Answers are from the Indiana certified crop adviser panel: Danny Greene, Greene Crop Consulting, Franklin; Bryan Overstreet, soil conservation coordinator, Rensselaer; and Dan Ritter, Dairyland Seed agronomist, Plymouth.

 

Is research still supporting earlier planting dates for soybeans? With one planter, we must decide to start with corn or soybeans first. My son wants to plant both at once. Is it worth investing in a second planter?

 

Greene: Yes, research shows both corn and soybeans respond favorably to earlier planting. Shawn Conley, Extension soybean specialist at the University of Wisconsin, conducted an extensive AI search of planting-date trials. He found that soybeans often have the highest return from early planting through April 20. In early May, corn tends to take the lead again until yields drop off significantly. Then soybeans are again the more profitable crop for the planting date. 

 

Our field experience aligns with this trend. Early planting allows soybeans to form more nodes before flowering and capture more sunlight during the season.

 

Whether to buy a second planter depends on your operation’s capacity with labor, logistics and cash flow. Does the farm have enough labor to keep both machines running? Must you wait on cover crops, fertilizer or chemical applications, or tillage with one crop or the other? 

 

The biological answer is yes — earlier soybeans pay. The economic answer depends on whether yield gain covers the cost of the additional machine and fits your system.

 

Overstreet: Data shows that you are better off planting soybeans early. Wait until things are warmer and conditions are better to plant corn. Yield hurts more for corn than for soybeans when you don’t get uniform emergence. There is a lot more expense than just another planter, however. It will take another tractor, more workers and more equipment to keep ahead of two operations at once. Here is the real question: Is it worth the extra cost for an early start on corn planting too? 

 

Ritter: Research, as well as grower experience, supports this practice. It is starting to become more mainstream. I’ve seen too much data that supports early planting of soybeans. At our Wabash, Ind., product and agronomy research farm, we tested early planting with soybeans for three years. We learned that late April was about ideal for yield and risk mitigation. Our highest yields were achieved with all April plantings. However, early-April-planted soybeans were equal in yield to late April, but frost risk increased. As we planted more into May, yields tended to drop off. From late April to late May, there was an approximate 5-bushel-per-acre yield difference.