Biological Fertilizer

[Blacksandfarmer]

My question is how well drained is your soil? At least in this area the beans that show the worst Mn deficiency are the beans planted into muck or poorly drained soils. You might be able to fix your problem with tile. I would ask your local agronomist that has nothing to do with selling this "magic."

[nwobcw]

Pup,  Ottawa county Ohio here.  Heavy clay soils with some Napannee.  From what I've seen your idea of a straight leg ripper is the best.  1 guy then goes in with a standard chisel plow at an angle.  I am not much in favor of those deep ripping disc chisels bringing up dirt from 14"-16" deep.  It seems like you're bringing up a bunch of unfertilized ground.  I tried no-tilling into wheat stubble 1 year.  A friend who had considerable experience in it warned me against it but I had to try it myself.  I cut the wheat low, baled off the straw, chopped the stubble to the ground.  Following spring it wouldn't dry out.  I planted that field last and the no-till openers sliced the ground as if it was cheese.  What is normally my 2nd best field ended being the worst.  Maybe I hurt myself by chopping the stubble.  Some years ago I read in SF magazine that the rotting wheat straw gives off a gas that is harmful to beans and corn.  Whatever, I won't make that mistake again.

[Ed_Winkle]

I did it with wheat which is rare in these parts but I always wanted to do it with soybeans.

I had it this year.

160k population in 15 inch rows notill with 60 pods per plant.  Bloomed at summer solstice.

Everything was going great then the weather turned.  We had our last inch of rain July 12 and we had 90 days with 90 degree heat.  I ended up with 47 pods per plant and a great yield but no 100 bushels per acre.

Here is my secret:

Good soil sloping west and south towards the sun, first farm on Wisconsin Glacial till, some Illinoian Glacieal till on the far west corners.

Good rotation.  Corn, corn, wheat, dc soybeans, corn, soybeans, wheat, dc soybeans, corn, soybeans.  I kept the pests at bay pretty much but I always have to spray for early bean leaf beetle.

Good soil test and followed it.

Good tissue tests and followed them so I have added more calcium, magnesium in low amounts, sulfur, manganese, boron, copper and zinc

All notill and early plantings thanks to my planter and drill setups.

Weed control has been my bugaboo, some years they got a little out of control.

Timely harvesting and handling of grain, we can do better on straw spreading from the combine, too much windrowing.

I used T-22 and now Sabrex seed treatment and a key was a good inoculant.  America's Best in the Excalibre and GraphEx form and the new R09 strain last year.

I hope this explains my point of view on high yield soybeans.

Ed Winkle

[matt hagny]

I'm not so sure that Hartzler is in alignment with the body of evidence on that last statement you quoted.  There is quite a compilation of evidence of reduced Mn uptake with glyphosate involvement, but it's often quite variety specific -- at least in the case of soybeans, which have been studied a lot.  It is also soil-specific, and perhaps soil biology-specific.

I spent a couple months studying all the literature and writing this article on glyphosate effects on plants:

http://www.notill.org/LE_Articles/V8N3A3_preview.pdf

(View the first page free, beyond that is paid content.  Note that I receive no royalties from this.  The money goes to No-till on the Plains, Inc., which is a 501c3 non-profit.)   -- The first section of the article is science review, while the latter 2 sections go into the specifics of what this means for farmers, and how to adapt to this new reality.

best regards,

[Edited for spelling 2 minutes after initial posting.  And to add the last sentence.]

[Blacksandfarmer]

Nice picture Ed, what did those beans yield?