The Art and Science of Spoonfeeding Beans
When Should You Push Your Soybeans? Chad Henderson and Kevin Matthews are no stranger to high yielding soybeans. They discuss their soybean fertility programs with Damian Mason , and share their secrets for picking up extra yield by spoonfeeding their soybeans at specific times during the season.
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00:00 The art and science of spoonfeeding soybeans. That's today's subject. We're standing in a soybean field, obviously, 00:06 and I've got Chad Anderson and Kevin Matthews. All right. Some cool stuff that we're doing. We're better at than we were, 00:11 we're trying new stuff. Chad, you've put on, uh, fertility time planting, and then foliar foliar foliar, right. Restaurant. 00:20 Okay. So tell us what you're experimenting with and how you think it becomes more of an art, because it's about timing, 00:25 it's about getting that stuff at the right place, and obviously what you'd like to achieve. Well, You know, we've blurred a lot, you know, um, temple, Kevin, you know, Matt, 00:32 I mean, all these guys has taught me a lot about soybeans for sure. And I still got a whole lot to go, lot to go because we usually just, 00:38 either we'll put two ton of litter out or we'll either have a, you know, a, a fertility blend, you know, that'll be some dry that we'll put out. 00:45 And then we've never played a whole lot with infer tuber two on soybeans, and we, and we got some in furrow tests out this year. So we'll see what, 00:53 what becomes of that. But I think Kevin does more inferring two by two on the soybean cell. That's Correct. Yeah. 00:59 So tell us your program and then I wanna talk about what you do once they're urging insurance. Okay. At time of planting, you're now doing infra dry? 01:06 Yeah, well dry and uh, or litter, pre-plant, and then testing some infer products. Okay. And Then PE your program is, 01:13 We're running a full infer program. We're running biologicals, we're running, uh, different, um, uh, growth regulators. PGRs. Yep. 01:22 In furrow, we're running, uh, n our two by two we're running, uh, ortho, uh, triple option from us is ortho phosphate product from Nature's. 01:31 We run that at about, you know, anywhere from eight plus gallons acre, depending on what the yield goal is of that pond. 01:38 But you won't have any dry or litter, No. Dry. That's what I say. So we, we Do use the litter on some farms, 01:43 But that's right. Okay. So Chad's got chicken, litter and dry and then experimenting and dabbling more into, in furrow, uh, at time of planting stuff. You're doing almost no dry, 01:53 dry and very little all facilit Beans Around that plant, you know, we're we, I mean, we just ain't got the money to throw it out there like Chad does. So we, 02:02 we have to really place it right there and be tight. That's Right. And I really ain't got the time like him, you know, 02:06 to spend filling planters up all day long. You know, I need plant today and crop. I think we just so we can keep talking. We Just heard a previous, 02:12 we just heard a previous video that even the seed companies come around and insult Chad for his, uh, his, his crappy soil. So I don't know, man. Poor Chad. 02:20 He gets picked on by everybody but me. Okay. So then going over the top, the soybeans, 02:25 obviously the ones we're staying here are amazing and we're getting really big yields that, you know, compare to you long ago. 02:31 There's a whole bunch of pods on there. What's your fertility program then after emergence? Well, you know, that's what I, that's what, 02:37 that's the part that I'm really learning right now. You know, where, when do we push these beans? You know, is it like corn? I mean, 02:43 where we're pushing it real early, where, where does the early push go? Where does the middle push go? And where does the end push go? 02:48 Because there's three different times, you know, that you can really, I guess, affect and what we need to push on a bean. And 02:54 Isn't there a danger in pushing them too early? Because then you get a bunch of vegetative growth and the, the soybeans are our height and then they fall down and then, 03:01 Exactly. Right. And that's some of the, that's some of the, uh, the pros and cons of our litter deal, you know, with the nitrate. So I mean, 03:07 it's, it's a give and take on both sides and we're still learning that, but we're learning what we can do to mash these beans early. You know, 03:14 like you've heard people talk about a herbicide mash or a fertility mash. We're learning how to mash 'em early. We've learning when to do that, 03:20 how to do it, when to lay up, when not to, and then in the middle of the plant, in the middle of the timeframe, then this is all our money stalks. 03:27 It's like a cotton plant, you know, like your money bowls on the bottom, but this is where your money's at in the middle of the plant. 03:33 Okay, so here's where I'm wondering, So the fertility that gets you this, does that happen when they're at like, you know, you guys always talk about vegetative three, five, whatever. Where, 03:42 where do you Get this? Well, Well, That's more, so this, this area right here is what I call the standard area focus. That's what, 03:52 you know, we've been taught. This is this r r two, R three. We really need to be looking at that. These are indeterminate plants. 03:59 So where we start picking extra yield up is when we put, we count main stem fruiting nodes. Okay? 04:05 So we're wanting to each one of these nodes, we want fruit. If you're listening, not watching, 04:10 he's pointing to an area about three inches off the base root, right? Yep. Right here. Okay. We want to pot it all the way to the ground. You know, 04:16 you'll hear that term. Yes. Well, that's a good thing. If the combine can't get 'em all or you've done all you can do, that's okay. That ain't be, 04:23 So if there's some soybeans are still out there on the ground, it's now You're going to be, 04:26 you're going to be taking care of that at just prior to R one. Yep. Because that plant hadn't started setting these blooms. 04:33 You wanna save them blooms, make pods, and then once you get the pods, you don't want 'em to abort. So you want to keep 'em. 04:40 So then the tail end, this is the last area of the plant to mature. And that's The top, by the way, 04:47 if you're listening and not watching the very tide end last pad, All of us to see seen, we get a late, a late fall rain, you know, 04:54 a late summer rain, and we get regrowth in the top of the plant and we can pick up 20, 30 bushels from rain. Well, if we can do it from rain, 05:01 why not get the fertility nutrients in here it needs and build that factory. Okay. 05:06 So the question here is uniform. We don't get the rain. Would the fertility layer of the season give you that top foot that you're talking about? No. 05:13 No. And that's, So it's rain specific. So that's when we're talking about you're gonna have a early cycle, a mid cycle and a late cycle, and then late cycle. When we're spraying for pest, 05:22 don't forget the fertility on that side because then we're judging what, what the bean size is. 'cause we can't make any more beans. 05:29 We gotta make these bigger. The yield is not in the number of beans. I ain't gonna say it ain't, 05:34 but there's as much yield in seed size as it is the number of Si seed science 05:38 Seed that, By the way, when you we talking about the art and the science, then if it doesn't rain and you still think you gotta go out with a late 05:44 fungicide treatment, you're not gonna put the foliar fertility in it because you don't think it's worth the money. 'cause you ain't gonna get that last top foot. 05:52 Well, if it, if it ain't raining, you ain't i'll. Plenty of that fide out. I mean, you gotta pump the brakes, man. Yeah. Can't, 05:57 if you ain't gonna make no money, don't spend It. Chris, so was the art and science of, uh, of spoonfeeding fertility. First is time of f time of planting for him, for you it's dry and uh, and uh, 06:07 litter. And then first pass where you get a fertility product is about herbicide. Your herbicide window. Don't forget it then. Okay. And then your R three, 06:14 most everybody's gonna make a R three fungicide pass. Okay. And still, we still have a pretty good plant. She, we've got a lot of flowers on it, 06:21 you know? Yep. And we got a lot of fruit on it, so we we're kind of pushed in right there. Well then the later ones, if you can make that r if you have to make that R five pass for stink bugs or 06:30 something of that nature, that's when you're gauging fertility, whether or not you have the rainfall or 06:34 Not. And so you do the same thing. You'd pronou out Exactly. I I'm gonna go my post. Yep. Then I'm gonna do a R one to R two, 06:42 depending on how fast I can get the sprayer to the field. And I'm gonna wait till about R four to R five and do my next. 06:48 And because it's going, the so's gonna take care of that intersection. Okay. Right. So, 06:53 But it's the extra load of plants. 'cause you might be doing three foliar treatments in terms of the spoon feeding. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna do two, but we're, 07:02 We're going combine 'em. Yeah, we're gonna do two and then we're going, might do a third one. Got It. There you are. You got the method on how they do it. Uh, 07:09 I'm not gonna recap it because you can go and re-watch this if you want to, but I think it's pretty cool. 07:13 Art and science and spoon feeding soybeans for maximum yields. Chad Anderson. Kevin Matthews. I'm Damien Mason. 07:19 Share this with somebody who can benefit from it. Till next time, check out more stuff at Extreme Ag Farm.
Growers In This Video
See All GrowersKevin Matthews
East Bend, NC
Chad Henderson
Madison, AL