to look at pH,right, so we think about pH and
what's actually available.
So if we're too low a pH below5.5, we'll talk about those
specifically here in a littlebit.
You know you got some thingsthat are getting limiting.
(07:50):
We get above 7.5, which we justtalked about Previous episode.
We talked about IDC.
You know iron gets limiting, sowe start getting into those
different factors that we got tounderstand on getting that
sweet spot, getting that sweetspot other we put together.
But, you know, really thinkabout, like you said, you know,
pods per acre, how do weinfluence that?
How do we influence the seedsper pot, how do we influence the
weight per seed?
So all of these uh nutrientshave have a certain function
(08:13):
that really work together in, inharmony, if you will to, you
know, create that soybean.
So, as you mentioned, nitrogenbeing the most important uh, you
know soybeans are very high inprotein, right, so simply a
building block that it has tohave to create that protein.
And if we don't have enough ofthat, you know that gets
limiting and that startschanging.
(08:34):
You know the number of pods peracre because we have so many
plants that we put out there, westart looking at limiting our
seeds per pod and we startlimiting our weight per seed.
Think about, you know,phosphorus and potash and so on
and so forth and everything thatwe have going on there and uh,
so on and so forth.
So, uh, just a just a big pieceof that puzzle that we have
looking at, and there's just alot of pieces of this thing that
(08:55):
we want to dig into.
We're going to continue digging, you know, through our series
here, but today we're gettingfocused on you, on how does
fertility influence the G, by E,by M.
So that's really a great piece.
So, jeff, let's start off withpotassium.
Let's start looking at whatthat does here.
What does K is?
A lot of people see it as K,but what does potassium do in
(09:18):
the soybean plant?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah.
So potassium, really what itdoes is it's going to influence
photosynthesis and help regulatethe metabolism within that
soybean plant.
It is a key and criticalcomponent to the stomata opening
and closing in the leaves.
So really, what happens thereis when that stomata that we're
talking about opens and closes.
That's talking about releasingwater vapors, releasing gases
(09:41):
through that plant or bringingthings into that plant.
So really it's a key, criticalfactor with soybeans Individuals
or farmers and you know it'shard to realize this, but you
know we always talk about corn,we talk about removal from that
plant and you know we need itfor the corn and we don't really
hit so much on the soybeans.
But soybeans, when you harvestthem, they actually remove about
(10:03):
1.4 pounds of potassium perbushel that's produced.
So if you think about it, ifyou had 70 bushel beans, you're
removing around 85 pounds ofpotassium out of that field per
acre, where if you have 200bushel corn, you're only
removing 50 pounds of potassiumper acre.
So you're actually utilizingmore or taking out more
(10:23):
potassium with soybeans than youare with corn.
One of the things behindpotassium it is naturally a
higher level fertility.
In a lot of the soils that wehave, especially over here in
Nebraska we get more of that butin a lot of the areas it's one
of the probably the three mainones that of the N, p and K the
three main ones that probablygets applied the least amount
(10:46):
from a lot of cases just becauseof its prevalence we have out
there.
But you know, if you thinkabout what's all in the soil,
it's basically broke down intothree categories.
We have the readily available,because it's a very mobile
nutrient within that soil.
We have the readily available,which is only like 2% of the
potassium in the soil.
We have the others that we seeslowly available.
(11:06):
You know what's tied up in theclay layers that we have and
then really anywhere from 90 to98% of it is actually tied up in
a mobile mineral.
So it has to actually be brokendown through microbes breaking
it down or through slow release,mineralization occurring within
that soil.
So again, you may have a lot inthat soil but it really makes a
(11:32):
difference on what is readilyavailable for that plant and
what is not.
So again, it's key in acritical component.
You will see where you haveinstances.
Where you have less soilmovement, you'll have less
readily available potassium.
Think about no-till situations,strip-tilled situations from
their minimal movement of soil.
You'll have a lot of it in thatupper layer, that top layer,
(11:52):
but down where the roots are atit won't be down in there
because that soil hasn't beenturned.
So you can run in somesituations or instances.
Instances like that and alsounder drought or compaction
you'll see it worse because youjust don't have that fluctuation
through that soil that'soccurring through there.
Low CECs, cation exchangecapacities can be worse, sandy
soils can be worse from some ofthose cases also, best
(12:14):
application for it is going tobe a broadcast application when
we're putting it through thereand we'll hit on that a little
bit more.
But that's really what thepotassium does.
It's that photosynthesis andthat metabolism and that stomate
activity that we have goingthrough there.
That's a key component.
So it's one to really thinkabout.
But we don't think about itthat often because it's as
readily available or I shouldsay as high of parts per million
(12:36):
we have in soil.
But we have to think of it froma readily available perspective
.
You know platform versus a, youknow what's the total potential
or total amount that we haveout there.
And then we talked a little bitabout potassium and this is
riveting information.
I know we can talk about someof the soil fertility, but you
know, you know what doesphosphorus?
You know that's the other,other than nitrogen and
(12:56):
potassium.
That's the other one of the bigthree that we talked about with
soybeans.
What's the value thatphosphorus brings to soybeans
and what does it do for theplant and how does it help us
produce high yielding soybeans?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah.
So, jeff, a great question.
Phosphorus is definitely acritical component to soybean
production.
If you look at everything thatwe do, especially through all of
our Midwest soils, you know alot of areas do have enough
phosphorus.
But when you start thinkingabout you know, especially
looking back to the pH scale,you know if we get below six we
have some issues.
It starts getting tied up.
It's not as readily available.
(13:27):
We start getting basicallyafter about seven and a half it
kind of goes down again and thenall of a sudden it gets above
about eight and a half and thenactually gets more readily
available when you get in thereas well.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So definitely a little more.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
You know fickle type nutrient that we want to look at
.
But you know fickle typenutrient that we want to look at
.
But you know some of the thingsthat mainly it really does for
us we think about.
You know, in every episode herewe've talked about soybeans.
We do kind of slip in a littlebit about roots, right.
So we want to have strong rootdevelopment and that's really
(13:58):
where phosphorus comes in thatearly season.
You know that shoot growth, weget up and growing, everything
about that.
Think about this nutrientreally being, you know, not very
mobile in the soil, veryimmobile, gets tied up and you
think about like you mentionedthere on potash.
You think about you know we'vegot a lot of no-till situations
going on, get stratified in thatupper layer, kind of gets tied
right in there and doesn't movewhere we want it to.
(14:18):
And you think about you knowthe, you know conservation
tillage.
We're trying to get to thatpoint as much as we possibly can
to conserve all of our soilsand really increase that soil
biology and that soil health.
As we think about everythingthat's going, you think about
the earthworms.
Earthworms are moving thingsback, up and forth, going up and
down that soil and that soilprofile.
When you get into a no-tillsituation they do a little bit
(14:39):
of that movement, but again very, very tight up.
So you think about soybeans allthe way through the end of the
season.
You think about stresstolerance.
You think about you know how doI maximize my ROI throughout
that entire season?
You know, basically, from startto finish, I want to make sure
you've got enough phosphorus outthere and really you know no
reason to go too high because,like for Iowa, we get into the
(15:01):
point of that nutrient basicallymoving through the soil or
getting flushed out, I shouldsay, and basically going down
into the Gulf of Mexico.
Right, we basically get thatbloom if you will down in the
Gulf and we don't really wantall that going on.
So we really could try to keepthat, as you know, because all
(15:22):
the soil movement, I guess fromthe erosion that we're talking
about there, we look at, youknow, because all the soil
movement, I guess from theerosion that we're talking about
there, we look at, you know,improving that nodulation, we
want to get into there.
We tie that all together.
So really some nice things thatare really critical and we
think about that nodulation backto that nitrogen fixation,
which that works together.
So big piece of that puzzlethat we want to make sure really
works together.
(15:42):
So, jeff, we think about, youknow, nitrogen, nitrogen
fixation.
We think about we talked aboutphosphorus.
You know how do soybeans getenough nitrogen to really take
care of business?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, no great question, bill.
And that's you know.
That's the one thing aboutsoybeans is it requires a lot of
nitrogen and a lot of peopledon't realize that.
And you know it's a uniqueplant and it has its ability to
fix its own nitrogen and it doesit through nodulation that we
have on the roots.
You'll see, early on thoseplants will be coming up and
then all of a sudden you'llstart getting these little knots
(16:13):
on the roots out there andyou'll start getting those
nodules starting to grow andfixate out there and they
actually, you know, pull in thenitrogen and it produces its own
nitrogen.
From that standpoint, you knowthere's some things to think
about with that.
Also, under ideal conditions,ideal fertility, you know there
is no concern with havingnodulation occurring out there,
especially if you're in arotation Corn on beans every
(16:35):
other year going that way,because you're always going to
have that bacterium out therethat helps with that nodulation.
We get over here in some of ourcases in Nebraska and in some
other areas too, as we getfarther west, where it's more of
a corn on corn acre and maybebeans are only going in there
every fourth or fifth year, somefields maybe it goes in once
every eight or 10 years, justdepends on what it is.
In those cases we need toreally make sure that we're
(16:57):
putting on an inoculant on thesoybean seed before we get
planted, something like a VaultIP.
What this does is it helps getthat nodulation, gets those
bacterium out there.
So when they get put out thereyou get that nodulation going on
.
Because if you don't havenodulation, if you don't have
that bacteria out there, youdon't have that nodulation going
on.
You are not going to get goodbeans.
You just don't have thatnitrogen fixation out there.
(17:18):
There's some stories out there.
Some people say you know, onceyou get to a certain level of
beans 70, 75 bushel you know youdon't have enough nodulation
out there to keep up with what.
You have to add somesupplemental nitrogen.
But we have a lot of peoplegrowing 80, 90, 95 bushel beans
every year not supplementednitrogen.
So a lot of it depends on thefertility out there.
And if you think about that, ahealthier plant, you get
(17:40):
healthier nitrogen fixation.
You're limiting that plantstress.
You get healthier nitrogenfixation.
You're limiting that plantstress.
So the healthier you keep thatplant which is keeping all that
fertility, all those nutrientsin sync and that plant's healthy
, it has better nitrogenfixation and it can maximize
that potential it needs and itjust is a healthier plant that
we talk about out there.
One other one I wanted to hit onreal quick.
So those are the three big ones.
(18:00):
We talk about N, p and K.
That's what always gets talkedabout, big ones.
You know we talk about N, p andK.
That's what always gets talkedabout.
One nutrient and personally myopinion it's a secondary one,
but sulfur.
Sulfur is one I think that is akey and critical component to
soybeans.
So can you give us a little bitof information, bill, or your
thoughts on why sulfur is a keyand critical component?
And maybe is there some othermicroorganisms, you know, the
(18:23):
organic matter, the soil health.
What are some of those thingsthat can really help maximize
that yield in soybeans out there?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, that's a great one, my personal favorite as
well, jeff when you think aboutsulfur.
So I'm going to slip in just alittle bit of a story time here
as well.
So, if I go back to my firstdays as retail, you know we were
starting to think about thisalready.
You know we were starting tothink about this already and you
know that's been over 30 yearsago and we start looking at, you
know, putting that elementalsulfur out there, basically in
(18:50):
our custom blends that we'reputting together and we're like
well, what, why do we need this?
What's going on here?
Well, you know, as we've, we'veacid rain, I mean, that's
really what it comes back to,way back, way back.
We haven't really had thatbecause we've kind of reduced
the amount of coal that we'reburning for years and we've done
a lot of pillage and you knowour forefathers did a lot of
plowing and basically, you know,kind of you know robbed the
(19:14):
soil of what we had and puttingit back in there.
So definitely one that I wouldsay, if you just go back in
history, we got to understandwhere and why and what's going
on with sulfur, and I think it'sa big piece of the puzzle.
So you just got them talkingabout nitrogen fixation.
So sulfur is critical to that,critical to that overall
mechanism, basically to allowthat soybean basically to fixate
(19:38):
and then also uptake it.
So it's kind of the pathway, soit allows that soybean to take
that all up.
So you think about the timing,you know.
You think about elementalsulfur we talked about that.
You think about ammonium sulfate.
You think about some differentforms that we can use basically
to put out there.
So one you don't even thinkabout, you know, when we put
(20:01):
spray Liberty, we put AMS inthere, ammonium sulfate, so we
get a little shot, very littleshot, basically within that tank
mix in there.
So not enough to really, youknow, do a lot, but enough to
kind of say, hey, it's another,you know, I'm putting some
ammonium out there and I'mputting some sulfur out there
with that ammonium sulfate.
So you tie those together.
(20:21):
Some guys are looking atammonium sulfate as a pretty,
you know, pure form, pretty,pretty readily available, type,
type, option.
You think about, you know,everything that we just got to
talk about with soilconservation, to talk about
biology.
Think about all the microbesthat are working together in
that soil.
Think about the CEC and howthey all tie together and that
whole system gets working.
(20:42):
So the healthier that soil is.
Of course.
You know Iowa, we got someorganic matter.
Nebraska, you know you gotlower organic matter that you
got.
So you really just don't haveas much really available.
So definitely, you know, as youget into some areas where you
have a lot of lower or you havelower organic matter, you maybe
have some sandier soil, somethings like that.
You know we're seeing aboutthat 10 to 15 pounds basically
(21:05):
per acre of a sulfur application, seeing some benefit in there.
So keep that in mind.
I'm not saying a blanketapplication of all that.
But you know, understand yoursoil tests, understand what's
going on in your environment,understand you know what your
biology is like, how healthyyour soil is and really
everything that you've got goingon in your system really to get
there.
So higher organic matter you'reprobably not going to see as
much response from it.
(21:25):
Lower organic matter, I thinkyou're going to see a pretty
good response.
You know if you are hittingthat wall of I can't get over 80
or 90 bushels, you knowdefinitely consider.
You know adding some sulfur inthere and kind of do some trials
and you know, do some stripstrip trials with that
application and see what you canget out of that.
You talked about healthierplants too, jeff.
I think when we go back to someof our previous episodes and we
(21:47):
talked about, you know, addinga fungicide at r3, revitec, for
example, or veltema, keepingthat whole uh plant healthier
all the way through, allowing itto to do the work it needs to
do sulfur part of that.
Sulfur is a big part of keepingthat system running.
It is the.
You know it's still a micro,but it's probably the number one
(22:08):
macro.
It's still a macro or it'sstill a micro.
Let me spit that out.
It's still a micro, but it'sprobably the number one micro.
It could potentially be a macroif we start really thinking
about what it's doing.
So it's a big piece of thatpuzzle.
So, jeff, we think about, youknow those are kind of the big.
You know NPK and sulfur.
We've talked about those.
You know there's some othermicros.
(22:28):
You know there's some zinc,there's some calcium, there's
things like that are allimportant as well.
But let's kind of shift gearsand let's talk about manure.
So so what about manure?
What about chicken?
What about hog?
What about cattle?
Uh, how, how do you use that?
You know what are the concernsaround that?
What?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
do you?
What do you think about?
Add manure to the whole?
Yeah, yeah, no great question.
And uh, you know we we comefrom states that there is a lot
of manure that goes out there insome cases.
You know a lot of cattle, a lotof hogs and a lot of chickens.
From that standpoint, you knowa lot of it.
Manure, to me, is one of thebest sources that you can
utilize out there, and thereason I say that is it gives
(23:07):
you immediate help, but it alsogives you sustained levels
within your field.
You start talking about thebreakdown of manures that you
have out there.
You know you're able to getsome of that benefit right away,
but you know it's usually abouta three or four year process
with the breaking down and ithelps going through that
standpoint.
So you're helping build up someof those levels too, not just
giving it all a shot at one time, but building up those levels
(23:30):
Going to depend.
Is it a dry from a lot, from acattle lot, from a hog lot?
You know dry lots.
Are you bringing it out thereand spreading it, or is it a
liquid?
More of a concentrated comesfrom a pit and the levels can be
very differentiating.
Chicken manure is one ofprobably the highest levels that
you can have out there innutrients, but it can be very
hot.
You can actually burn yourcrops if you put too high of
(23:53):
levels out there.
So again, knowing how you'regoing from there, then I would
say cattle manure is probably onthe lower of the three out
there because you have more froma lot standpoint.
You have more soil mixed inwith it, more organic matter
mixed in with it from thatstandpoint, and then hogs is
between that chicken and thecattle, lots from there.
But yeah, manure is an awesome,excellent choice that you can
(24:16):
have out there If there's everan opportunity put out there.
I encourage producers to dothat because not only do you get
that help immediately it maynot get all that you need, but
it helps you immediately in someof it but you get that buildup
going through multiple years ofbenefit through there from that
breakdown and that just comesdown to microbes breaking things
down.
You know, building up organicmatter, building up all those
(24:36):
things.
So if manure is an option thatyou can utilize out there and
it's economically very feasible,it's an excellent choice to use
for soil beans.
Now one thing to keep in mindthat if you have manure and
you're building that up, you canbuild some levels up pretty
good where you can get some ofthese beans can get pretty tall,
can get pretty rank because youhave that higher fertility out
there.
So, again, the key behind thiswhole thing is just making sure
(24:59):
soil sampling and making sureyou know what your fertility
level is out there and having agood, healthy soil.
We talk about a lot of thethings about do we add this, do
we put this on?
Do we do this, do we do that tomaximize those high yield
soybeans out there?
What it really comes down to ishaving that soybean plant being
happy.
That is probably the number onething to maximizing that yield
(25:20):
out there, because when you havea happy soybean plant, all the
mechanisms are working right,everything's fitting well, and
that's when you're going to getthe big return on investment
from out there.
So that was a great question.
On the manure, people tell meI'm full of manure all the time,
bill, but they don't use thatword.
But with that being said,application can be huge.
We know that.
What's the timing, when to putit on?
(25:42):
We know it was sulfur.
You know you have sulfatesulfur and elemental sulfur, and
they both one's immediate onetakes a little bit time to break
down.
You know ideally when or whatcan you apply in season.
When is probably the best timeto apply some of these Bill?
Is it in season rightimmediately, when it needs it in
the fall in the spring?
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah, no, great great question, Jeff.
You know so.
We talked about the PNK so wedidn't really get into the.
You know the MAP and the DAPand the.
You know just the potashoverall.
You know what you do there.
So typically that's what we doright.
We typically do the broadcastapplication with those, those
macros and get those out thereand or manure right, if you can
do the broadcast applicationsagain, getting them on at the
right time.
You know personal family farm.
You know we do a lot ofinjecting of the hog manure.
You know run that through andinject it right into that soil
(26:26):
and get in there and depends onwhere you're at right, depends
on what you're doing.
You talk about that.
That chicken litter you know ifyou or that turkey litter take
about your poultry overall, uh,used to work on a turkey farm
back in the day, so that that isa you know.
You know that is a, a uhapplication timing, getting it
out there, um, you know thatturkey operation actually did
some composting right so so youhad a lot of other things in
(26:48):
there, um, basically to create a, a, a overall environment
that's going to help the overalluh biology of that soil.
So you get all that figured out.
Then we think about in season,right, so we think about when do
we apply it?
So we've got to be verycritical and you got to think
about the timing.
So you think about the overallcharts on when, the when the
soybean plant is using most ofthe NPNK.
(27:09):
When you got to get there sothat's when you mentioned
earlier some people are thinkingabout they hit a level and they
think about spoon feeding somenitrogen in there.
You know we have seen that befeasible, but you gotta be very
careful with that because youcan get that, you know, at the
wrong time too much and reallyinfluence negatively, basically,
your soybean production.
So, understanding the different, you know different products
(27:33):
that can be applied in season,you know.
Put them in the tank, add themto your fungicide application,
basically R3, there's could besome, you know, low levels of
things that you can use there.
It really all kind of depends onunderstanding your situation.
But go back to your soil test,understand that you can get some
tissue sampling, understandkind of where those tie together
and understand what you'remissing at that critical point
(27:54):
in time.
So there's some things that wecan do, but most commonly, first
and foremost, I keep saying geteverything the pH balance where
it needs to be.
Make sure you maximize, youknow your potential, you know
for each of those nutrients asyou get in there.
We talked about IDC.
We got some higher pHs.
You got to understand what yourenvironment is and understand
what you're going to be yourbiggest bang for your buck,
(28:16):
basically on return.
So again, we think about that.
I think that's good.
Anything else to add there,jeff?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, no, yeah, and I think timing is critical,
really critical on that too.
And watching inferrals, youknow I'll get some individuals
say I'm just going to go aninferral.
But you have to remember youget some really high salt
contents on some of these thatyou can have.
Especially if you're putting aninferral, you can have some
pretty bad issues.
Just uh, you had your storytime earlier.
A quick one had a producer, uh,here that had some extra uh
(28:47):
starter fertilizer in their intheir planter tanks after they
did corn.
So they're like I got an extra,you know 10 gallons here, so
I'm just gonna go ahead and putmy soybeans in.
I'm gonna do a test, I'm gonnasee what it does and went ahead
and you know, and it was 10gallons, so he's put five on an
acre, so it was a couple acreand damn, you could see exactly
where those two acres werebecause we had not very many
(29:08):
beans came up and you knowthings like that.
And he's like what's going on.
You know it was a high saltcontent that we had right there
in that furrow and it took it upand it killed them off.
So again, you make a lot ofgreat points on that, bill.
It's timing, but also theapplication is critical in
making sure you're maximizingwhat you have out there also,
you know.
Another question I have for you,bill, is you know how do
(29:31):
soybean varieties influenceadditional fertility?
Because you know, that's onething we talk about a lot here.
But can a soybean variety havean effect on what type of
fertility, or does it need more,does it need less?
What?
Any quick thoughts on that one.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, before I go there, I'm going to add one
more thing on the chloride.
So you think about potassiumchloride.
You know that that is one ofthe things we use and, again, be
careful about that, because wegive some chloride, high
chloride soils.
You got to be careful aboutthat too.
So so think about that.
So, so, as You've got to becareful about that too, so think
about that.
That's one thing that justpopped into my head.
So, as we dig into, literallydig into the soybean plants and
the soybean varieties we'vetalked about the G by E by M
(30:08):
yield track We've talked about,you know, variety selection.
So when we talk about varietieshere, you know, on Spilling the
Beans, you know we're talkingabout.
You know we've done a lot withour satavo soybean varieties and
we really categorize thosedifferently.
We're using what we call avariety profile index.
(30:28):
We're profiling them tounderstand, you know, what is
their plant type?
Is it very main stem?
Does it add a lot of branches?
What kind of root type does ithave?
Is that very lateral rootgrowth?
Is that very deep penetratingroot?
What is the plant?
So one thing that I did, I dida little, I did a trial here a
couple of years ago kind of tooka high VPI and a low VPI
variety.
So a high VPI variety meansthat it branches a lot, has a
very lateral root system.
(30:50):
A low VPI soybean is a verydeep penetrating root and a very
main stem variety.
So they're completely oppositesin how they build yield.
So what I did is I added somefertility.
I was actually a dry pelletizedmanure, basically had a nice
balanced amount of N, p and Kand microbes in there as well.
(31:10):
I had some nice sulfur in thereas well.
That's kind of why I did thatand it ended up being like 200
pounds a acre because of therates that were in there.
So, without going into allthose details, but understand
that there were differences,because what I found is if I did
a pre-plant and I put that typeof a product out there, the
high VPI basically had anegative response.
(31:32):
So it just continued to grow,put all of its growth into that
vegetative type growth andreally didn't put it into yield.
The low VPI actually focused itsefforts and basically I had two
completely different or threedifferent completely
environments that I put it intoacross these trials and
replicated it as well.
And if you look at what thedifferences were.
(31:54):
Again, the low VPI actuallyresponded it was one plus one
equals two, which was neverhappens but it did.
Basically I got a nice responseof about three and a half
bushels out of the extrafertility, or yeah, no, I'm
sorry it was, it was the getthis right in my head it was
(32:14):
actually the fungicide was threeand a half bushels,
consistently across the boardbut for both of them.
But then basically I had anegative response and add more
fertility and then I had aboutan eight bushel response on
adding the fertility to the lowVPI and then it put the two
together and the fungicide andadding the fertility ended up
being 11 and a half bushelresponse, basically from the
check.
So so the low VPI, so focusedits efforts, basically was able
(32:39):
to respond to that extrafertility and didn't put it all
into growth.
So if you have that type ofenvironment, my point is today,
if you have that type ofenvironment, think about your
variety, think of how it's goingto respond to your fertility
program, think about theenvironment that you put it into
.
You know, because I hadcompletely different
environments that I put.
I had a slope, I had some, youknow, nice second bottom, I had
a high flat, I had somedifferent environments and that
(33:00):
really didn't change a lot.
The variety still, you know,responded similarly between the
two.
But when I added that extrafertility it tied it together
very nicely and what you foundis is the plant type that can
focus its efforts.
And you can understand, youknow how to respond there.
You can get there Now, I think,a high VPI, typepi type product
, you know, fed at the righttime, uh, basically in season,
(33:23):
to kind of give you morebranches and you got more more
to feed.
There I think you can get somesome nice responses.
So I would encourage you toconsider some.
You know, if you can do sometrials out there today, think
about what you're going to do.
That's kind of where we'redoing.
The podcast here now is is tostart this type of season,
because you got some time tothink about what you're going to
do in season, what trialsyou're going to run and how
you're going to set them up.
You know for the season herethis year.
(33:43):
So I think there's some neatthings we can do with that.
So that's kind of my thoughtson that jeff there.
So there's some.
There's more to follow on thatone, but I think that's a good
start to it.
So you know.
Any other comments, any otherareas discussed today?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
jeff yeah, no, just uh, and you made a good comment
there.
Just because it says you needsomething and you're applying it
doesn't mean it's the rightthing to do if it's not at the
right time or it's not put inthe right way, just like you
were talking about what you didthere and you actually saw a
negative effect.
So, knowing what you're goingin with there, you know.
So my biggest take home pointis you know, we so often discuss
(34:18):
everything on corn andfertility and we think, okay,
we're going to plant soybeansnext year.
Hey, that's great, I don't haveto worry about anything, I put
them in, I get my beans and gofrom there.
But then we may be disappointedwith what we have in some
yields or what we're seeingthrough there.
Fertility is as just asimportant in soybeans as it is
in corn.
Making sure those levels arethere, making sure it's applied
at the right time and makingsure it fits the need of that
(34:42):
crop that we have out there,because that's what you need.
We need bushel to get return oninvestment, and the only way to
do that is making sure we haveour beans being happy out there
and producing the best they can,and that comes from making sure
our fertility is right.
And probably my key take-homepoint to everyone who's
listening today is soil sample,soil sample, soil sample.
(35:04):
Know what your fields are, knowwhat you have out there whether
it's a 40-acre sample,composite sample, whether it's
two-and-a-half-inch grid samples, whatever but making sure you
know what your field levels areand what you have out there and
work to adjust those to makethose fit the soybean crop that
you have out there is going tohelp maximize that return on
investment.
(35:24):
From that standpoint, bill anyclosing comments or anything,
any take-home points or keypoints to our listeners on what
we can, any information we canprovide to help them maximize
some of their return oninvestments with soybeans.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, I think today, you know, we summarized each one
kind of as we went here todayand you know a little different
format, really, just you and I,you know, talking back and forth
, but a lot of key things thatyou think about, you know, from
fertility, right, you thinkabout, I've got, you know, my G
by E, by M, I get genetics, byenvironment, by management.
(35:58):
So environment you always thinkabout.
The first and foremost thing Ithink about is weather.
Okay, bring that back in.
Well, that's me.
The second one is is thefertility that you have and the
soil that you have, right?
So that is, that is theenvironment that you're planting
your soybean into.
So understand that, just justlike you said, jeff, you got to
take that.
However, you get the soilsample put together.
(36:19):
Understand what you did.
Understand, then, how to managethat after you've taken that
together.
So think about the soybeanvariety that you've selected,
how you put it in there, andthen we're going to talk about
the next several episodes.
We're going to talk about dataplanning, we're going to talk
about row space and we're goingto talk about seeding rate.
Talk about all those things andhow they tie together, and then
(36:46):
we're going to tie it back toreally what we're talking about
here today, really with soilfertility, because that is one
critical component of maximizingsoybean yield.
So again, I think we covered alot of great things, jeff.
Your wealth of knowledge onthis so great, great stuff,
great job, and definitely youknow this should be a really
interesting topic for a lot ofpeople.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, no, and, bill, thank you again for all your
insights and everything, andagain, it's probably the one
thing that gets.
Probably the one thing thatgets overlooked the most in
reality is the fertility levelsand making sure they're they're
where they need to be, and it'sone of the things that we can
fix the easiest or maybe Ishouldn't say fix the easiest,
but one of the things thatproducers can be the most
(37:20):
proactive with to help with someof those potential issues out
there and help maximize thatreturn on investment out there.
So, bill, thanks for joining metoday and, again, thanks for
all you for joining us today.
On Spilling the Beans, weinvite you to download the Grow
Smart Live app for moreresources and share this podcast
with other growers, and we hopeyou enjoyed what you heard
(37:40):
today.
So, with that being said, makeit a great day.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(38:07):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax CS,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
cryaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(38:27):
trademarks of Corteva AgritionsLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
and owned by Corteva AgritionsLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
Chitavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
exclusively distributed by ESF.
All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
owners, and use of any suchtrademark does not imply any
affiliation with or endorsementby its owner.
Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
(38:48):
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
mixing instructions.
The most restrictive labelapplies.
Natsai.
Fastax CS is a restricted usepesticide.
Nemasphere, zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
available for sale.
This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product, afterregistration is obtained, shall
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
(39:10):
claims regarding product safetyand efficacy shall be addressed
solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their.
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