Delayed spring could change plans

Many growers have started to realize the yield benefits of early planted soybeans but that could be in jeopardy this year because of the delayed spring.

Some were anticipating having quite a few soybeans already in the ground by now with some of those beans going in before corn.

“It really hasn’t happened that way this year,” said Bill Roth, plant manager for the Brandt Consolidated Gridley location in McLean County. “Guys that can plant both at the same time will probably continue to do that.”

Roth expects several growers to go ahead and plant corn first and switch over to beans when the time comes. Everyone seems to have a different idea of how warm it needs to be before planting. Roth tells his customers it depends on how much work they have to do.

“If you are a relatively big farmer, you probably can push the envelope a little bit but if you don’t have all that many acres and you can plant your stuff in a week, there is no reason to get too excited.”

Brandt took advantage of some good weather days a couple of weeks ago to finish up the dry fertilizer applications before they started to apply herbicide and nitrogen to fields.

“Quite a bit of seed has gone out the door and delivered. We’ll be ready to hit it hard,” Roth added.