R3 Application Strategies for High-Yield Soybean Fields
5 Jul 244m 31s

Matt Miles stands in a high-yield soybean field discussing the current state and treatment of his R3 stage soybeans. These twin row 38-inch beans are well-branched and planted at a density of 140,000 plants per acre. Miles highlights a shift from traditional fungicide applications to a nutritional product called BioHealth, aiming to maintain plant health through nutrition rather than fungicides. He expresses some apprehension but is prepared to apply fungicides later if disease pressure increases.

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00:00 So guys, we're out here today. You know, I'm standing in these beans. These beans are right about the Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:07 Right about there. These are R three beans, twin row 38 inch. So we're wide row on the twin row. They're at R three. 00:14 They're not above R three. But you go down here to the, no, we count and it's, it's a quarter inch. 00:19 So we got good branching on these plants. Uh, they're planted at 140,000. This is normally one of my high yielding fields 00:26 that I have on the farm every year that I have this field in soybeans. You know, I, I try to do something different to it 00:31 to see if we can push the yield. 'cause if there's any field out here that can, we can push the yield on. 00:35 This is one of the top five that I have. So, R three beans. We just put our R three fungicide application on, 00:43 I call it fungicide application. I need to start calling it R three application. We actually opted to go without fungicide 00:49 and to use a product called BioHealth, which is a product that is more of a nutritional, you know, we're about to get 00:56 to the point where we believe, and Kelly talks about this all the time, we're fungicide for, for plant nutrition, you know, for plant health, 01:03 I guess you should say, if we can keep plants healthy with, with nutrients all through the time, do we need 01:08 that fungicide pass or do we not? I'm scared. I've never done it before. I can punt though. So if we get out here and we start seeing some disease 01:15 pressure later and this, or the coronary, either one, I can punt at that point and I can apply fungicide at that point and not be too late. 01:21 So we're going with this as a trial run. I say a trial run. We're, we're doing it on a hundred percent 01:26 of our acres on our corn and beans with the, uh, with the nutritional product instead of, uh, fungicides. 01:31 So I talked to my rep today. He wasn't real happy with me, but you know, if it keeps us in business 01:36 because it's cheaper and does the same thing, we'll be fine. I told him, you can laugh at me when I have 01:40 to come back at R five, R six and put a fungicide out, then you can laugh at me at that point. So we're gonna see how it works out. 01:46 But, um, we got the R three application done on the Foer side. Now we decided we had time for our wide drops 01:52 before we start our second application to nitrogen on the cotton to do some wide drop soybeans. We're using, uh, kfl and sideswipe from Nature's. 02:00 We're using Upshift C, which is a phosphorus source from Meum. We're also using Nutri charge. 02:06 And last but not least, we're putting in a application to Cowboy at the hefty field days when they used to have the contest. 02:12 We did a decent job in those and we kept, the only thing we would see is we were going through this thing is that, you know, 02:18 we were wide dropping a, a pass with cowboy in it. So this is a high yield field that we're pushing, trying to push really hard. 02:24 We expect, we expect over a hundred bushels on it. You know, we may get 60 this year with the weather we've had, but we just got 02:30 to thinking this year, let's try to push this with the cowboy. They've ref reformulate it. 02:34 It's a lot easier to mix and mix as well with other products compared to what a normal calcium source would mix with other products. 02:40 So we're gonna try it. We're gonna see, we got 40 acres in this field, 40 acres in two other fields, you know, with this combination. 02:46 So it's kind of a smorgasbord of all of several different partners. Proven things that we know have proven on our farm. 02:52 You know, so we're gonna go with this and see if we can get a yield bump out of it and maybe, maybe raise some triple digit beans. 02:57 Let's say we have 40 here, 40 in two other fields of the last 40 in the last field. It's actually not on a high yield area. 03:03 Not only are we looking at this wide drop pass for high yield, we're also looking at it for ROI. So if we can put that on a, on a field 03:10 that we haven't spent the extra money on, you know, trying to see how far we can push it, then you know, 03:14 that's the most important thing in the end. If it's something that we can use on a normal basis, I really try hard not to suggest, you know, anything 03:22 that's not feasible across all my acres. On our high yield plots that we do push, I'll probably end up with, you know, 03:29 probably $30 an acre more, uh, in those. And I do the other beads used to, it was more so used to, it might be $80 an acre, 03:36 but now I've understood that the products I was using to push the beans are definitely grower standard practice products. 03:41 So now we've narrowed that gap up. Now what I put on my high yield beans, I put on every acre I've got except 03:48 for new things we're trying in that year. So it has really helped me to realize, you know, $30 an acre, a little less than three bushel. 03:55 So if you can push, you know, push a plant 10 bushel and it cost you three, then, then there's your ROI. This is a real critical time in the soybeans life 04:03 to take up nutrients. We feel like, you know, it's getting a root system, establishing the root system. 04:07 I pull this and completely outta the ground. So it's no root system on it at all. But, um, you know, this is one we think is one of key times 04:14 to actually go in and, and, and affect the yield of the plant. So R three fos out. We're trying this new R three wide drop. 04:21 Hopefully we'll see some difference out of it. That's what we're hoping. If we don't, then we know that's not the thing to do.

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