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Late-season stress could lower soybean output

A record soybean crop is projected nationwide, but some Midwestern farmers say late season stress and disease brought on by wet conditions could lower that production number.

Tom Oswald of Cleghorn, Iowa, president of the Iowa Soybean Association, says he still expects to harvest an above-average crop.  But Oswald believes the wet, cloudy and cool conditions have taken the top end off of his yield potential.

Dan Wesely of Morse Bluff, Nebraska tells Brownfield that sudden death syndrome (SDS) is going to cut into his yields.  “I was real optimistic and now with the sudden death in there, it’s a disappointment,” he says.

It’s the third year in a row that SDS has hit his fields and Wesely says it’s become worse each year.

“Last year I had a field where, on the terraces, they raised 80 bushels beans—and down on the bottom, where you thought they should be good beans, they were only 20 (due to sudden death)—so it was a 60 bushel yield loss,” Wesely says.

AUDIO: Dan Wesely at Husker Harvest Days (4:23 MP3)

Ken Boswell of Shickley, Nebraska, president of the Nebraska Soybean Association, says his beans look good but still have a ways to go.

“The 2.8-2.9, which is a shorter bean in my area, they’re turning pretty good,” Boswell says. “My 3.4-3.5’s, you can see a little yellow on the leaves just starting, but it wouldn’t hurt if it had a couple more weeks yet.”

AUDIO: Ken Boswell at Husker Harvest Days(1:29 MP3)

USDA projected the soybean crop at 3.91 billion bushels, up three percent from the August forecast.