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There's a Norwegian joke that goes like this: What do they do in Norway when it rains?
They just let it rain.
Sadly, this funny became reality for many farmers last spring.
Early planting into a fit seedbed is a great way to boost soybeans yields. In 2008, though, the key words -- fit seedbed -- often didn't apply.
"A problem we had was just around 5% of the fields were planted in perfect conditions in Iowa due to flooding and wet weather," says Palle Pedersen, Iowa State University Extension agronomist and High Yield Team (HYT) expert panelist.
Mudding-in soybeans just to plant early will compact soils and place seed poorly. "This outweighs any advantage of early planting," he says.
Still, there's a fine line between fit seedbeds and lost planting days. Miss a planting window with borderline soil conditions in a spring like 2008 and another week may pass before you can do fieldwork.
That's the situation Matt Mayer, Spencer, Iowa, found himself in last spring. Typically, Mayer starts planting corn between April 15-20 and soybeans the first week of May. This spring, though, prolific rainfall and soggy soils contracted planting windows as taut as a tightrope.
"The sun was shining, but the ground was not fit to plant," Mayer says. "With those conditions, it was hard to sit."
By May 20, after finishing corn, he started planting soybeans. "We went pretty hard, running three planters over 24 hours," he says.
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