Mississippi Soybean Update-May Planted Soybeans

The most recent NASS survey says that as of May 1, 48% of soybean acres had been planted, which is well ahead of both Louisiana (36%) and Arkansas (24%).  Given the wet weather we had over the weekend and yesterday, planting is likely on hold for another 1-2 days on sandier soils and 2-3 days on the heavier clay soils.

Now that the calendar has flipped over to May, we are past the “prime” soybean planting window (April 10-25) and many producers are beginning to worry about yield loss from delayed planting.  Looking over the results of a recent maturity group (MG) × planting date study conducted at multiple locations across 6 states (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas) between 2012 and 2014, we are in better shape than we think.

For example, at the study location located in Stoneville, MS on a Dubbs silt loam, soybean yields do not start falling off until mid to late May for MG 4 soybeans and early to mid-May for MG 5 soybeans.  Another location on Sharkey clay near Keiser, AR had a similar trend with yields for MG 4 soybeans staying strong until mid/late May and MG 5 yielding similarly to April beans until early May.

Granted that 2012-2014 were pretty favorable growing seasons, but the point I am trying to make is that plating MG 4 soybeans in early May isn’t the end of the world.  If we get reasonably fair growing conditions the rest of the summer, then the early May soybeans have a good chance yield near what they would if they were planted mid-late April.

With that in mind…

With it being May and daytime temperatures being in the 80’s, soybeans are going to be emerging FAST (3-4 days) after they are planted.  This means that the window for getting your PRE herbicides out is narrow.  If you are planning on planting soybeans, but aren’t sure that you can get them sprayed before the next rain, then I would recommend holding off until you are sure that you can get your PRE out.  Once soybeans emerge you lose a lot of PRE-only control options for pigweeds. Given the above information, the yield loss associated with inadequate pigweed control is likely far greater than the yield loss associated with delaying planting a few days. 

So, hurry to get your soybeans planted.  But don’t hurry so much that you do a poor job taking care of what you do have planted.  We still have a couple of weeks before planting date is really going to hurt us.