Did you know soybean plants are at the highest risk of breaking yield late in the growing season?
Knowing when your crops are most vulnerable to stresses can mean the difference between success and failure. University of Minnesota professor and extension agronomist Seth Naeve recently did a study with his team on the effects of stress on soybean plants at different stages of the growth cycle. Through reducing light availability at different times in the growing season, they starved the plants of energy and correlated the timing with yield.
Naeve and his team found yield potential in soybeans begins to drop during the last pod fill stage (after R4), making the crop most sensitive to stresses in the last couple weeks of August. Naeve and his team would deploy shades over the soybean plants and move them after a certain amount of light was intercepted, taking energy out of their system at different times in the season. They were able to find how much energy loss led to yield loss and correlated that with timing.
Common stressors that affect soybeans are hail, wind, drought, defoliation, soybean cyst nematode (SCN), insects, disease, and more. Neave and his team’s research also found the soybean plants compensated for seed quantity loss by increasing seed size within the pods, which can help overall yield as well.
It’s important to set your soybean crop up for success by helping it to capture as much light (energy) as possible. Naeve said managing it in those last stages of growth is most important. Though yield is determined largely by uncontrollable factors during the critical pod fill stage, controllable factors like seeding timing, variety selection, and seeding rates can help make a difference.
BrettYoung has many soybean varieties with a range of maturities suited for Western Canadian growing conditions. View our full offerings here.
