Soybean Planting Progress

Although the 2015 planting season started out slow, tremendous progress has been made to get this year’s crop growing. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service in Mississippi, 79% of the soybean acreage is planted as of the week ending May 17, 2015. At this time, 60% of the crop is emerged. This puts us roughly 10% ahead of the 5-year average planting progress.

Mississippi’s soybean crop currently ranges from yet to be planted to flowering. Some areas of the state need a few days of sunshine while others still need to catch a rain. We have already seen some replanting due to heavy rain and/or herbicide injury earlier this season. Since that time, we have reached other extremes where inadequate soil moisture was present for germination and/or more heavy rain along with cooler temperatures have caused other emergence issues.

At this point in the planting season, replant decisions become a little more difficult. Always consider the planting date difference between the initial stand and what date you expect to replant. Remember, as we move later into the planting window, our expected yield potential may decline. If replanting is necessary, consider terminating the existing stand rather than spot planting into the initial crop. Failure to remove the existing plants may cause problems such as competition between the old and new crop as well as differences in maturity. Having a difference in maturity resulting from soybean planted at different times within the same field may cause issues at harvest.