When it comes to soybeans, too little of a nutrient could leave yields lacking, while too much could lead to wasteful and harmful runoff. A new soy-checkoff-funded study seeks to determine the exact nutrient needs of high-yielding soybeans to help farmers make sure the amount of nutrients they apply is just right.
The results of the research could provide farmers with precise numbers for how much of each nutrient a soybean crop needs to achieve maximum yields. That includes not only major nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also the minor ones, such as manganese and boron.
University of Wisconsin Ph.D. student Adam Gaspar says the study on which he’s working aims to set a higher bar for soybean yields by giving the crop the nutrients it needs.
In this study, co-funded by the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee, Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board and DuPont Pioneer, researchers make sure fertility is not a yield-limiting factor. They give the crop all the nutrients it can handle and then some. Through analysis of plants from research plots in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, they hope to determine:
- How much of each nutrient the crop takes out of the ground.
- The growth stages at which the crop takes up those nutrients.
- At which part of the plant it uses each nutrient.
- The effect those nutrients have on yield.
“This study is about setting a higher yield bar by accurately updating soybean fertility needs for today’s soybean genetics and production practices,” says Adam Gaspar, a Ph.D. student assisting University of Wisconsin soybean extension specialist and Agronomy Professor Shawn Conley on the project. “Not only have we increased yield over the past 50 years, but we have also physiologically changed the soybean plant.”
Gaspar hopes to have preliminary data to share with farmers over the next year.
As crop yields continue to increase, the amount of nutrients removed from the soil each year also increases. Proper nutrient management is essential to maintain and continuously improve soybean yields. Not knowing and properly replenishing nutrients in your fields could mean that your yields and profits could fall behind.
Consider conducting soil testing shortly after harvest this fall to find out the level of each nutrient in your soil. Then you’ll be able to make educated management decisions on how much of each nutrient to apply when the new data is available.
The soy checkoff invests a large portion of its budget in research and partnerships to help U.S. soybean farmers increase yields, manage production issues and maximize profit opportunities.
- See more at: http://unitedsoybean.org/article/study-seeks-sweet-spot-between-nutrient-management-and-soybean-yield/#sthash.Mht3x32k.dpuf
When it comes to soybeans, too little of a nutrient could leave yields lacking, while too much could lead to wasteful and harmful runoff. A new soy-checkoff-funded study seeks to determine the exact nutrient needs of high-yielding soybeans to help farmers make sure the amount of nutrients they apply is just right.
The results of the research could provide farmers with precise numbers for how much of each nutrient a soybean crop needs to achieve maximum yields. That includes not only major nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also the minor ones, such as manganese and boron.
University of Wisconsin Ph.D. student Adam Gaspar says the study on which he’s working aims to set a higher bar for soybean yields by giving the crop the nutrients it needs.