Butler County soybean production workshop topic
Butler County farmers planted nearly 12,000 acres with soybeans in 2012 when the crops sold for a record average high of $14.20 per bushel.
Soybeans rank third in crop production behind hay and corn in the county, but are the second-highest valued crop in the country trailing only corn.
A record 600,000 acres of soybeans were planted this year across the state.
The price in October was $8.58 per bushel, which is 19 cents lower than September, but 60 cents higher than October 2017. Last year, soybeans sold for an average of $9.25 per bushel.
Farmers who rely on soybeans for income and field management can learn about the latest look locally into production and insect control at the Penn State Extension's soybean production workshop at the Beaver County Extension office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 18. There is a $15 fee.
Research into harmful and beneficial insects and factors that limit yields conducted on several Butler County farms led by Justin Brackenrich, an agronomy educator with the Butler County Extension office, will be discussed.
The analysis of information, insect studies and samples of young and mature plants isn't complete and won't be presented at the workshop, but Brackenrich said he will talk about the research and observations.
“We will talk about what we did, but we won't present our research until 2019,” Brackenrich said.
Tissue samples were taken from young plants when they were 6 inches tall, and from mature plants and soybeans at research plots on farms in the county, he said.
The research included scouting for diseases and mold and collecting insects.
“From what I saw this year, I didn't see an overabundance of insect damage,” Brackenrich said. “There were no major infestations I heard of.”Plant-eating slugs were a problem for soybean growers in Western Pennsylvania over the last few years, he said.Treating slugs is expensive and deciding on which, if any, treatment to use depends on how slugs are found.Research conducted statewide is being used to establish an economic threshold, which compares the cost of treatment to the revenue from the crop.“Treating them depends on how many are in an area before deciding on treatments, which are expensive. But no economic threshold has been created for slugs. We're developing one now,” Brackenrich said.He said researchers visited the farms once a week and use a net to collect insects.“Insects — we go out looking for them. We saw a lot of Japanese beetles, but they didn't cause major problems. We use a sweep net, open it up and count,” Brackenrich said.Slugs, grasshoppers, aphids and leafhoppers are among the insects that are harmful to soybean plants. Lady beetles, ground beetles, lacewings and bees are beneficial.“We do look for bees as pollinators,” he said.Existing research indicates that fields planted with fewer soybean plants result in the plants producing more beans than plants in fields that are more densely planted, he said, noting that a typical planting consists of thousands of plants per acre.Why parts of fields produce better plants than other parts of the same field is among the questions being studied.“You can have a good field, but one part is better than another part. We're trying to find the cause,” Brackenrich said.Many farmers plant soybeans in a crop rotation with corn, he said. Soybeans are planted to break up cycles of diseases or insect infestations and to add nitrogen to the soil to make it conducive for corn the following year, he said.However, soybeans are more expensive and difficult to grow than corn.The USDA reports that Pennsylvania farmers averaged 161 bushels of corn per acre last year and 156 this year while soybean production averaged 48 bushels per acre last year and 50.5 this year, he said.The research is funded by the Pennsylvania Soybean Board's Soybean Checkoff program in which farmers contribute 50 cents of every $100 they receive for their beans at the first point of sale.
