July 14, 2022
Farmers in northern Iowa might have been frustrated with delayed planting this spring, but the silver lining is this helped avoid some early season diseases that favor cool, wet soils, says Jed Norman, LG Seeds agronomist in north-central and northeast Iowa.
Farmers in the region have had great success planting soybeans in April in recent years, but that didn’t happen in 2022. “Farmers took advantage of prime conditions the second week of May to get soybean seed in the ground,” says Norman. That timing was key, he says, noting Iowa State University data signaling soybeans should avoid a yield drag until May 20.
Soybeans are generally off to a good start and around the V3 to V4 stage of development as of early July, Norman reports. Now that the busy June period of herbicide spraying has passed, he says there can be a tendency to skip ahead to harvest preparations. But he warns against complacency and encourages farmers to keep scouting for weed and insect pressures.