So the first soybean test was harvested at the NCRS Friday. Due to the extended dry period that caused early maturity, there were a number of growers in the area starting soybean harvest. But this year early harvest does not mean big harvest. For soybeans, rain during the reproductive stages of late summer can mean high yields. That's what happened in 2016 where we were very dry at the start of summer, but had lots of rain in August. This lead to average yields in the 80 bushel range. But not so much this year. After a dry start we had a dry finish.
This field has a CEC of 5 and is very sandy. So it needs rain to do well. You can see that the beans aren't very big. But it was an experiment and we will see if we learned anything. Tim sent this pic. I don't know what the yields were.
I'm sure many of you follow the United States Drought Monitor. If you don't, just Google "Drought Monitor" for a map showing drought severity. In Central Michigan we recently got promoted to light brown or "Moderate Drought". The map shows a fair amount of drought across the country. Although dry here, I feel bad for Northern Montana and their "Exceptional Drought" rating. Must be tough to see all that hurricane rain when you have none.
So regardless of conditions, harvest will continue. (If it's that dry in Iowa and Illinois, shouldn't corn prices be higher?)
