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Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board


Soybeans Today January 1998

Program Takes Hard Look At Production Systems

By Rich Maples


Oil Trough farmer Kenny Kramer is using the Soybean Research Verification Program to improve his irrigated and dryland yields.

It’s one thing to make high yields with irrigated soybeans, but it’s quite another to make good dryland yields. The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Soybean Research Verification Program (SRVP) is helping producers do both.

In 1996, Oil Trough farmer Kenny Kramer enrolled a 35-acre irrigated, doublecropped field in the research verification program. With few problems, Kramer and the Extension SRVP team produced 52-bushel beans and the highest net profit of any field enrolled in the verification program that year.

In 1997, Kramer gave the SRVP team more of a challenge--help him make a decent yield on a 32-acre non-irrigated, no-till, doublecropped field.


SRVP coordinator Richard Klerk, center, farmer Kenny Kramer, left, and Independence County Extension agent Stan Carter check the progress of Kramer's no-till, dryland verification field in early September.

Richard Klerk, U of A Cooperative Extension Service agronomist and SRVP coordinator, says, in the past, the Soybean Promotion Board-funded verification program often focused on full-season, irrigated production systems. "But we’ve asked county agents to select more dryland or doublecropped fields, or both, for the program.

"About a third of the state’s soybean crop is doublecropped, and about 60 percent of the crop is still dryland. We want to build up our data base with information about these other production systems. We’re looking for opportunities for research and education to help the dryland farmers."

Kramer, like many soybean producers, would like to irrigate all of his soybeans, but that’s not possible. "Normally, about 80 percent of my acreage will be non-irrigated and the rest irrigated," said the farmer.

Kramer said he and the SRVP team faced few obstacles with the irrigated verification field in 1996. "The field was in good shape. We planted behind wheat following corn. Weed control was no problem, and we didn’t have any disease problems. We used a Captan and molybdenum hopperbox seed treatment for diseases.

"Our primary limiting factor here is dry weather. As long as I have the capability to water, I’m not going to let my soybeans suffer."

The soybeans were watered according to the University of Arkansas’ computerized Soybean Irrigation Scheduling Program, which was developed by researchers with funding from the Soybean Promotion Board. Independence County agent Stan Carter ran the program for Kramer at the county Extension office.

Carter said Kramer "had an idea of which variety he wanted to plant. We double-checked through SOYVA (Extension’s Soybean Variety Selection Program), and the variety chosen, Hutcheson, turned out to be a good one for the irrigated, doublecropped verification field in ‘96.

"We selected a Roundup- Ready variety, Delta King 5961, for the dryland, no-till, doublecropped field in ‘97," said Carter. Delta King 5961 is not yet included in the SOYVA program.

Kramer said he chose not to till the dryland field because, "When you’re pretty sure you’re going to have limited moisture, you have to cut every corner you can.

"With our irrigated field in 1996, we burned the straw, applied a preplant incorporated herbicide and worked the soil. With the dryland field, there was no tillage and no preplant herbicide. We just planted the beans and, about 18 days after emergence, applied 1.5 pints of Roundup. A second application was made when the beans were flowering."

Kramer said he is sold on no-till production as a way to conserve soil moisture and cut costs, and he’s enthusiastic about Roundup-Ready varieties for weed control. He also likes the positive effect that having corn in his rotation has had on wheat and soybean yields.

"I made 11 more bushels of wheat per acre behind corn than I did when I planted wheat behind soybeans," he noted. "And if I can get timely rainfall, I hope to get 5-6 more bushels of soybeans, too."

The knowledge gained by Kramer and the scores of other farmers who have taken part in SRVP since 1983 is available to all producers at their county Cooperative Extension offices.

Soybeans Today January 1998
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