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| This last year was my first year using strip till on 30" rows after about 15 years of no-till on 18" rows, and I'm disappointed in my soybean yields. I made my strips last fall with a 1 1/2" mole knife and blew in some P-K-S into the strip. I'm wondering if that was a mistake(the fertilizer part) My beans LOOKED awesome all year, and I was hoping for 65-70 bushel beans under irrigation, but barely broke 55. I had good plant growth, and had to run a lot of material through the combine, but didn't have much grain to show for it. Now we did have a hot July and 1st 1/2 August, and an early frost on Sept 15 on some group 2.8 and 3.1 beans, so that might have contributed. I thought there would be great since the top three nodes were loaded with pods and all filled, but the bottom half of the plant didn't have many, and many pods were barren, or maybe one bean in a three bean pod.
I'm wondering if the fertilizer might have hurt me, or if it was just environmental conditions, or the 30" rows. There wouldn't have been much nitrogen in the fertilizer bands(would have got some from the MAP), and I wasn't expecting it to remain until spring, but we never had ANY rain last fall, or much this spring to leach it out, so there might have been a substantial amount left. Since the soybean puts down a tap root right away it might have hit that nitrogen, and made it lazy.
I'm wondering if I should do something else this fall, I've thought that I could place the fertilizer tube ahead of the knife to incorporate it, or broadcast(but I can't variable rate that). I'm also going to try twin-rows(in soybeans) next year by using RTK to plant two rows 6" or 8" apart(have to plant twice with normal planter). Just looking for thoughts, similar experiences, or successful programs or studies.
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Strip till/Fertilizer and Soybeans
