Seeding soybeans | First-time growers who planted longer season varieties could see crop failures
A veteran soybean producer in Sask-atchewan is concerned that novice growers haven’t seeded varieties appropriate for the province’s agronomic conditions.
According to Statistics Canada field crop estimates released in late June, Saskatchewan farmers seeded 170,000 acres of soybeans in 2013, approximately double last year’s acreage.
Kevin Elmy, who runs Friendly Acres Seed Farm in Saltcoats, Sask., said the enthusiasm for soybeans is encouraging, but many farmers have planted soybeans that really aren’t early maturing varieties.
“Just because you call them early doesn’t make them early,” said Elmy, who has grown soybeans for a dozen years.
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Claude Durand, product development manager with Northstar Genetics, one of the leading soybean seed distributors in Manitoba, agreed.
“Especially this year, with the huge growth in Saskatchewan, there may not have been enough seed of the earliest varieties,” he said.
“Some guys have been going to some of these longer season varieties…. You’re kind of playing with fire. We had such a good year last year, in terms of heat units, and maybe guys are pushing their luck based on what it was (like) last year.”
Experimenting with marginal varieties is fine when seeding only a few acres, but not 800 acres, he added.
“There’s going to be some failures this year … but we don’t want it to happen on the big acreage.”
Elmy said seed companies aren’t always accurate when marketing early season soybeans and their maturity ratings.
“From what I’ve seen, they (can be) two maturity ratings out, which is 10 days of maturity.”
Producers rely on company representatives for advice on how to grow beans, including what to plant, when to plant it and how much seed to put in the ground.
However, Elmy said general information on soybeans isn’t particularly useful because farmers need information specific to their region.
“If one guy is in Assiniboia and another guy is in Melfort, I don’t have a blanket formula to grow soybeans.”
As well, the importance of planting into warm soil is one of the key agronomic issues with soybeans. However, most cropland in Saskatchewan is zero tillage, which isn’t “conducive to getting a warm soil early” in the season, Durand said.
Elmy said trials and agronomic research are needed to understand how, why and where soybeans can prosper in the province.
For example, he is conducting trials on his farm this summer to determine how soybeans respond to light exposure.
Soybeans are photoperiod sensitive, meaning they flower in response to day length.
Beans planted May 15 could flower the same day as beans seeded May 30, which allows the later seeded crop to catch up and mature earlier.
Elmy seeded six popular soybean varieties on his farm in Saskatchewan to assess daylight sensitivity and how it affects maturity.
“We seeded them late … and this way we’ll be able to see which ones are daylight sensitive and will tolerate less heat units than rated.”
