Roseville, IL – An agriculture group hopes to help soybean farmers increase their yields during the next crop year.
Ron Moore is chairman of the Illinois Soybean Association Board of Directors. Moore says while corn yields have continued to increase significantly each year, soybeans are lagging behind.
"The last 18 months we've been trying to figure out what can we do as an association to help our producers get a higher yield," says Moore.
Moore says the ISA will launch a yield challenge for growers. "We are going to encourage teams of growers to be placed in each of the 9 recording districts in the state," says Moore. "We will challenge each other to increase our yields at a faster rate than the trend line says and share that information and what we've done well."
Moore says there are a number of ways farmers can try to increase their yields. "We've been spraying some fungicide on our soybean acres and that has increased our yields," says Moore. "Some of the new technology has fungicide and insecticide treatments already on the seed that we plan in the ground."
Moore says the goal is to increase soybean yields by two to three bushels each year. He says this year the national average is projected to be 41 bushels per acre. Moore says Illinois' average is typically higher than the national average.