Aug 27, 2010
U.S. Soybeans out Performing the Corn Crop
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
As the summer has progressed, the U.S. soybean crop has started to outperform the corn crop. In contrast to the corn, the soybeans have not been affected nearly as much by the high temperatures. Additionally, the soybeans make their own nitrogen of course, so the crop has not been affected by the leaching of the nitrogen that occurred with the heavy rains earlier in the summer.
With being said, not everything is perfect with the soybean crop. The most widespread problem for the crop has been the dryer than normal conditions in the southern Corn Belt, the mid-south, the Delta, and the Southeastern U.S. The dryer than normal areas probably encompasses about 10-15% of the U.S. soybean crop. Over the weekend, there were beneficial rains in the dryer areas and they came at a critical time for the soybeans to be sure.
An additional problem for the soybeans is sudden death syndrome that is widespread in the soybean fields of Iowa. This is a fungal disease that is always present in the soil and it is triggered to erupt if the environmental conditions are favorable. Iowa has the most instances of sudden death and it seems to be worst in the areas that received the most rainfall this summer.
The disease causes the leaves to shrivel and die very suddenly, within a week or two. The amount of yield loss depends on the stage of development when the plant was infected. If infected early, the losses can be very serious. If infected late in development, losses will be slight. Probably the most serious affected fields in Iowa can expect losses in the range of 30 to 40% with the minimally infected fields expecting losses of 5-10%.
The disease is variety specific with some varieties highly susceptible and others relatively resistant. In parts of Iowa, nearly every field has some level of the disease, but there are also cases where one field is severely affected, but the neighboring field has no disease whatsoever.
Outside of these two problem areas, the soybean crop is doing quite well. The crop is tall, robust, healthy, and setting a lot of pods. One more good rain in many of these areas will be enough to insure a record or near record soybean yield. If the growing season ends on a dry note, any further yield increases would be limited.