Appreciated everyone who attended and shared at our on-farm research update in York last week! I’m so grateful to all the farmer-cooperators who have worked with me through the years and who continue to do so! We wouldn’t have as much innovative and practical research without them!

Soybean Seed Treatment Comparison: This week sharing on a soybean seed treatment study. Some producers are interested in alternative methods of protecting seed from insects and disease beyond traditional insecticide/fungicide seed treatments. This can be due to cost, impacts to pollinators, soil microbes and the environment, and/or human safety.

The grower tested three fields in York, Seward, and Hamilton counties via a split planter design for a total of 21 reps. The biological seed treatment consisted of a blend of: 2 oz PhycoTerra® ST, 1 oz Heads Up®, 1 oz N-Gage Ultra ST, 0.75 oz Bio ST VPH in 100 gal solution. In a second tank, 2 oz of Exceed Soybean inoculant was used per 100 gal. The biological seed treatment was applied by the grower. Cost was $9.20/ac for the full biological seed treatment.

The biological seed treatment was compared to Pioneer’s full seed treatment on two fields and Golden Harvest’s full seed treatment on one field. These treatments were applied by the seed dealers. Cost was $28/ac for Pioneer’s seed treatment and $16.63 for Golden Harvest’s seed treatment.

Field 1: Pioneer’s full seed treatment (62 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (61 bu/ac) No difference. Field 2: Pioneer’s full seed treatment (65.7 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (67.1 bu/ac) Significant difference. Field 3: Golden Harvest’s full seed treatment (69 bu/ac) vs. biological seed treatment (68 bu/ac) No difference. Combining the three locations, the standard seed treatment yielded 65.6 bu/ac vs. 65.4 for the biological seed treatment.

Soybeans were planted green into rye in all three fields. The original plan was to roller crimp the rye, but the soybeans were too elongated due to stretching for sunlight in the tall rye and we were concerned about them being damaged with a roller crimper. Irrigation was also necessary to get the soybeans out of the ground and growing with the tall rye in Fields 1 and 2. However, it was interesting for me to see these fields in the summer in a high white mold pressure year, especially in the fields with previous white mold pressure. I never saw white mold impact the soybeans. Any fungal structures on the ground that germinated seemed to be trapped by the rye mat. Biological products like Heads Up® have been shown by other Universities to help reduce white mold and SDS incidence while ILeVO® and Saltro® have been shown to reduce SDS and soybean cyst nematode incidence.

Hopefully this information is helpful for those who are rotating fields to soybeans this year that have had incidence of disease in the past or who are interested in seed treatment options. If you’re interested in trying a seed treatment study for on-farm research, please let me know.

Also, if you didn’t plant rye due to the dry fall, you can consider planting oats this month if you’re growing soybeans this year in a field with SDS and SCN pressure. Oats was the best small grain to reduce the pathogens causing those diseases according to Iowa State research.

Tree Care and Fruit Tree Basics Workshop will be held Sat. March 9 from 10 a.m. to Noon at the 4-H Building in York. Extension Educator Sarah Browning is joining us again! Refreshments will be provided and there is no cost to attend, but registration is requested to Upper Big Blue NRD at 402-362-6601. Bring your questions! For those interested in gardening but don’t have the space at home, check out the Project GROW community garden in York. Plots are available for the 2024 growing season. You can reserve your space now or come to the Tree Care and Fruit Tree Basics Workshop and sign up in person.

Wildfire Resources and Donation Options: https://go.unl.edu/dpar.