Corn is no longer king. That’s according to USDA’s Prospective Plantings report released last week. Across the U.S. and Indiana, USDA projects there will be more soybean acres than corn acres.
In the latest Purdue Crop Chat podcast, Purdue Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel addresses the risks associated with planting beans-on-beans this year.
Last week we heard from Iowa State nematologist Greg Tylka who said, “beans-on-beans is a terrible idea if you have soybean cyst nematodes.” Casteel agrees with that 100%.
“Soybean cyst nematode is definitely at the top of my list… [you need to] understand, if you’ve got it, at what level, what HG types and then to go to your variety. Okay, which varieties do I have? If you’re going to the fields that are going to be soybeans after soybeans, you probably ought to pick the varieties that have a different source of resistance than PI 88788. That’s the most common one. So, look for Peking, look for a few of those other ones.”
Casteel also worries about potential seedling diseases.
“You’re going to create an environment where you’ve got the soybean residue for the said pathogen to continue to grow and develop and so then you’re just creating another opportunity for even more pathogen development. So, I think about making sure that we’ve got our seed treatments that are in order to handle some of those, whether it’s Pythium or Phytophthora… I go back to variety selection too. So, that’s one of our best sources of managing for these diseases. Look at what source of resistance, or field tolerance, depending on the pathogen, depending on the company. That’s your starting point in managing those.”
In addition to pests and disease, Casteel discusses potential weed control problems as well in the Purdue Crop Chat podcast, found below.