Research revealed at Delaware Farm and Home Field Day
Delaware scientist
NEWARK, Del. - Forty to
45 bushels an acre is a good
soybean yield today, but
some farmers often get
much less. They also oc
casionally get as many as 60
bushels an acre in single
fields or parts of a field. So
far, however, no one has
been able to do this on a
consistent basis. -For
example, Delaware’s state
average is down around 25
bushels an acre.
Delaware Extension
agronomist Frank Webb
would like to see growers on
the Delmarva peninsula
realize higher yields much
more routineljr and he’s set
up a demonstration project
at the University of
Delaware’s Georgetown
Substation with this goal in
mind.
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What Webb has done is to
take all the various tillage
practices used to raise
soybeans in this area and set
them up in test plots at the
substation farm where they
can be compared. Laid out
side by side are conventional
plantings using a moldboard
plow, along with chisel plow,
subsoil and no-till treat
ments. Although plant
populations are the same
throughout the plots, some
beans are planted in 30 inch
rows, some are spaced 15
inches apart and some are
drilled in broadcast. Various
cover crops have also been
used, to see bow these affect
performance.
For his comparisons the
agronomist has chosen the.
full-season soybean variety,
Essex, which as a good
young’s.
Roaring Spring, Pa. 16673
performance record on the
peninsula. His cover crops
this year are hairy vetch,
crimson clover and rye, used
with different tillage
treatments. Next Fall he
hopes to add Yuchi
arrowleaf clover, a vigorous
forage legume, to his list of
covers.
Specific objectives of the
sutdy are (1) to compare
tillage methods, (2) to
compare row spacing within
tillage methods and (3) to
evaluate the performance of
different cover crops with
soybeans. The project should
last 3 to 4 years and when it’s
over, Webb hopes to be
better able to tell farmers
just how to reach those
magical high yields
everyone dreams about.
wants
“We know that soybeans
are good scavengers that use
left over fertility well as
opposed to new fertility,” he
explains. (For example, the
state’s record 81 bushel an
acre yield a few years ago
came from a field that had
been planted in asparagus
for a number of years and
was in soybeans for the first
time.) Since the plant does
not respond well to direct
nitrogen applications, it
seems essential to determine
its response to the organic
nitrogen supplied by various
cover crops.
Some of the plots in the
present comparison have
been prepared with an in
row subsoiler which breaks
up the soil’s hardpan, to see
if such treatment of the
ground has any effect on
plant performance.
Visitors to this year’s
Farm and Home Field Day,
Wednesday, August 10 at the
Georgetown Substation, will
have a chance to observe this
and other research and
demonstration plots aimed
at boosting yields in the
crops grown in Delaware.
Field Day activities begin
at 9:30 a.m. and include bus
and wagon tours of the plots,
as well as a special
homemaker program, a
diagnostic plant clinic, a
farm safety program -
“Project Well Aware”, plus
numerous other exhibits and
demonstrations.
A traditional fried chicken
lunch will be available at
noon in the grove (tickets
facilities. You’ll get less shrinkage, more
palatability and digestibility, too. We can
help you realize these benefits with this
year’s crop. Try SILOSYN. Your cows will
appreciate it and so will you. Your
Young’s man can help you make it work
this year. If you haven’t met him as yet,
write us and we’ll ask him to visit.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 6,1977
more beans
' *
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Extension agronomist Frank Webb checks out
soybean performance in demonstration plots at the
University of Delaware's Georgetown Substation.
Comparison of different production practices
should show farmers how to boost yields.
$2). Activities will conclude University of Delaware’s
with a watermelon break at Agricultural Experiment
3:30.
This popular annual event Cooperative Extension
is sponsored by the Semce -
me*
Station and the Delaware
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