Soybean & Corn Updates- Georgia Grain News 5-6-22

Rome Ethredge – UGA Interim Grains and Soybean Agronomist

Soybean

Early System Soybeans are looking good. 16 days old and already forming nitrogen fixing nodules. We can tell the beneficial nodules from nematodes because they are stuck to the side of the root whereas root knot nematodes will be a swelling of the root. A good way to check the plant population is the 1000th of acre method like in corn. These are 20 inch rows so I measured 26 feet 2 inches and got on average from many counts, 76.6 plants in that distance. So his plant population is 76,600 plants per acre, which is on the low side for early system beans but should be ok since they are evenly spaced.

The crop needs 0.65 inch of water a week according to our water guide. https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/publications/files/pdf/C%201189_5.PDF  And we need to be watching for pests like 3 Cornered alfalfa hoppers and lesser cornstalk borers.

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Corn Herbicide Drift

This week we can see a little herbicide drift, small white round spots, in almost all corn fields. Likely mostly Paraquat drift. Lots being sprayed now for burndown.

I asked Dr. Eric Prostko why it’s so common for that particular herbicide? He says, “Corn is super sensitive to paraquat.  Growers only use 3 oz/a of Valor vs 32-48 oz/a of paraquat.  So more floating around.  All pesticides move when windy just don’t notice cause rates are low.”

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Also, I went into a corn field this week and I at first thought they had burned the V5 corn with fertilizer.  You could tell it was something that happened at a point in time, as the new growth was good,  but looking closely it looked more like herbicide burn. I questioned the spray guy and yes they didn’t clean out the Valor herbicide very well from spraying peanut ground. This will likely cause some yield loss but would be worse if the corn were older.