Horst Bohner is convinced that farmers should plant more than one variety of soybeans.
If they don’t, they are making a “mistake.”
“As a basic starting point, I think every grower should seed at least three varieties. Every year. As a minimum. Hopefully more than that,” said Bohner, the soybean specialist for the ministry of agriculture, food and rural affairs in Ontario.
Bohner spoke about soybeans, yields and management of the crop at the Manitoba Agronomists Conference, held mid-December at the University of Manitoba.
“Essentially, that (seeding more than one) is the difference between the guys… who are moving forward and the guys who call me up and say: ‘I’m frustrated with my soybean yield.’ ”
To support his argument, Bohner showed a bar graph on soybean yield gains from 1942 to 2022 in Ontario.
The average yield gain over the 80 years was 0.36 bushels per year.
When that 0.36 bu. is compared to soybean variety trials in Ontario, the data indicates that most of the gain comes from plant genetics.
“When we plot our variety trials over the years, and they go back to the 1960s, the average response (increase) there is 0.33 bu.,” he said.
That suggests that 90 percent of yield gain, year over year, comes from genetic improvement.
“We don’t have exact numbers to tease that out. It’s a best estimate,” Bohner said.
That doesn’t mean on-farm practices like seeding date, fertility and weed control are meaningless.
If a grower gets those practices wrong, there will be an impact on yield.
But choosing the right variety could be the most important decision.
If a producer selects only one variety and grows it across the entire farm, how do they know it’s the optimal variety for their farm? For their soil and region?
“That’s what I’m trying to push against (planting one variety). I think that’s a big mistake,” Bohner said following his talk.
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