Cool Beans! Give just facts, Jack

May 02, 2024

When I am asked a direct question from a farmer or a crop consultant my response is always as follows.

“Do you want the short answer or the long answer as I can say the same thing in five minutes or five hours?”

Their response to me is almost always the same.

“Just the facts, Jack.”

I will attempt to answer four agronomically important and challenging questions in a succinct manner. However as we all know brevity can be a gift or a curse depending upon the context of the question. With that being said here we go!

Question No. 1 – When should I start planting soybeans?

My general response is to start planting your soybean crop about seven to 10 days before you start putting your corn in the ground – with the caveat that the soil is fit and you are following your crop-insurance replant dates. Review the updated U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency map. We’ve measured soybean-yield loss due to delayed-planting date as early as about April 10 in parts of the Midwest. But the rapid yield decline – as much as .5 bushels per acre per day – occurs at about May 10. As you would expect, the magnitude of that planting-date yield response is soil- and climate-dependent. Yield losses in some areas were as much as 2.8 bushels per acre per week for delayed planting.

Question No. 2 – What is the optimal soybean-seeding rate?

The quest for the optimal agronomic soybean-seeding rate for yield vs. the optimal economic seeding rate has been an ongoing debate. Fortunately a large group of academics and industry researchers were able to combine data sets and address the question. Our results suggest that for “on-time” soybean-planting dates the optimal agronomic soybean-seeding rate to achieve 99 percent yield potential ranged from 237,000 to 128,000 seeds per acre – assuming 90 percent germination – across environments. The optimal economic soybean-seeding rate ranged from 157,000 to 103,000 seeds per acre. Thankfully that closely confirms my original recommendation that you buy a bag an acre and place about 20 percent more seed on the worse-yielding acres and about 20 percent less on the excellent-yielding acres, especially in areas of extreme white mold concern. But if planting is delayed we recommend you increase your seeding rate accordingly.

Question No. 3 – When should I apply my pre herbicide?

The effectiveness of pre-emergence herbicides is influenced by many factors including application time, soil type, weather conditions, and weed-seedbank community composition and infestation level. The ideal time to apply a pre-herbicide is shortly before the onset of emergence of the target weed species followed by 1-2 inches of activating rainfall. But that’s often not the reality under field conditions.

For soybeans planted in May, applying a pre-emergence herbicide at or shortly after crop planting is a standard practice and makes agronomic sense. But deciding when to deliver a pre-emergence herbicide to ultra-early-planted soybeans can be challenging. One of the challenges is that some of the effective pre-herbicides for waterhemp control should be applied within three days of soybean planting according to their labels – such as flumioxazin and sulfentrazone. If soybeans are planted in mid-April, and waterhemp doesn’t start emerging until mid- or late-May, should a pre-herbicide still be sprayed in April within three days of planting? Or should a grower decide on a more-flexible chemical program that allows for a later application?

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Video: The Investment Opportunities of Industrial Hemp

The fledgling U.S. hemp industry is decades behind countries like Canada, France and China, but according to impact investor and this week’s podcast guest, Pierre Berard, it could flourish into a $2.2 billion industry by 2030 and create thousands of jobs.

To reach its potential, what the hemp industry needs most right now, Berard said, is capital investment.

Last month, Berard published a report titled “Seeing the U.S. Industrial Hemp Opportunity — A Pioneering Venture for Investors and Corporations Driven by Environmental, Social and Financial Concerns” in which he lays out the case for investment.

It’s as if Berard, with this report, is waving a giant flag, trying to attract the eyes of investors, saying, “Look over here. Look at all this opportunity.”

Berard likens the burgeoning American hemp industry to a developing country.

“There is no capital. People don’t want to finance. This is too risky. And I was like, OK, this sounds like something for me,” he said.

As an impact investor who manages funds specializing in agro-processing companies, Berard now has his sights set on the U.S. hemp industry, which he believes has great economic value as well as social and environmental benefits.

He spent many years developing investment in the agriculture infrastructure of developing countries in Latin America and Africa, and said the hemp industry feels similar.

“It is very nascent and it is a very fragmented sector. You have pioneers and trailblazers inventing or reinventing the field after 80 years of prohibition,” he said. “So I feel very familiar with this context.”

On this week’s hemp podcast, Berard talks about the report and the opportunities available to investors in the feed, fiber and food sectors of the hemp industry.

Building an industry around an agricultural commodity takes time, he said. According to the report, “The soybean industry took about 50 years to become firmly established, from the first USDA imports in 1898 to the U.S. being the top worldwide producer in the 1950s.”

Berard has a plan to accelerate the growth of the hemp industry and sees a four-pillar approach to attract investment.

First, he said, the foundation of the industry is the relationship between farmers and processors at the local level.

Second, he said the industry needs what he calls a “federating body” that will represent it, foster markets and innovations, and reduce risk for its members and investors.

The third pillar is “collaboration with corporations that aim to secure or diversify their supply chains with sustainable products and enhance their ESG credentials. This will be key to funding the industry and creating markets,” he said.

The fourth pillar is investment. Lots of it. Over $1.6 billion over seven years. This money will come from government, corporations, individual investors, and philanthropic donors.

The 75-page report goes into detail about the hemp industry, its environmental and social impact, and the opportunities available to investors.

Read the report here: Seeing the U.S. Industrial Hemp Opportunity

Also on this episode, we check in with hemp and bison farmer Herb Grove from Brush Mountain Bison in Centre County, PA, where he grew 50 acres of hemp grain. We’ll hear about harvest and dry down and crushing the seed for oil and cake.