Soybean tillage and rotation yields

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Iowa State put out an interesting paper that says that soybeans don't suffer any yield reduction due to no-till, so if your objective is to reduce soybean input costs, no-till might be a way to save time and diesel without yield penalty.

The same paper says that beans in a C-C-S rotation yield about 5% (3.5 bu/acre) better than a C-S rotation.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/CropNews/2011/0225alkaisi.htm

[dagwud]

Jim, I think you errored in writing 0.5%.  I agree and have witnessed the claim of an average of 3.5 bu. better bean yields in a C-C-S rotation but if that 3.5 bu. equates to a 0.5% increase then somebody is getting some awfully good yields and I'm not doing something right.

Curious if you have looked into NH3 prices for this fall and if you are considering locking in some prices now?  Seems like half the time I am encouraged to buy early to save money on fertilizer, fuel or LP it ends up being a wash at best. 

I talked with a Pioneer dealer / farmer the other day and he said it is getting so we will be paying for a majority of our inputs a crop ahead which can make budgeting more challenging.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Dadwud,

Thanks for pointing out my error.  I went back and corrected my message.  Here is the information from the cited source.

"Soybean yield in C-C-S rotations was on average 5 to 6 percent greater than soybean after one year corn (C-S) across all tillage systems and across the state..."

[Mike M2692830]

I have visited with our agronomist at the local coop where I do 100% of my input business. I asked him if it would be possible to post fert prices next to grain and fuel prices on the board in the office. Most of us are up there 2-3 days/week. If there happens to be a price I think is the best or will work, write out a check and that is your price. No different then pricing grain; at least I wouldn't think there would be. He seemed to think that their suppliers wouldn't be able to work that way. I think it is time for them to start working that way instead of offering up a price 2 or 3 times a year...MikeM

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Mike,

Your idea is a good one and it would be nice if it would work.  But, from what I've been told by dealers, they can't get prices from the distributors so they can't give us prices.  Many advisors say we should lock in input prices when we sell grain foward, but how can we do that when we can't get prices?  But, when the day comes, and I think it will come, that the big processors start contracting grains like they contract hogs, then it won't matter, will it?

[nwobcw]

   I don't see how you could contract grain to the nth bushel as you can with some degree of certainty wth livestock.  The weather is too unpredictable.  And in a better than normal year what do you do with the extra bushels?