Del Voight – Senior Extension Educator – Penn State Extension CMEG
. Growers will need to ascertain running soybeans over to apply many of the vast foliar products such as fungicides, insecticides, fertilizer and biostimulants. With the knowledge that soybean leaf diseases are forecasted to be at threshold levels this summer, considerations for running the beans over will be on growers minds. Two projects that detailed the impact of trafficking in standing soybeans have been researched and I have the two links included below. If we were to only look at an application with a Fungicide applied at R3 the costs would appear close to the following:
Cost of materials- $15.00/acre
Custom application – $12.00/acre
Reduced yield due to trafficking – ???? depends on width of sprayer.
Total costs could be close to $30.00/acre. That would mean at least a 3 bu/acre increase or protection should compensate for the direct costs. What about the sprayer impact?
In Pa data over time we have shown between 2-4 bu/acre increase due to a fungicide application so the economics are close to breakeven. This is where the boom width is important if a grower owns a 45 foot boom and the losses based on science suggest a loss of about 4% 2.5 bu/acre @(60 bu/acre yield)versus a loss of .75%(.5 bu/acre) with a 120 foot boom, then the economics can lean toward a profit for utilizing a wider boom if available. The higher commodity prices do demand revisisting thresholds and determine the best integrated approach. Growers need to make thier own decisions but the following two factsheets provide some informed research that might help with the decision.
http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/SPS/SPS-103-W.pdf
Very good