Answers are from the Indiana certified crop adviser panel: Betsy Bower, Purdue Extension senior research associate, West Lafayette; Abby Horlacher, Nickel Plate Consulting, Frankfort; and Brian Mitchem, Farmer 1st Agronomy Consulting Services, Decatur.

 

I am tired of soybeans not looking ready but being 10% when I finally try running. Should we start at 14% and dry, or would spraying early with a desiccant help them dry down more normally?

 

Bower: The last few years have been challenging to harvest at the ideal 12% to 13% moisture levels. Last year, some farmers I worked with reported harvesting 8% moisture soybeans. To avoid this, start with doing some physical checks of soybean dryness in the pods. If soybeans are dry in the pod, you can adjust your combine to cut soybeans at slower speeds so you can handle tough stems.

 

Try to begin harvesting soybeans at 14%. Soybeans are fully mature when 95% of the pods are at their mature tan color. Also, cut soybeans under optimum conditions. Moisture content can increase substantially near evening and remain high into the morning. Last fall, there were days when soybeans could not be harvested until midday.

 

Lastly, harvest at a reasonably slow pace and adjust the combine to match environmental changes during the day.

 

Horlacher: Both are good options. If harvesting at 14%, there are a few options on how to treat these soybeans. One option is to store them in a bin with fans on and mix in with drier soybeans when loading out to the elevator. You would have to take all the wet beans during harvest, as they would not store. The other option is to run the 14% soybeans through the drier before loading to the elevator or storing. You would have to run at a very low heat setting to prevent splits from the heat.

 

Desiccating soybeans has shown a promising outcome. Desiccation must happen at maturity 6.5. This is after 6.0 at full seed stage and everything is green. The moisture at R6.0 is around 75% to 80%. R6.5 is when the pod transitions to yellow and the seed pod detaches itself from the membrane that holds the seed to the pod wall. The seed moisture is around 65% to 70%. This is the earliest stage you can go in for dessication without a reduction in yield. This will allow them to mimic a more normal dry down.

 

Mitchem: Good plant health often has soybeans with green stems and dry seed. This is part of the natural process of the plant dying. As beans mature and cease producing nitrogen late in their life cycle, the plant basically digests itself of the remaining sugars and protein left in tissues to complete grain fill. If you ended the season with good plant health, the soybean may have been able to finalize seed production without fully digesting all its resources, so you are left with some green and yellow leaves and a green stem. Most of the time this happens, you are rewarded with good yields.

 

There is a very strong case to harvest soybeans above 13% moisture and either air-dry or blend with dry soybeans for longer storage. Pod splitting from moisture events and dry shatter at harvest can cost bushels. Many research projects have looked at artificial desiccants for soybeans, and we cannot show consistent returns in the state for the practice.