March 14, 2025 • 32 mins
We discuss the pivotal discussion between optimal seed placement and maximum yield, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and adjusting planters for effective planting. The episode focuses on critical factors that enhance crop success, such as planting depth, spacing, and soil conditions, aimed at helping listeners achieve their farming goals.
• Starting the conversation on planter setup and seed depth
• Understanding the implications of planting techniques on yield
• Addressing common planter maintenance mistakes
• Importance of controlled seed placement for maximizing yield
• Assessing environmental challenges during planting
• Encouragement for proactive engagement in the planting process
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
(00:22):
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 Bill.
Backus, and thanks again forjoining us as we dive into the
world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Boy, boy, Jeff.
What's going on here?
We're going to be planting in acouple of weeks, I mean next
thing, you know we're ready torock and roll here.
So you know, we better we betterstart thinking about getting
ready here if we're not readyalready.
So yeah, absolutely Crazy stuff.
So you know, jeff, for the pastseveral episodes you know we've
really been focused on a lot ofdifferent topics.
(01:02):
You know all around kind of themanagement aspects of what
we've been talking about.
So when you think about, youknow, this management aspect of
seeding rate, planning, depthand all this stuff that goes
together, you know if we don'tget the seed in the ground the
right way, at the right time,the right place, you know what
are we doing.
So you know what are we goingto do here.
(01:22):
What are some things we got tothink about to get ready for
that, jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, great question there, Bill.
You know that's.
You know best laid plans go towaste if you don't implement it
correctly.
And you know we've talked aboutmaking sure we got key
herbicides out there, makingsure you know seeding, you know
row spacing and all those thingsthat are involved there with
making sure you're going to getsome high yield potential out
(01:49):
there.
But you know, if you don't putthe seed in the ground correctly
or you don't do it right, youknow you're basically shaving
off 40 to 50% of that yieldpotential right there.
Not that you're going to loseit, but you know you're shaving
off a lot of that through there.
And you know that reminds mekind of of a story that I have
that I dealt with a few yearsago and we, you know we had a
(02:09):
producer that was out there andwent and planted his soybeans,
you know, and got a call and Iget the H out here.
You know your beans suck out ofthe ground.
They're not coming out.
You're laughing and smiling.
You've been through that beforea few times, haven't you Not
coming out of the ground?
They look terrible.
You know your beans are junk orwhatever like this and go out
and look at it.
(02:30):
And the interesting thing is yougo out there and I see what
you've mentioned in previousepisodes.
You talk about controlledspillage.
You know you see some of thebeans on top of the ground and
then you start digging down therows and you see some of the
beans that are down about fourinches deep in this field and
they're everywhere in betweenand you can just see where it
was just rolling through thefield and didn't have the beans
(02:50):
placed well and it wasn't thatthe beans weren't trying.
Just where they were too deepyou could dig them up and you
could see that they triedgrowing as fast as they could
and they finally ran out ofjuice.
And then you had them that arelaying on top of the soil that
they just didn't have moisturethere so they couldn't have the
good seed to soil closure, seedto soil, compact contact with
that, so they weren't able toabsorb that moisture and then
(03:12):
they were drying out and theyweren't coming up.
So again, you know we talk abouteverything we're going through
is about getting high yieldsoybeans or maximize return on
investment.
But if we don't get it put inthe ground at the start
correctly, everything's fornaught, as we're going forward
from there and we'll be behindthe eight ball the whole year
and we'll never be happy withthat field that we have out
(03:32):
there.
So that's, that was a greatquestion, because those are just
a lot of things you have to dowith, and making sure that that
planter is set up or that drillset up or whatever we're using
to put that seed in the ground,making sure it's ready to go
when plant time gets here, iskey and critical, and that's a
lot about what we're going to,what we're going to talk about
today.
So you know, you think aboutevery episode or where we've
been going this whole time orwhere we were really discussed
(03:55):
is.
You know we've been saying itstarts with the seed since our
first episode.
It starts with the seed beingfocused on it and everything
that rolls around it.
Maximum yield potential ishighest when that soybean is in
the bag.
We know that Everything afterthat that's what takes yield off
of that potential soybean yieldthat we can see out there, you
know.
So the first operation ofputting the seed is putting it
again into the planter and toplant it.
(04:17):
So can you attribute some ofthe yield potential to the
seeding process and, if so, whatpercentage is it?
You know what's involvedthrough there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, no, that's a great question, jeff, and if you
stop and think about it, youknow, I'm kind of starting off a
lot of our episodes with that Gby E by M yield triangle.
So you know, as part of thatmanagement leg, it really kind
of goes up to, you know, 34%when you put it all together.
You know, but if you really,you know, drill into the very
specific piece of it, I wouldsay somewhere around, if I had
to put a number on it, probablythat 10% type area, five bushel
(04:49):
or more, depending on your yieldlevel.
So if you're 50 or 60 or 70 or80 or 100, somewhere in there is
kind of the one that we wouldattribute to it.
So, spending that time to getthat planter set, like you
mentioned, something we're goingto talk about really here on
this episode is just a lot ofstuff on proper planter
adjustments, depth.
You know, something we're goingto talk about, you know, really
here on this episode is just alot of stuff on proper planter
(05:10):
adjustments depth, seed spacing,the row cleaners, downforce row
closures.
You know use of talc andgraphite.
All that stuff is what we'regoing to talk about here today
and you know when I think aboutthat many episodes we've talked
about.
You know tillage type.
You know if we get a lot ofno-till.
You know, like you say, ifwe've got a seed bed that's not
prepared properly and we've gota lot of clods out there.
Concern around that, that dataplanning.
I think when you think aboutdata planning, plan it early.
(05:33):
So soil conditions are reallythe key.
It's really not the, as we'vetalked, it's really not the soil
temp, it's really that soilconditions and how that planter
is going to go through it.
So am I going to get niceclosure?
Am I going to compact it?
Am I going to compact it?
Am I going to get a lot of sitewall compaction?
A lot of concerns on that youknow we've talked a lot about.
You know the row spacing in aprevious episode here.
You know we think about.
You know the seed spacing andhow that interacts with that row
(05:57):
spacing, right, so and thatgoes back to the seeding rate
that we're putting it in.
So all that stuff ties togetherand you know that planning
depth we're going to talk aboutthat here as well.
But seeding rate, you know Imentioned that.
You know really when you stopand think about it.
You know the planter is the mostvaluable tool on the farm.
You know those adjustments, themaintenance.
You know I always say good oldmilitary guy in me check, check
(06:20):
and recheck.
So everything that you do andyou prepare for an operation,
you know check, check andrecheck and make sure that
thing's going on.
And I think probably the biggestdownside, you know, for a lot
of stuff going on now is a lotof these.
You know guidance systems andthings like that, jeff, that are
going on and it's causing, youknow, some operators to not get
out of the planter or get out ofthe cab and go check it.
(06:41):
You know they're relying onthat yield monitor, that
planning monitor, I should say,basically to tell them what's
going on in that operation ofseeding.
So a lot of stuff there.
But that's kind of the longanswer to your question.
I think it's you know, up to10%, I would say is my best
guess, and I think it's you knowsomewhere in that.
Five to seven to ten bushels iswhat I would attribute directly
(07:02):
to making sure that planter'sready to rock and roll, because
beans are, you know.
A lot of people say beans arepretty forgiving, and they are
we're going to talk about thingsin a little bit here, so right,
I think, uh, youknow now that we're where we're
at today, middle of March, youknow times of the essence uh, we
got to get things ready.
So when that season begins, youknow the last thing you want to
be doing is sitting in the shop.
(07:22):
You know when it's time to beout there planting, fixing
something.
So so let's, let's start withsome proper planter maintenance
adjustments prior to pulling inthat first field.
So, jeff, you know if we thinkabout that, you know we want to
get done while we still can.
Hopefully you've got it donealready, maybe we're just.
You know it's episodes a littlelate.
Maybe you've already done it.
That's awesome, but what?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question and it's
something I struggle with allthe time, because my little
story time there is, my father,is a good one, that you, when
it's ready to plant, then youpull the planter out of the shed
and you go through it andeverything like that, and I'll
just sit there and shake my headand like, dude, we got, we can
be rolling right now.
See how it goes.
You know, that's one of thethings I always try to encourage
(08:08):
producers to do during thosewinter months is getting through
that planter, going through it,making sure it's ready, because
you know we can cover a lot ofacres in a short period of time
now.
I mean the size of theequipment we have versus, you
know, 30 years ago.
It's so much bigger.
But again, you know you madethat comment with the guidance
systems and we have.
(08:28):
You know, there's always acommercial on TV I think it was
Ronco.
It's called Set it and Forgetit, if you remember that.
I don't know if they're on TVanymore, but unfortunately it
seems that we can run into somecases where producers basically
get our set, you know, get tothe field and boom, that's it,
and we're going to run throughall of our acres and, like I
said, not not looking back andgetting through the field up.
(08:50):
You know there's a lot of thingsthat we need to do.
First of all, um, you know weneed to make sure get it hooked
up, making sure it's level,because you want to make sure
you got a nice level planter outthere that you're going through
with now.
You know you want to make sureyou're checking your gauge
wheels, making sure everything'sgot the the proper depth to
them, the proper down pressureyou want there, because you
don't want to get to where youhave the soil you know, kind of
(09:11):
spleening out on the sides of it.
Create a sidewall compactionwhich you can get with you have
too much from there.
One that I always encouragefarmers and producers every year
to do is have their meterschecked, have the meters taken
out, go through the meters, makesure everything's running right
, because we know beans you madethe comment it is more
forgiving than corn.
Because we know beans.
You made the comment it is moreforgiving than corn.
(09:32):
Because we know corn, you wantto have that perfect picket
fence.
As you're going with droppingyour seed Beans, you can be a
little bit off, but if you haveany play in those meters.
If you have worn meters,everything like that, you're not
going to get that nicesingulation that you're looking
for, that you're going throughthere and that can have a real
big effect, especially whenyou're talking corn.
From those standpoints and justmaking sure bushings are good,
making sure things are greasedup right, making sure your disc
(09:54):
openers, you know, make surethey have that, that they're not
worn down too far maybe is theway to say it and that they're
closing, they're cutting thatnice V trench because that makes
all critical making sure theseed tube, the firmers,
everything are working well whenyou're going through that
standpoint.
So it's because, again, ifyou've done everything right but
(10:14):
you're putting the seed in theground wrong, you're going to
hurt yourself and you're goingto have a lot of that stuff that
just probably might not be thebest to maximizing what you want
for for yield out there.
So, again, making sure thatplanter is set up and doing it
before you're ready to go to thefield, cause once you're ready
to go to the field you want tobe able to have it ready to go
(10:35):
and get that, uh, and get thattaken care of and roll through
there.
One other thing I would like toadd.
We talk about doing that beforethe year starts.
I highly recommend getting offthe tractor every once in a
while checking things.
You know, obviously I see a lotof producers.
They get out to that firstfield, whether it's on the corn
or whether it's the bean,whatever they switch, they go.
They do the first couple acres.
(10:57):
You know they're checking depthand everything, and yep, it's
ready to go and jump in the caband then they go.
Take interval times that you'regoing through the field, check,
you know, two or three timesacross maybe that 160-acre field
that you're going for.
And then I always recommend,every time you get to that field
, check it too, because itdepends on are you going through
(11:17):
a field that's no-till?
Are you going throughstrip-till?
Are you going through a fieldthat had some tillage, like over
here in Nebraska and a lot offields?
Did it have livestock on it inthe wintertime that hard packed
it, versus it didn't haveanything on?
Is it corn ground, bee ground?
Everything makes a difference,so every field's different.
So just taking that extra 10minutes every field you're
(11:37):
getting into and making sureit's putting the seed in
correctly and doing it the rightway and everything's good.
That is the best 10 minutes.
You'll spend that whole timeplanting because that's going to
really help to achieve whatyou're looking for to maximize
out that crop that you'reputting in the field.
So one question I get a lot oftimes, bill, is you know again
(12:00):
you've brought it up many timescontrolled spillage, seeding
depth?
You know we hear a lot on corn.
You know it's always thatsecond knuckle.
That's where you want to be.
Well, you know, hopefully it'snot the person that's missing
the first knuckle, but anywayyou know.
Or how long their fingers are,you know, but you know, you
always kind of where that's at.
But you know beans, you,there's a different, there's a
(12:20):
different thought and theoryfrom everybody on that.
You know I like to see where Ihave some beans on top of the
ground.
That's not why I know I'mputting them in right, or you
can put them in too deep.
So when we get talking on depthof soybean seeding, what, what
are your recommendations or whatare some of the things you want
to provide for information andyou would like to provide to our
listeners to help maybe givethem or steer them kind of in a
(12:41):
way that ideally where we wantthose beans to be placed at.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, planting depth, I mean critical component
and setting that planter aswell, as you just talked.
So you know, really, soybeansare more sensitive to planting
depth really than corn, so wewant to make sure that we get
them in.
You know the right area andreally, why is that?
So you know, I'm in that inchand a half area.
You can go an inch, but I'mreally in that inch and a half
(13:14):
is what I like to see,especially our tilled areas and
our no-till.
You know some guys willdefinitely disagree on that, but
that's where I'm at and I'm allabout that seed-to-soil contact
.
We want to have that nice seedbed.
It's really about that soiltilth that we have going on,
that real healthy soil thatwe're planting into.
You know, we want to have thatconsistent moisture.
Really, we want to have thatconsistent moisture Really.
We want for imbibitionImbibition is a big word for you
(13:35):
know basically that germinationprocess where that water moves
into the seed and when you thinkabout planting early.
So if you plant early, likewe've been talking, we don't
want to plant them shallow, wewant to get them in, you know, a
good solid inch and a half,because we want that insulation
blanket, you know on top of them.
We've talked about early dataplanning, where we see the beans
basically building thatfoundation and growing a lot of
(13:56):
roots underneath that ground andnot emerging for a while, which
is fine because you know.
Previous episode we talkedabout seed treatments.
You know we've got a nice seedtreatment on to really protect
them.
You know, as long as we getthat solid seed protection with
multiple modes of action outthere that ties into that
planting depth and getting themin there really for that.
So when we get all that done,we've got solid germination,
(14:17):
we've got a good 90% germ orsometimes we're into an 80% or
85% germ.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
As long as we get consistent emergence across that
row.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
That's the big piece of the puzzle that we're looking
for.
So that's kind of what I thinkabout Jeff when I think about
planting depth.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
No, that's, you bring a lot of good points together
and you know the one and I'm inthe same ballpark with you, I'm
an inch and a half to inch andthree quarter.
That's where I like to see it.
There's a lot of values there,you know you'll hear comments
made about.
Well, you know it's got to tryto push that.
You know the cotyledons upthrough the soil or whatever.
It's going to be fine.
And the other thing I reallylike to always remind
individuals is remember it is aliving organism, right, that is
a living organism out there andespecially earlier planting and
(15:00):
in the earlier time frame thatwe do plant soybeans in several
cases.
We may have one day be in 75 or80 degrees and we're in that
time of year where the next dayit could be 40 degrees and you
see that big fluctuation oftemperatures.
If you have that soybean atlike a half an inch depth, it's
(15:22):
going through those fluctuations.
There is an insulation.
When you have that depth of aninch and a half to that, say,
two-inch time frame, two incheswould be the deepest you have
that insulation.
So you are minimizing thatfluctuation and I don't know
about you, but 40-degreedifference day-to-day kicks the
crap out of me at times.
So you know you're talkingabout a soybean plant from there
(15:43):
.
So that's some really goodinsight on the soybean planting
depth.
But I would also like to throwout to you, bill, that's some
really good insight on thesoybean planting depth.
But I would also like to throwout to you, bill, seed spacing.
We know how corn picket fence.
You want that for ultimateyield for corn.
Is seed spacing critical tosoybeans or does it not really
matter?
Just throw them in the row andthey're all going to compensate
anyway, right, right, so you'releading to it there.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So I'm going to say yes, it definitely matters.
So there's probably more workto be done here.
I think this is an area thatprobably needs to address a
little bit more.
But you know, from all theseeding rate trials that we've
done, you know I look at whatI've done across the state and
two states I cover, you know Iwalk a lot of trials after
seeding, you know, to kind ofsee where we're at and then, and
(16:28):
then you know kind of get someinitial thoughts, take some
notes and then go to the middleof the season where I start
digging up some plants and startlooking at, you know, root
architecture and start lookingat what they're doing
underground and kind of look athow they're building yield above
ground and what you find iswhen they're really close
together, you have, you knowthat, eight seeds per foot.
Let's just use 140,000 forsimple math here.
(16:50):
If we're talking, you got eightseeds per foot, well, if you've
got, you know, two, you know thefirst six seeds on that first
six inches and then you got thelast two seeds in the last six
inches right of that foot.
That's not what we want.
We want them a nice even spaceas much as possible.
So really, as you talk about,you know, going through the
meters and kind of get thatsingulation ready to go, or if
(17:10):
you've got a vac planter and youwant, you know, basically get
that plate, make sureeverything's running through
there and you don't havesomething plugged in that plate
or whatever that is.
So we want to make sure that wehave really good singulation to
get really good seed spacingand it also ties into speed,
right.
So we think about planter speedwhen you're rolling.
Now we got these new high speedplanters and guys are going
faster and faster all the timeand a lot of them are doing a
(17:32):
really good job when you get outthere and look at that.
But it's critical to stop andlook at you know, evaluate, you
know after emergence how did myplanter do you know in this
season?
And then make note of thatbecause as we prepare, do
maintenance again for next year,we want to think about how did
I do on?
You know, put my notes down,keep a record book of when did I
do maintenance, on what wasgoing and how did it actually do
(17:53):
?
You know, I think those are bigthings that we want to look at.
So so, yes, it really reallymatters, there's no question
about it.
When you look at the plants, youlook at development, you look
at how, especially, you've got ahigh VPI variety that wants to
branch a lot and you got onethat's slammed right next to it.
It can only get up, you know,and kind of be a runt.
If you think about corn, youknow, you kind of think about
that odd little plant thatdoesn't do anything right, it
(18:15):
kind of gets the same thing insoybeans.
So you want to have, you wantto maximize your spacing, to
maximize, you know, reallyproduction from that perspective
.
So that's my thoughts on that.
So, jeff, I want to switchgears and talk about seed bed
preparation, seed placement,kind of.
When you put all that together,you know how are we going to do
that with the row cleaners ofdownforce.
You know the row closure,sidewall, compaction potential.
(18:37):
How do you take care of that?
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, and this is something that really we
really experienced last yearhere.
So we were dry coming into thespring, in the 2024 planning
season April, you know we had alittle cooler weather, but it
was dry and we were thinking,okay, man, it's going to be
another drought year and lo andbehold we, the gates opened up
(19:02):
in May and June, right.
So we had a lot of moisture inthat time frame, cooler
temperatures, everything we had.
Well, I bring that back alittle bit because, due to
having not the winters thatreally helped break down, we've
built up a lot of residue overhere in the last two or three
years, especially since we do alot of no-till.
So we got a lot of residuethat's still out in those fields
(19:23):
that haven't been broken down.
And I used last year's example.
I had fields that they wereplanted and I saw beans have
roughly 30 days from when thefirst one emerged to when
they'll basically the last onesemerged and the field looked
like a roller coaster all theway across it.
Well, what it basically was waswe had so much residue out
(19:44):
there, no-till planted into itthe row cleaners.
They didn't want to set the rowcleaners down.
You know, the comment was Idon't want to move too much soil
, so they were just basicallyrunning over the ground.
Well, they weren't moving thetrash out of the way, so what we
have is planted into the trash.
We weren't getting good seedingdepth, and this happened in a
lot of fields that these beanswere laying on top of the soil.
(20:05):
You know, we weren't gettingseed size, seed size seed slice
closure, especially where we hada lot of trash.
So it's really critical.
You know, I hear a lot of timeswhen they talk about row
cleaners.
I don't want to move all thissoil or whatever.
Well, if, again, if you are notgetting it moved, so you cannot
get good seed to soil contactand not getting that seed put in
(20:25):
correctly in the soil, itdoesn't matter if you're moving
a whole bunch or if you're notmoving any.
So you need to make sure thoserow cleaners are down deep
enough or lower enough to getthat trash out of the way.
So you have that.
So you have that, uh, thatspace where those disc openers
can come in and make that V,drop that seed down and then we
can get that closure.
So that's critical and alsomaking.
(20:47):
And then what you also have toremember too, is every field we
talked about earlier, makingsure you're changing that in
every field, because in thosecases where we have heavier
residue, it stayed wetter, right.
So now we have our.
We got the furrowed openers,but then we got our closure
wheels there right.
Well, we got the downforcepressure on those.
Well, we went from a dry field.
(21:07):
Now we've gone to a wetterfield and guess what happens Now
?
We've got too much downpressure on and we create
sidewall compaction.
So again, knowing what you'redoing in each field, making sure
you're getting that trash movedout of the way.
I'm not saying plow a furrowthree inches deep, but get it at
least moved out of the way soyou can get a clean cut with
those V openers and you're notpinning any trash in there.
And you get that seed placedand then you get it closed well,
(21:29):
and you're going to be wellbetter off and those beans are
all going to be in decentmoisture, they're going to have
good seed-to-soil closure.
You want to make sure you haveenough pressure on it, but not
too much to cause compaction,and everything's going to come
up in a lot timelier fashion and, again, you're not being put
that crop behind the eight ballfrom there.
(21:50):
So, again, that's something wereally learned last year, but
it's critical, don't you know?
It's amazing at someindividuals that have row
openers or row cleaners and it'slike they've been on the
planner for three years and theylook brand new and it's like,
well, I don't want to move toomuch.
So, no, they're there for areason.
Right, you got to move thattrash and get some of that out
of that waste.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I think, jeff, if I'll jump in there so.
So one thing I've really getinto no-till.
You know where we have thesecorn hybrids that we have, you
know, bred to be healthier andhealthier and healthier.
You know corn rootworm.
We've we've basically bredroots to be healthier.
We use fungicides, basicallyyou know VT, and we got corn
(22:27):
plants that are healthier.
So, like you say, the residuemanagement is really key and
essential to this right.
So.
So that's probably the biggestcomplaint that I get on.
You know, how do I get my, myplanter set so that I'm not
throwing too much material outof the way and as I get narrower
rows back to our row spacingconversation, how do I move that
residue through the planter soit doesn't plug up, right?
(22:47):
So so you get all that residuemanagement.
So we have a lot of that,especially in the, you know,
really in the no-till and wherewe've got really high corn
yields and a lot of foliage onthose.
We're seeing that being areally big question.
So it's really getting thingsset and really understanding how
that planter works and all thedifferent pieces that you can
put together.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So yeah, really good discussion.
And that's a good point.
That also brings me to anotherone, too, is a couple scenarios.
Is you know, put on that, puton a cutter, if you need to, in
front of that row that cuts thattrash out.
And then what's?
One other thing that we've beenseeing a lot going on the last
10 years in a lot of fields.
We're seeing a lot of these Ishouldn't say a lot, but we're
seeing, in several cases, quitea few corn and soybean fields
(23:28):
where they're coming in, they'reraking all the residue together
, right, and they're bailing itoff.
Well, they're taking it off inspots, but you see the spot
where the baler went and you'vegot this mat of trash out there
and you need to make sure you'regetting through that, because
that you know, you screw up tworows out of a 16 row planter,
(23:50):
you know.
So that's a lot of yield,that's a lot of yield, a lot of
potential there.
So no, that's that's great.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Another one.
You bring it up there too.
So you think about the wings,right, the wings on these big
planters, right, and you don'tget them even in their flex and
all over the place and kind ofdoing what they're doing.
So you want to make sure youthink all that through and just
check, check and recheck, like Isaid.
So you got to check the centerbehind the duals.
You got, if you have duals onthe tractor, if you got a cap
(24:14):
with with, with with the tracksor what you'd have, or you know,
a track tractor, you know youwant to check all those
different layers across that andcheck all the different rows,
not just one or two.
You know, understand that.
That consistent planning depth,you know, and that's that
placement.
You know how critical that is.
So, yeah, good stuff there.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
That's absolutely another great point that you put
there, bill.
So we do get some questions.
So you know we talkedpreviously, last week.
You know we talked about seedtreatments.
Right, and we've seen that asseed treatments have gone on,
you know there's some thingsthat sometimes can get sticky.
You have humidity, things maybedon't flow as well.
So you know we talk.
We talk about seed flowability.
(24:51):
You know whether it's usingtalc, whether it's using
graphite.
You know, with the seedtreatments on it, what works.
You know.
Do you have polymers that areadded?
You know can you do it?
You know you do everythingright up to this point.
But if your seed isn't flowingwell, that's an essential factor
.
And and and why is it key andcritical to have good
flowability of seed?
(25:11):
You know, and what value doesthat bring to growing a high
yielding crop?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, no, you think all that through.
You go all the way back to thebeginning of the episode here
when we started about G by E byM, yield triangle, all that
pieces of the puzzle go togetherand if you don't get the right
depth and the right placementand the right spacing, you know
that's a big piece of that.
So you think about the vacuums.
We'll start with those.
You know we want to use talc,basically with those.
We think about a finger pickup.
(25:37):
We want to use graphite withthat, really to kind of keep it
flowing.
So you're sitting here thinking, well, you know, so I'm not,
I'm not going to put any seedtreatment on.
Well, you still want to have itin there and keep that
flowability going and take careof that seed and just make it
flow.
But you think about the seedand you think about the seed
coat.
You think about how fragilethat is.
You want to keep that flowingtogether so they don't butt up
(26:00):
against one another and crack asyou're going through there.
Keep them flowing as nice andsmoothly as possible.
So you think about all thetrials that we do, jeff, and
you've got some plot seed layingin the back of the pickup
you're driving around going fromplot to plot.
You know, just like you said,and you start out in the morning
it's 20 degrees or 25 or 30.
End of day it's, you know, 50,60, 70 degrees.
(26:21):
The humidity is gone from 30%up to 80%, you know, or whatever
it is, and all that stuffhappens as soon as you open that
bag up.
You know, and you get thathumidity in there and you got
all these seed treatments on.
You know, and he talked aboutdifferent polymers and you know,
you got a clear coat or or somesort of a uh uh coat, basically
what am I trying to say?
(26:42):
A polymer that basically getssprayed on there to keep
flowability going, all thosedifferent flow agents.
So we got like bi stuff.
We have flow right, for example.
So all those different thingsthat you put together to keep
that seed flowing really allgoes back to what we just talked
about.
You know, getting that planterset, make sure it's working Well
.
If the seed doesn't flow andyou have the planter set
perfectly, then what are wedoing, right?
So we've got to make sure thatseed flows and gets through
(27:04):
there and really ties that alltogether.
No-transcript that you have.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, I guess you know you were just commenting
there.
You know we do everything rightand it doesn't flow.
It's.
You know we still we're goingto have an issue.
You know, I kind of I alwayslook at the analogy of the old
50 gallon barrel.
You know it has water and ithas slats on the side.
You know the barrel's onlygoing to hold as much as the
lowest slat, right, so you cando everything right.
But if there's one thing that'snot correct or it's going to
(28:05):
have an issue with, that ends upscrewing the whole system up
Right.
So just making sure, taking thetime going through making sure
everything's running right, makesure you got everything worked
right, calibrated right, takingyour time when you're getting to
the fields, every field stop,take a look, check a couple of
times, make sure it's going in,because every field is different
.
But putting that seed in theground correctly, in the right
(28:26):
conditions, is going to be yourbest option or opportunity to
maximize yields out in thatfield.
Because that's really the startof it and once you've planted
it you can't change anything.
Once it's in the soil you'regoing to change the only way
you're going to change it.
If you're going to replant, weknow, if you're going to replant
, you're already going to losetop end yield from that
standpoint.
So, bill, any comments or anyuh uh thing you would recommend
(28:48):
to our listeners today on thepodcast?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, one thing that you said there that made me
think of something else.
So when you think about youknow field to field and all that
thing, but think about dataplanning.
So I start planting early andthen I go to all of a sudden,
you know I get rained out, andso on and so forth.
I got to plant later.
You know I've got that seed,I've kind of got my measurements
all all figured out, how muchtalk I'm going to put in or how
(29:10):
much graph I got to put in.
Well, again, check, check andrecheck, because you know if you
get a lot of seed treatment on,for example, you get later in
the season and our temperaturesare up and our humidity is up
and things are changing, you'regoing to have to adjust.
So make sure you think all thatthrough.
And if you're, if you're notgetting that, especially when
you've got a seed monitor, youknow it's kind of telling you
you know what are, what is mydrop rates?
(29:30):
You start looking at that.
Gives you all those those statson there and kind of tells you
what's going on.
But be thinking about that.
And if you don't have that, bethinking about that.
You know all those operationsthat you got to do in these
little little tweaks that youcan do to, to really maximize
soybean production.
So I realize you know planterset up like we talked here.
Great episode, I think.
A lot of key things, a lot ofkey takeaways here.
We put that together.
(29:52):
But, jeff, what are yourtakeaways from this episode?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, no, just again doing things, making sure you
have things set up, making sureyou're ready to roll when it's
time and the conditions areright, and getting that seed in
correctly.
That's really what it's aboutand that's where it really
starts that journey to gettingthose 100 bushel beans that you
want out there for that yieldpotential out there.
That's the start of the journeyand it's a long journey, but
(30:15):
again doing that.
Now hopefully your planter isdone, but if it hasn't, get it
out, get it hooked up, getthings looked at and gone
through and have her ready toroll, because we're only a few
weeks away from we're going tostart rolling, especially in our
area.
In fact, we get over inIllinois.
They might already be rollingin some areas over there from
that standpoint.
So, with that being said, wewant to thank you for joining us
(30:38):
today and thanks for joining uson this episode of Spilling the
Beans.
Me and Bill want to thank youfor being with us today.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
We want to thank you again forjoining us and make it a great
day.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
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
(31:16):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, ziduaPro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+.
Relenia Dryaxor, liberty Ultraare registered trademarks of
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Relenia Dryaxor, liberty Ultraare registered trademarks of
BASF.
Nemisphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(31:36):
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 BSF.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
All other trademarks are the property of their
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imply any affiliation with orendorsement by its owner.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Always read and follow label directions Before
mixing components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
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The most restrictive labelapplies Natsai Fastax CS is a
restricted use pesticide.
Nemasphere, restricted usepesticide Nemasphere, zorina and
Voraxor are not registered andnot 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
(32:16):
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
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The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
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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.
(00:22):
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 Bill.
Backus, and thanks again forjoining us as we dive into the
world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Boy, boy, Jeff.
What's going on here?
We're going to be planting in acouple of weeks, I mean next
thing, you know we're ready torock and roll here.
So you know, we better we betterstart thinking about getting
ready here if we're not readyalready.
So yeah, absolutely Crazy stuff.
So you know, jeff, for the pastseveral episodes you know we've
really been focused on a lot ofdifferent topics.
(01:02):
You know all around kind of themanagement aspects of what
we've been talking about.
So when you think about, youknow, this management aspect of
seeding rate, planning, depthand all this stuff that goes
together, you know if we don'tget the seed in the ground the
right way, at the right time,the right place, you know what
are we doing.
So you know what are we goingto do here.
(01:22):
What are some things we got tothink about to get ready for
that, jeff.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, great question there, Bill.
You know that's.
You know best laid plans go towaste if you don't implement it
correctly.
And you know we've talked aboutmaking sure we got key
herbicides out there, makingsure you know seeding, you know
row spacing and all those thingsthat are involved there with
making sure you're going to getsome high yield potential out
(01:49):
there.
But you know, if you don't putthe seed in the ground correctly
or you don't do it right, youknow you're basically shaving
off 40 to 50% of that yieldpotential right there.
Not that you're going to loseit, but you know you're shaving
off a lot of that through there.
And you know that reminds mekind of of a story that I have
that I dealt with a few yearsago and we, you know we had a
(02:09):
producer that was out there andwent and planted his soybeans,
you know, and got a call and Iget the H out here.
You know your beans suck out ofthe ground.
They're not coming out.
You're laughing and smiling.
You've been through that beforea few times, haven't you Not
coming out of the ground?
They look terrible.
You know your beans are junk orwhatever like this and go out
and look at it.
(02:30):
And the interesting thing is yougo out there and I see what
you've mentioned in previousepisodes.
You talk about controlledspillage.
You know you see some of thebeans on top of the ground and
then you start digging down therows and you see some of the
beans that are down about fourinches deep in this field and
they're everywhere in betweenand you can just see where it
was just rolling through thefield and didn't have the beans
(02:50):
placed well and it wasn't thatthe beans weren't trying.
Just where they were too deepyou could dig them up and you
could see that they triedgrowing as fast as they could
and they finally ran out ofjuice.
And then you had them that arelaying on top of the soil that
they just didn't have moisturethere so they couldn't have the
good seed to soil closure, seedto soil, compact contact with
that, so they weren't able toabsorb that moisture and then
(03:12):
they were drying out and theyweren't coming up.
So again, you know we talk abouteverything we're going through
is about getting high yieldsoybeans or maximize return on
investment.
But if we don't get it put inthe ground at the start
correctly, everything's fornaught, as we're going forward
from there and we'll be behindthe eight ball the whole year
and we'll never be happy withthat field that we have out
(03:32):
there.
So that's, that was a greatquestion, because those are just
a lot of things you have to dowith, and making sure that that
planter is set up or that drillset up or whatever we're using
to put that seed in the ground,making sure it's ready to go
when plant time gets here, iskey and critical, and that's a
lot about what we're going to,what we're going to talk about
today.
So you know, you think aboutevery episode or where we've
been going this whole time orwhere we were really discussed
(03:55):
is.
You know we've been saying itstarts with the seed since our
first episode.
It starts with the seed beingfocused on it and everything
that rolls around it.
Maximum yield potential ishighest when that soybean is in
the bag.
We know that Everything afterthat that's what takes yield off
of that potential soybean yieldthat we can see out there, you
know.
So the first operation ofputting the seed is putting it
again into the planter and toplant it.
(04:17):
So can you attribute some ofthe yield potential to the
seeding process and, if so, whatpercentage is it?
You know what's involvedthrough there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, no, that's a great question, jeff, and if you
stop and think about it, youknow, I'm kind of starting off a
lot of our episodes with that Gby E by M yield triangle.
So you know, as part of thatmanagement leg, it really kind
of goes up to, you know, 34%when you put it all together.
You know, but if you really,you know, drill into the very
specific piece of it, I wouldsay somewhere around, if I had
to put a number on it, probablythat 10% type area, five bushel
(04:49):
or more, depending on your yieldlevel.
So if you're 50 or 60 or 70 or80 or 100, somewhere in there is
kind of the one that we wouldattribute to it.
So, spending that time to getthat planter set, like you
mentioned, something we're goingto talk about really here on
this episode is just a lot ofstuff on proper planter
adjustments, depth.
You know, something we're goingto talk about, you know, really
here on this episode is just alot of stuff on proper planter
(05:10):
adjustments depth, seed spacing,the row cleaners, downforce row
closures.
You know use of talc andgraphite.
All that stuff is what we'regoing to talk about here today
and you know when I think aboutthat many episodes we've talked
about.
You know tillage type.
You know if we get a lot ofno-till.
You know, like you say, ifwe've got a seed bed that's not
prepared properly and we've gota lot of clods out there.
Concern around that, that dataplanning.
I think when you think aboutdata planning, plan it early.
(05:33):
So soil conditions are reallythe key.
It's really not the, as we'vetalked, it's really not the soil
temp, it's really that soilconditions and how that planter
is going to go through it.
So am I going to get niceclosure?
Am I going to compact it?
Am I going to compact it?
Am I going to get a lot of sitewall compaction?
A lot of concerns on that youknow we've talked a lot about.
You know the row spacing in aprevious episode here.
You know we think about.
You know the seed spacing andhow that interacts with that row
(05:57):
spacing, right, so and thatgoes back to the seeding rate
that we're putting it in.
So all that stuff ties togetherand you know that planning
depth we're going to talk aboutthat here as well.
But seeding rate, you know Imentioned that.
You know really when you stopand think about it.
You know the planter is the mostvaluable tool on the farm.
You know those adjustments, themaintenance.
You know I always say good oldmilitary guy in me check, check
(06:20):
and recheck.
So everything that you do andyou prepare for an operation,
you know check, check andrecheck and make sure that
thing's going on.
And I think probably the biggestdownside, you know, for a lot
of stuff going on now is a lotof these.
You know guidance systems andthings like that, jeff, that are
going on and it's causing, youknow, some operators to not get
out of the planter or get out ofthe cab and go check it.
(06:41):
You know they're relying onthat yield monitor, that
planning monitor, I should say,basically to tell them what's
going on in that operation ofseeding.
So a lot of stuff there.
But that's kind of the longanswer to your question.
I think it's you know, up to10%, I would say is my best
guess, and I think it's you knowsomewhere in that.
Five to seven to ten bushels iswhat I would attribute directly
(07:02):
to making sure that planter'sready to rock and roll, because
beans are, you know.
A lot of people say beans arepretty forgiving, and they are
we're going to talk about thingsin a little bit here, so right,
I think, uh, youknow now that we're where we're
at today, middle of March, youknow times of the essence uh, we
got to get things ready.
So when that season begins, youknow the last thing you want to
be doing is sitting in the shop.
(07:22):
You know when it's time to beout there planting, fixing
something.
So so let's, let's start withsome proper planter maintenance
adjustments prior to pulling inthat first field.
So, jeff, you know if we thinkabout that, you know we want to
get done while we still can.
Hopefully you've got it donealready, maybe we're just.
You know it's episodes a littlelate.
Maybe you've already done it.
That's awesome, but what?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question and it's
something I struggle with allthe time, because my little
story time there is, my father,is a good one, that you, when
it's ready to plant, then youpull the planter out of the shed
and you go through it andeverything like that, and I'll
just sit there and shake my headand like, dude, we got, we can
be rolling right now.
See how it goes.
You know, that's one of thethings I always try to encourage
(08:08):
producers to do during thosewinter months is getting through
that planter, going through it,making sure it's ready, because
you know we can cover a lot ofacres in a short period of time
now.
I mean the size of theequipment we have versus, you
know, 30 years ago.
It's so much bigger.
But again, you know you madethat comment with the guidance
systems and we have.
(08:28):
You know, there's always acommercial on TV I think it was
Ronco.
It's called Set it and Forgetit, if you remember that.
I don't know if they're on TVanymore, but unfortunately it
seems that we can run into somecases where producers basically
get our set, you know, get tothe field and boom, that's it,
and we're going to run throughall of our acres and, like I
said, not not looking back andgetting through the field up.
(08:50):
You know there's a lot of thingsthat we need to do.
First of all, um, you know weneed to make sure get it hooked
up, making sure it's level,because you want to make sure
you got a nice level planter outthere that you're going through
with now.
You know you want to make sureyou're checking your gauge
wheels, making sure everything'sgot the the proper depth to
them, the proper down pressureyou want there, because you
don't want to get to where youhave the soil you know, kind of
(09:11):
spleening out on the sides of it.
Create a sidewall compactionwhich you can get with you have
too much from there.
One that I always encouragefarmers and producers every year
to do is have their meterschecked, have the meters taken
out, go through the meters, makesure everything's running right
, because we know beans you madethe comment it is more
forgiving than corn.
Because we know beans.
You made the comment it is moreforgiving than corn.
(09:32):
Because we know corn, you wantto have that perfect picket
fence.
As you're going with droppingyour seed Beans, you can be a
little bit off, but if you haveany play in those meters.
If you have worn meters,everything like that, you're not
going to get that nicesingulation that you're looking
for, that you're going throughthere and that can have a real
big effect, especially whenyou're talking corn.
From those standpoints and justmaking sure bushings are good,
making sure things are greasedup right, making sure your disc
(09:54):
openers, you know, make surethey have that, that they're not
worn down too far maybe is theway to say it and that they're
closing, they're cutting thatnice V trench because that makes
all critical making sure theseed tube, the firmers,
everything are working well whenyou're going through that
standpoint.
So it's because, again, ifyou've done everything right but
(10:14):
you're putting the seed in theground wrong, you're going to
hurt yourself and you're goingto have a lot of that stuff that
just probably might not be thebest to maximizing what you want
for for yield out there.
So, again, making sure thatplanter is set up and doing it
before you're ready to go to thefield, cause once you're ready
to go to the field you want tobe able to have it ready to go
(10:35):
and get that, uh, and get thattaken care of and roll through
there.
One other thing I would like toadd.
We talk about doing that beforethe year starts.
I highly recommend getting offthe tractor every once in a
while checking things.
You know, obviously I see a lotof producers.
They get out to that firstfield, whether it's on the corn
or whether it's the bean,whatever they switch, they go.
They do the first couple acres.
(10:57):
You know they're checking depthand everything, and yep, it's
ready to go and jump in the caband then they go.
Take interval times that you'regoing through the field, check,
you know, two or three timesacross maybe that 160-acre field
that you're going for.
And then I always recommend,every time you get to that field
, check it too, because itdepends on are you going through
(11:17):
a field that's no-till?
Are you going throughstrip-till?
Are you going through a fieldthat had some tillage, like over
here in Nebraska and a lot offields?
Did it have livestock on it inthe wintertime that hard packed
it, versus it didn't haveanything on?
Is it corn ground, bee ground?
Everything makes a difference,so every field's different.
So just taking that extra 10minutes every field you're
(11:37):
getting into and making sureit's putting the seed in
correctly and doing it the rightway and everything's good.
That is the best 10 minutes.
You'll spend that whole timeplanting because that's going to
really help to achieve whatyou're looking for to maximize
out that crop that you'reputting in the field.
So one question I get a lot oftimes, bill, is you know again
(12:00):
you've brought it up many timescontrolled spillage, seeding
depth?
You know we hear a lot on corn.
You know it's always thatsecond knuckle.
That's where you want to be.
Well, you know, hopefully it'snot the person that's missing
the first knuckle, but anywayyou know.
Or how long their fingers are,you know, but you know, you
always kind of where that's at.
But you know beans, you,there's a different, there's a
(12:20):
different thought and theoryfrom everybody on that.
You know I like to see where Ihave some beans on top of the
ground.
That's not why I know I'mputting them in right, or you
can put them in too deep.
So when we get talking on depthof soybean seeding, what, what
are your recommendations or whatare some of the things you want
to provide for information andyou would like to provide to our
listeners to help maybe givethem or steer them kind of in a
(12:41):
way that ideally where we wantthose beans to be placed at.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, yeah, planting depth, I mean critical component
and setting that planter aswell, as you just talked.
So you know, really, soybeansare more sensitive to planting
depth really than corn, so wewant to make sure that we get
them in.
You know the right area andreally, why is that?
So you know, I'm in that inchand a half area.
You can go an inch, but I'mreally in that inch and a half
(13:14):
is what I like to see,especially our tilled areas and
our no-till.
You know some guys willdefinitely disagree on that, but
that's where I'm at and I'm allabout that seed-to-soil contact
.
We want to have that nice seedbed.
It's really about that soiltilth that we have going on,
that real healthy soil thatwe're planting into.
You know, we want to have thatconsistent moisture.
Really, we want to have thatconsistent moisture Really.
We want for imbibitionImbibition is a big word for you
(13:35):
know basically that germinationprocess where that water moves
into the seed and when you thinkabout planting early.
So if you plant early, likewe've been talking, we don't
want to plant them shallow, wewant to get them in, you know, a
good solid inch and a half,because we want that insulation
blanket, you know on top of them.
We've talked about early dataplanning, where we see the beans
basically building thatfoundation and growing a lot of
(13:56):
roots underneath that ground andnot emerging for a while, which
is fine because you know.
Previous episode we talkedabout seed treatments.
You know we've got a nice seedtreatment on to really protect
them.
You know, as long as we getthat solid seed protection with
multiple modes of action outthere that ties into that
planting depth and getting themin there really for that.
So when we get all that done,we've got solid germination,
(14:17):
we've got a good 90% germ orsometimes we're into an 80% or
85% germ.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
As long as we get consistent emergence across that
row.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
That's the big piece of the puzzle that we're looking
for.
So that's kind of what I thinkabout Jeff when I think about
planting depth.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
No, that's, you bring a lot of good points together
and you know the one and I'm inthe same ballpark with you, I'm
an inch and a half to inch andthree quarter.
That's where I like to see it.
There's a lot of values there,you know you'll hear comments
made about.
Well, you know it's got to tryto push that.
You know the cotyledons upthrough the soil or whatever.
It's going to be fine.
And the other thing I reallylike to always remind
individuals is remember it is aliving organism, right, that is
a living organism out there andespecially earlier planting and
(15:00):
in the earlier time frame thatwe do plant soybeans in several
cases.
We may have one day be in 75 or80 degrees and we're in that
time of year where the next dayit could be 40 degrees and you
see that big fluctuation oftemperatures.
If you have that soybean atlike a half an inch depth, it's
(15:22):
going through those fluctuations.
There is an insulation.
When you have that depth of aninch and a half to that, say,
two-inch time frame, two incheswould be the deepest you have
that insulation.
So you are minimizing thatfluctuation and I don't know
about you, but 40-degreedifference day-to-day kicks the
crap out of me at times.
So you know you're talkingabout a soybean plant from there
(15:43):
.
So that's some really goodinsight on the soybean planting
depth.
But I would also like to throwout to you, bill, that's some
really good insight on thesoybean planting depth.
But I would also like to throwout to you, bill, seed spacing.
We know how corn picket fence.
You want that for ultimateyield for corn.
Is seed spacing critical tosoybeans or does it not really
matter?
Just throw them in the row andthey're all going to compensate
anyway, right, right, so you'releading to it there.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
So I'm going to say yes, it definitely matters.
So there's probably more workto be done here.
I think this is an area thatprobably needs to address a
little bit more.
But you know, from all theseeding rate trials that we've
done, you know I look at whatI've done across the state and
two states I cover, you know Iwalk a lot of trials after
seeding, you know, to kind ofsee where we're at and then, and
(16:28):
then you know kind of get someinitial thoughts, take some
notes and then go to the middleof the season where I start
digging up some plants and startlooking at, you know, root
architecture and start lookingat what they're doing
underground and kind of look athow they're building yield above
ground and what you find iswhen they're really close
together, you have, you knowthat, eight seeds per foot.
Let's just use 140,000 forsimple math here.
(16:50):
If we're talking, you got eightseeds per foot, well, if you've
got, you know, two, you know thefirst six seeds on that first
six inches and then you got thelast two seeds in the last six
inches right of that foot.
That's not what we want.
We want them a nice even spaceas much as possible.
So really, as you talk about,you know, going through the
meters and kind of get thatsingulation ready to go, or if
(17:10):
you've got a vac planter and youwant, you know, basically get
that plate, make sureeverything's running through
there and you don't havesomething plugged in that plate
or whatever that is.
So we want to make sure that wehave really good singulation to
get really good seed spacingand it also ties into speed,
right.
So we think about planter speedwhen you're rolling.
Now we got these new high speedplanters and guys are going
faster and faster all the timeand a lot of them are doing a
(17:32):
really good job when you get outthere and look at that.
But it's critical to stop andlook at you know, evaluate, you
know after emergence how did myplanter do you know in this
season?
And then make note of thatbecause as we prepare, do
maintenance again for next year,we want to think about how did
I do on?
You know, put my notes down,keep a record book of when did I
do maintenance, on what wasgoing and how did it actually do
(17:53):
?
You know, I think those are bigthings that we want to look at.
So so, yes, it really reallymatters, there's no question
about it.
When you look at the plants, youlook at development, you look
at how, especially, you've got ahigh VPI variety that wants to
branch a lot and you got onethat's slammed right next to it.
It can only get up, you know,and kind of be a runt.
If you think about corn, youknow, you kind of think about
that odd little plant thatdoesn't do anything right, it
(18:15):
kind of gets the same thing insoybeans.
So you want to have, you wantto maximize your spacing, to
maximize, you know, reallyproduction from that perspective
.
So that's my thoughts on that.
So, jeff, I want to switchgears and talk about seed bed
preparation, seed placement,kind of.
When you put all that together,you know how are we going to do
that with the row cleaners ofdownforce.
You know the row closure,sidewall, compaction potential.
(18:37):
How do you take care of that?
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, yeah, and this is something that really we
really experienced last yearhere.
So we were dry coming into thespring, in the 2024 planning
season April, you know we had alittle cooler weather, but it
was dry and we were thinking,okay, man, it's going to be
another drought year and lo andbehold we, the gates opened up
(19:02):
in May and June, right.
So we had a lot of moisture inthat time frame, cooler
temperatures, everything we had.
Well, I bring that back alittle bit because, due to
having not the winters thatreally helped break down, we've
built up a lot of residue overhere in the last two or three
years, especially since we do alot of no-till.
So we got a lot of residuethat's still out in those fields
(19:23):
that haven't been broken down.
And I used last year's example.
I had fields that they wereplanted and I saw beans have
roughly 30 days from when thefirst one emerged to when
they'll basically the last onesemerged and the field looked
like a roller coaster all theway across it.
Well, what it basically was waswe had so much residue out
(19:44):
there, no-till planted into itthe row cleaners.
They didn't want to set the rowcleaners down.
You know, the comment was Idon't want to move too much soil
, so they were just basicallyrunning over the ground.
Well, they weren't moving thetrash out of the way, so what we
have is planted into the trash.
We weren't getting good seedingdepth, and this happened in a
lot of fields that these beanswere laying on top of the soil.
(20:05):
You know, we weren't gettingseed size, seed size seed slice
closure, especially where we hada lot of trash.
So it's really critical.
You know, I hear a lot of timeswhen they talk about row
cleaners.
I don't want to move all thissoil or whatever.
Well, if, again, if you are notgetting it moved, so you cannot
get good seed to soil contactand not getting that seed put in
(20:25):
correctly in the soil, itdoesn't matter if you're moving
a whole bunch or if you're notmoving any.
So you need to make sure thoserow cleaners are down deep
enough or lower enough to getthat trash out of the way.
So you have that.
So you have that, uh, thatspace where those disc openers
can come in and make that V,drop that seed down and then we
can get that closure.
So that's critical and alsomaking.
(20:47):
And then what you also have toremember too, is every field we
talked about earlier, makingsure you're changing that in
every field, because in thosecases where we have heavier
residue, it stayed wetter, right.
So now we have our.
We got the furrowed openers,but then we got our closure
wheels there right.
Well, we got the downforcepressure on those.
Well, we went from a dry field.
(21:07):
Now we've gone to a wetterfield and guess what happens Now
?
We've got too much downpressure on and we create
sidewall compaction.
So again, knowing what you'redoing in each field, making sure
you're getting that trash movedout of the way.
I'm not saying plow a furrowthree inches deep, but get it at
least moved out of the way soyou can get a clean cut with
those V openers and you're notpinning any trash in there.
And you get that seed placedand then you get it closed well,
(21:29):
and you're going to be wellbetter off and those beans are
all going to be in decentmoisture, they're going to have
good seed-to-soil closure.
You want to make sure you haveenough pressure on it, but not
too much to cause compaction,and everything's going to come
up in a lot timelier fashion and, again, you're not being put
that crop behind the eight ballfrom there.
(21:50):
So, again, that's something wereally learned last year, but
it's critical, don't you know?
It's amazing at someindividuals that have row
openers or row cleaners and it'slike they've been on the
planner for three years and theylook brand new and it's like,
well, I don't want to move toomuch.
So, no, they're there for areason.
Right, you got to move thattrash and get some of that out
of that waste.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I think, jeff, if I'll jump in there so.
So one thing I've really getinto no-till.
You know where we have thesecorn hybrids that we have, you
know, bred to be healthier andhealthier and healthier.
You know corn rootworm.
We've we've basically bredroots to be healthier.
We use fungicides, basicallyyou know VT, and we got corn
(22:27):
plants that are healthier.
So, like you say, the residuemanagement is really key and
essential to this right.
So.
So that's probably the biggestcomplaint that I get on.
You know, how do I get my, myplanter set so that I'm not
throwing too much material outof the way and as I get narrower
rows back to our row spacingconversation, how do I move that
residue through the planter soit doesn't plug up, right?
(22:47):
So so you get all that residuemanagement.
So we have a lot of that,especially in the, you know,
really in the no-till and wherewe've got really high corn
yields and a lot of foliage onthose.
We're seeing that being areally big question.
So it's really getting thingsset and really understanding how
that planter works and all thedifferent pieces that you can
put together.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So yeah, really good discussion.
And that's a good point.
That also brings me to anotherone, too, is a couple scenarios.
Is you know, put on that, puton a cutter, if you need to, in
front of that row that cuts thattrash out.
And then what's?
One other thing that we've beenseeing a lot going on the last
10 years in a lot of fields.
We're seeing a lot of these Ishouldn't say a lot, but we're
seeing, in several cases, quitea few corn and soybean fields
(23:28):
where they're coming in, they'reraking all the residue together
, right, and they're bailing itoff.
Well, they're taking it off inspots, but you see the spot
where the baler went and you'vegot this mat of trash out there
and you need to make sure you'regetting through that, because
that you know, you screw up tworows out of a 16 row planter,
(23:50):
you know.
So that's a lot of yield,that's a lot of yield, a lot of
potential there.
So no, that's that's great.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Another one.
You bring it up there too.
So you think about the wings,right, the wings on these big
planters, right, and you don'tget them even in their flex and
all over the place and kind ofdoing what they're doing.
So you want to make sure youthink all that through and just
check, check and recheck, like Isaid.
So you got to check the centerbehind the duals.
You got, if you have duals onthe tractor, if you got a cap
(24:14):
with with, with with the tracksor what you'd have, or you know,
a track tractor, you know youwant to check all those
different layers across that andcheck all the different rows,
not just one or two.
You know, understand that.
That consistent planning depth,you know, and that's that
placement.
You know how critical that is.
So, yeah, good stuff there.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
That's absolutely another great point that you put
there, bill.
So we do get some questions.
So you know we talkedpreviously, last week.
You know we talked about seedtreatments.
Right, and we've seen that asseed treatments have gone on,
you know there's some thingsthat sometimes can get sticky.
You have humidity, things maybedon't flow as well.
So you know we talk.
We talk about seed flowability.
(24:51):
You know whether it's usingtalc, whether it's using
graphite.
You know, with the seedtreatments on it, what works.
You know.
Do you have polymers that areadded?
You know can you do it?
You know you do everythingright up to this point.
But if your seed isn't flowingwell, that's an essential factor
.
And and and why is it key andcritical to have good
flowability of seed?
(25:11):
You know, and what value doesthat bring to growing a high
yielding crop?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, no, you think all that through.
You go all the way back to thebeginning of the episode here
when we started about G by E byM, yield triangle, all that
pieces of the puzzle go togetherand if you don't get the right
depth and the right placementand the right spacing, you know
that's a big piece of that.
So you think about the vacuums.
We'll start with those.
You know we want to use talc,basically with those.
We think about a finger pickup.
(25:37):
We want to use graphite withthat, really to kind of keep it
flowing.
So you're sitting here thinking, well, you know, so I'm not,
I'm not going to put any seedtreatment on.
Well, you still want to have itin there and keep that
flowability going and take careof that seed and just make it
flow.
But you think about the seedand you think about the seed
coat.
You think about how fragilethat is.
You want to keep that flowingtogether so they don't butt up
(26:00):
against one another and crack asyou're going through there.
Keep them flowing as nice andsmoothly as possible.
So you think about all thetrials that we do, jeff, and
you've got some plot seed layingin the back of the pickup
you're driving around going fromplot to plot.
You know, just like you said,and you start out in the morning
it's 20 degrees or 25 or 30.
End of day it's, you know, 50,60, 70 degrees.
(26:21):
The humidity is gone from 30%up to 80%, you know, or whatever
it is, and all that stuffhappens as soon as you open that
bag up.
You know, and you get thathumidity in there and you got
all these seed treatments on.
You know, and he talked aboutdifferent polymers and you know,
you got a clear coat or or somesort of a uh uh coat, basically
what am I trying to say?
(26:42):
A polymer that basically getssprayed on there to keep
flowability going, all thosedifferent flow agents.
So we got like bi stuff.
We have flow right, for example.
So all those different thingsthat you put together to keep
that seed flowing really allgoes back to what we just talked
about.
You know, getting that planterset, make sure it's working Well
.
If the seed doesn't flow andyou have the planter set
perfectly, then what are wedoing, right?
So we've got to make sure thatseed flows and gets through
(27:04):
there and really ties that alltogether.
No-transcript that you have.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, I guess you know you were just commenting
there.
You know we do everything rightand it doesn't flow.
It's.
You know we still we're goingto have an issue.
You know, I kind of I alwayslook at the analogy of the old
50 gallon barrel.
You know it has water and ithas slats on the side.
You know the barrel's onlygoing to hold as much as the
lowest slat, right, so you cando everything right.
But if there's one thing that'snot correct or it's going to
(28:05):
have an issue with, that ends upscrewing the whole system up
Right.
So just making sure, taking thetime going through making sure
everything's running right, makesure you got everything worked
right, calibrated right, takingyour time when you're getting to
the fields, every field stop,take a look, check a couple of
times, make sure it's going in,because every field is different
.
But putting that seed in theground correctly, in the right
(28:26):
conditions, is going to be yourbest option or opportunity to
maximize yields out in thatfield.
Because that's really the startof it and once you've planted
it you can't change anything.
Once it's in the soil you'regoing to change the only way
you're going to change it.
If you're going to replant, weknow, if you're going to replant
, you're already going to losetop end yield from that
standpoint.
So, bill, any comments or anyuh uh thing you would recommend
(28:48):
to our listeners today on thepodcast?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, one thing that you said there that made me
think of something else.
So when you think about youknow field to field and all that
thing, but think about dataplanning.
So I start planting early andthen I go to all of a sudden,
you know I get rained out, andso on and so forth.
I got to plant later.
You know I've got that seed,I've kind of got my measurements
all all figured out, how muchtalk I'm going to put in or how
(29:10):
much graph I got to put in.
Well, again, check, check andrecheck, because you know if you
get a lot of seed treatment on,for example, you get later in
the season and our temperaturesare up and our humidity is up
and things are changing, you'regoing to have to adjust.
So make sure you think all thatthrough.
And if you're, if you're notgetting that, especially when
you've got a seed monitor, youknow it's kind of telling you
you know what are, what is mydrop rates?
(29:30):
You start looking at that.
Gives you all those those statson there and kind of tells you
what's going on.
But be thinking about that.
And if you don't have that, bethinking about that.
You know all those operationsthat you got to do in these
little little tweaks that youcan do to, to really maximize
soybean production.
So I realize you know planterset up like we talked here.
Great episode, I think.
A lot of key things, a lot ofkey takeaways here.
We put that together.
(29:52):
But, jeff, what are yourtakeaways from this episode?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, no, just again doing things, making sure you
have things set up, making sureyou're ready to roll when it's
time and the conditions areright, and getting that seed in
correctly.
That's really what it's aboutand that's where it really
starts that journey to gettingthose 100 bushel beans that you
want out there for that yieldpotential out there.
That's the start of the journeyand it's a long journey, but
(30:15):
again doing that.
Now hopefully your planter isdone, but if it hasn't, get it
out, get it hooked up, getthings looked at and gone
through and have her ready toroll, because we're only a few
weeks away from we're going tostart rolling, especially in our
area.
In fact, we get over inIllinois.
They might already be rollingin some areas over there from
that standpoint.
So, with that being said, wewant to thank you for joining us
(30:38):
today and thanks for joining uson this episode of Spilling the
Beans.
Me and Bill want to thank youfor being with us today.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
We want to thank you again forjoining us and make it a great
day.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
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
(31:16):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, ziduaPro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+.
Relenia Dryaxor, liberty Ultraare registered trademarks of
BASF Plus.
Relenia Dryaxor, liberty Ultraare registered trademarks of
BASF.
Nemisphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(31:36):
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 BSF.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners, and use ofany such trademark does not
imply any affiliation with orendorsement by its owner.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Always read and follow label directions Before
mixing components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
mixing instructions.
The most restrictive labelapplies Natsai Fastax CS is a
restricted use pesticide.
Nemasphere, restricted usepesticide Nemasphere, zorina and
Voraxor are not registered andnot 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
(32:16):
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
claims regarding product safetyand efficacy shall be addressed
solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF GrowS.
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