Moisture Needed For Soybean Crop

Aug 18, 2014

Rain would definitely be a welcome site for farmers this weekend.

Jeff Hamre of Legend Seed made the trip to Manitoba this past week from just outside of Fargo. He says things are looking pretty dry across the entire region.

"From southern Minnesota, or even northern Iowa, all the way up into Saskatchewan where we were last week, it looks very good," he said. "Everybody's dry. There's little pockets that have had a few little rains that have helped but even here in the Winkler area we've got a beautiful looking soybean crop coming, and corn crop, but if we could get an inch or two of rain this weekend, they might have to buy a new truck to get it to market."

Over 100 people attended a Legend Seed soybean and corn plot tour on Thursday between Winkler and Morden. Hamre was onsite discussing some of the mistakes they've made over the years growing soybeans.

"Our biggest mistake that we made when we were first starting with soybeans was fertilization," he commented. "Soybeans is a very unique plant. It manufactures its own nitrogen and it has to use its own nitrogen to make the peas in the pod or the soybeans themselves."

He notes lowering the nitrogen level and increasing the bacteria count in the soil produced a major yield increase.

Hamre said this year's crop is still about a month away from harvest, and he is hoping we don't see an earlier frost heading into September.

Source: SteinbachOnline

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.