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Minnesota farmer points to maturity impacting soybean yields

A southeast Minnesota farmer suggests spotty rains and seed maturity made a big impact on soybean yields this year.

Brennen Toquam of Blooming Prairie says he plants a range of maturities and from what he’s seen this harvest, the sweet spot was right in the middle.

“It seemed like the 1.6’s and the 1.5’s really excelled this year, and that’s right in the middle. And the 2.0’s, and this is kind of the theme I’m seeing with everybody, just hit that drought stress in August at the wrong time and started to abort pods.”

As he plans for the next growing season, Toquam tells Brownfield hopefully they won’t get another drought.

“I think you just kind of have to plant a mix of stuff.”

With corn, Toquam says the march toward later hybrids has been happening for a while and he expects farmers to keep pushing it.