What a great year to grow more beans! Great yields and great prices got the combines rolling early this fall. National Ag Statistic Service NY office estimates the 2012 NY soybean crop at 46 bushels/acre; up 3 bushels from last year.

NY still had its areas of moisture deficit. Much of our well drained gravel soils struggled the last two weeks of August and ended up yielding in the mid 30's. Other areas with timely showers had their best yields ever! Look at the NY Soybean contest; six entries over 80 bushels.

Most of the rain starved Midwest was not so fortunate. Soybean yields listed below are from the latest published reports from NASS for each state, http://www.nass.usda.gov/. These averages are a lot better than I expected considering the "I" states grow between 5 to 8 million acres of soybeans a piece. Soybeans did not get beat up as bad as corn did but most states were below their normal bu/acre averages. In comparison, IL and IN only had 100 bushel/acre corn averages!

See PDF below: 2012 Average Soybean Yield (Bushels/Acre) by State

We know that we grew some good soybeans in 2012 but the seed for this years crop wasn't grown in NY. A lot is grown in the Midwest where drought conditions and additional stresses could have yielded soybean seed that was lower in germination. In talking with many of the local seed dealers, it sounds like some of the soybean seed germination percentages may be below what we are used to seeing. The normal maturity groups and varieties will not be in short supply like it sounds some of the corn hybrids will. However, seed size tends to be larger in drought years and drier so you need to be more careful when handling the seed.

Seed size and lower germ percentage (<90%) are not a huge deal as long as we are aware of them. We have to remember that our seeds per pound will be lower with larger seeds. Also, if the percent germination on the bag is 90%, we need to increase our planting population 10% in order to achieve our desired final plant population. Be aware of the information on the seed bag! If you use lower quality seed, fungicide treated seed is a smart move. This does not improve the germination rate but better protects the emerged plants.


2012 Average Soybean Yield (Bushels / Acre) by State (pdf; 83KB)