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Thumb of Michigan | We were involved in some plots when Intellicoat as brand new. Company we were growing soy seed for wanted to do some comparisons of a coating they had vs Intellicoat. Anyone recall the seed ads where the guy was standing in a snow covered field with his Carharrts on? The seed company started with a "C". Anyway, the plot was very small that year as the treated seed was limited. We had Intellicoat seed in half the drill, the seed companies stuff in the other half. We were to plant some every month through May. I do not recall the maturity of the beans now. We planted the first plot in late December, the second in January, we missed February as the snow was too deep to get good seed to soil contact, and we planted the rest in March and April. All the plots made it to harvest. Obviously, the December through April plots didn't emerge in a week after planting. Its winter here in those months. Heres the kicker: the plan at the seed company had changed entirely by harvest, and they weren't interested in yield data. I think there was either some licensing or EPA approval issues, I can't recall now. We were going to weigh them anyway (this was in the early 90's- WAY before combine mounted yield monitors) but the guy with the weigh wagon couldn't get there, we wanted to plant wheat in the field, and there was rain in the forecast. Only thing we learned that year was that from the seat of the combine, there wasn't any difference in yield regardless of planting dates or treatment. Not at all accurate, but thats my story on that.
We could still get the one seed treatment mentioned above after that. We liked to plant treated seed early if we could, but we wouldn't wait to plant if treated wasn't available. Couple of years later, soil conditions were very good in late March. It was even pretty warm. Felt it way to early to plant corn, though: we always felt we got the best corn possible in any given year if we could row it in 5 days. Its really tough to get corn to show itself when the nights are 30 degrees in my experience. So we planted some soybeans instead. Not a lot, maybe 20 acres. Right on a main road- if we;re going to screw up, I have no qualms with letting everyone else in on it. And- they yielded the same as those planted the first week of May right next to them. And, contrary to what the local computer verification center said (the coffee shop) they were all ripe the same day. We did similar early plantings over the years, with oddly enough very similar results. I never planted more than 20% of our acres early, although we had a lot of years where we could have planted them all in March. Opposite of corn, we felt that the bigger limitations "here" was that too many were giving up yield on soys by planting maturities that were too short. Thats all relative, but for instance: I think in my 'hood, early 2's are considered normal. My first plantings were always early 3's regardless if we could plant in March or not, and we'd never go shorter than a 2.4 unless we wanted to plant wheat: or the seed company would kick in some extra $ if we fell short on yield by planting a short variety.
Heres the whole thing in a nutshell: I never gained a measurable yield bump by planting in March. I only lost yield one time. I planted part of a field with corn stalk/rye cover, went down the road 1/4 of a mile (same soil, same weather) and planted a few acres into soy stubble with no cover crop. We planted the balance of both fields in early may. There was no statistical difference in yield between the early and late planted soys into corn/rye cover. There was no statistical difference between those two plots and the May planted soys into soy stubble down the road. I gave up around 5 bpa by planting into soy stubble in March. That year in those conditions, which is important to note: I NEVER have changed my plans from what I considered to be my normal from one year to the next based on some odd anomaly the previous year. Thats why we have crop rotations for example.
I'm a cup is half full kind of guy, so some would question why take a chance on early soys. I was always ecstatic that other than one instance, I never gave up yield. I'm also a number kind of guy, and early planting of soys was really intriguing to me- maybe I can expand my acres without adding more or bigger iron if I can simply extend my planting window. Sounds pretty simple, but how many really try to do that?
Anyway, I AM NOT guaranteeing that everyone or anyone can have any sort of success planting any crop one or 2 months ahead of whatever one normally does. I have no financial benefit in anyone's success, so I won't be responsible for anyone's financial failure, either. I only bring things up like this because over the years, I've had a lot of successes due to the fact that others were willing to share some of there ideas with me. Or, better yet, avoided failure because others were willing to share their's with me. Don't adopt, adapt. Hopefully, someone can improve their bottom line by trying some different things like this. If it fails, well, I'll be sympathetic. Really, I will. Don't send me the bill, though. | |
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Would you plant in March again?
