Soybean School: It’s only May — late planting is a month away

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Horst Bohner estimates there are only several hundred acres of soybeans planted in Ontario and he’s OK with that.

As rain continues to saturate soils across the province, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soybean specialist is reminding growers that it’s early for planting soybeans.

In this episode of RealAgriculture’s Soybean School, Bohner says there’s still plenty of time to plant the crop before surrendering significant yield.

“If you think about long-term planting date studies, there’s no doubt that we prefer early planting,” says Bohner. “But by early, we mean May 10, and we’re not even there yet.”

In what is turning into a challenging spring across the province, Bohner says growers are not losing anything by leaving the seed in the bag until planting conditions improve. “That cold, wet soil is going to produce a lot of soil-borne disease in those early seedlings so we haven’t missed anything… and the long-term data would show that you don’t lose significant data until you get past May 20.”

Bohner adds that he still considers the entire month of May as the normal planting window for soybeans. “We’ve pushed to earlier planting because we see some advantages, but what I’m suggesting is that during the month of May, there really aren’t any changes that we should consider.” That means the same management, varieties and populations, he adds.

For Bohner, late planting in the province begins when the calendar flips over to June. Only then do management considerations start to change.

Click here for more Soybean School episodes.

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Soybean School (view all)Season 6 (2017) Episode 23
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