SOYVA, the U of A's research-based variety selection
program, was used to pick the best varieties for the SRVP
fields. Tackett hadn't used SOYVA before, but each spring
he had examined the results of the U of A variety performance
trials before choosing varieties for his other fields.
"Eddie likes high-producing varieties," says Rhudy.
"He shoots to break records."
Tackett says, "I'm high on fertilization. We've soil
tested the verification fields three years in a row, and
it has proven to me that soil pH and phosphate and potash
levels change pretty drastically from one year to the
next.
"If you're looking for the highest yields for the least
money, it would probably pay to soil sample every year."
Tackett is not quite ready to plant large acreages
of Roundup Ready varieties. He says, "I'm waiting for
higher yields. I'm just not seeing, in this particular
area, the Roundup Ready beans take stress like the drought
we've seen this year. But I do like the idea of a one-time
application."
Klerk says the Roundup Ready technology would have
been helpful in the 1998 SRVP field. "With sicklepod in
conventional soybeans, the only post-emergence herbicide
that has any effect is Classic, and it has to be sprayed
within two weeks after the soybeans and sicklepod emerge.
"With the rains we had early in the season, and with
all the other crops Eddie had to deal with, we weren't
able to get in and spray with Classic. By the time it
dried up enough, the sicklepod was too large for Classic
to be effective.
"Had this been a Roundup Ready variety -- though the
optimum time for spraying Roundup would have probably
passed -- we could have upped the rate and gone after
those big sicklepod plants. Roundup is the only product
that has any effect on larger sicklepod."
Tackett has completed his three-year stint in the Soybean
Research Verification Program, but he's not stopped working
with extension. He says he calls Rhudy at the Pope County
extension office several times a week during the growing
season, and he still has Richard Klerk's phone number
just in case.
Soybeans Today January 1999
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