Given recent returns from raising soybeans, Jerry McReynolds could use a hug, or at least an empathetic pat on the back.
Chances are some of his neighbors would welcome the same, along with other farmers in bone-dry regions of mid-America.
“I had bad soybeans last year. It’s gotten worse. I’ve got soybeans this year, or at least something that’s supposed to be,” said the Rooks County, Kansas, producer. “We had some rain in the spring, a little too much at one time, then nothing to speak of since. It’s been ugly.”
A similar report was offered by Ottawa County farmer Steve Clanton, who also noted a lack of rainfall in general before a timely late summer rain that ghosted his operation.
“In my area of north central Kansas, we’re in the moderate rainfall area. The average is 24 to 27 inches, and I needed an inch for the beans around Aug. 22,” he said. “We didn’t get that this year, and the yield potential has been cut.”
A good fall soybean harvest on his fields around Minneapolis and Ada will yield 40 to 42 bushels to the acre. He’s expecting 30 this year.
But the big picture still holds promise for the high priced grain in the nation’s belly—roughly $13 a bushel these days—with uses that range from cosmetics to food, paints, plastics, cooking oil, feed and fuel. The plant is a legume that produces a surplus of nitrogen and can leave some behind for the next crop in a farmer’s rotation.
“It does not require additional nitrogen for high yield, which is a cost and environmental benefit,” said Bill Schapaugh, a professor and soybean breeder at Kansas State University.
Clanton has been raising soybeans since 1985. His father, the late Bernard Clanton, planted soybeans in the 1960s “until he ran out of seed,” the offspring quipped.
“I thought (in ’85) with the prices and yields I was getting, I could make money with it, and I usually did,” Steve Clanton said. “It stands up to wind pretty well, and if it gets hailed when it’s small, it’ll come back from it.”
Tops on these farmers’ wish lists for soybean improvement naturally revolves around current arid conditions.
“I would still like to see a little more heat resistance. Beans will hang onto drought hardiness, but they still could be better,” Clanton said. “I still could use a cactus under each plant to keep moisture for the soybeans.”
McReynolds would like more bean pods to form first at the top of the plant rather than at the bottom, where they’re hard to harvest. The persistent topic these days is still rain; more of it, while also occurring in a more timely fashion.
“I want soybeans resistant to (herbicides) Dicamba and 2,4-D,” Clanton said. “Weeds are a problem. I spent twice as much for herbicides this year than I did 10 years ago.”
Shattercane and pigweed, a.k.a. Palmer amaranth, “are just getting terrible” in Rooks County, McReynolds said, referring mainly to raising grain sorghum.
“I like the new herbicide process in soybeans, the combination of Roundup and Banvel. It really helps clean up fields,” he said. “Soybeans have come a long way, but most of the soybean breeding is still being done for the areas that have good moisture. We’re trying to do it out here where we don’t always have that. We’re needing a more drought-resistant bean.”
Schapaugh is on the case, working for short- and long-term enhancements.
“We’re trying to improve yield potential under drought conditions. We also focus on seed composition like protein and oil, studying the effects of heat on protein and oil, and other seed components like sugars and fatty acid profiles,” he said. “We’re trying to understand the genes that are influencing those traits, and to help develop varieties with those optimized traits.”
K-State has been involved in a drought project funded by the United Soybean Board and the Kansas Soybean Commission for more than a decade.
“We are looking at soybeans’ response to drought. We’ve got a pretty good drought here in Manhattan (Kansas) right now, and have some plants suffering more than others,” Schapaugh said. “We’re interested in looking at the yields, trying to identify varieties that are more suitable, or whether relative performances are improved in varieties under drought versus well-irrigated conditions. We certainly want relative performances as good or better under drought than well-watered conditions.”
Researchers seek to notice a response to drought, he said, such as looking at canopy wilting during certain parts of the day.
“It certainly is an indication that the plant is trying to conserve water and is under some degree of water stress,” Schapaugh said
There are concerns about pathogens, notably two main ones—soybean cyst nematodes and soybean sudden death syndrome.
With thousands of soybean “parents” that have yet to be explored around the world, the potential for improvement is vast.
“We as plant breeders in general have only used a small percentage of genetic diversity that’s available,” he said. “Part of our effort is to continue trying to identify new sources of genetic diversity that will help us create varieties that are better than what we’ve seen before.”
Another goal is to obtain a long-term vision.
“You want to have genetic diversity that allows you to make improvement,” Schapaugh said. “If you don’t do that, you start to limit your improvements.”
Goals change over time, he said, especially when more uses for soybeans are developed.
“A high priority is getting protein levels up to make high protein soybean meal,” Schapaugh said. “Now we’re seeing bio diesel-type products. Soybeans are a big component of that. We’ve got to have the protein and the oil, too—producing more oil per acre, and per bushel.”
Back in Rooks County, McReynolds’ enthusiasm for soybeans has yet to wane.
“I’ve been raising soybeans for several years, and I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been very successful at it. I’ve raised good beans, but more often than not, I raise fair to poor,” he said, “I keep trying.”
Tim Unruh can be reached at [email protected].
