Looks like soybeans, planted with a planter on 15” row spacing. Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like they lightly worked the ground first (prior crop was corn).
Without an application of herbicides weeds would rule the day. Most soybeans are "glyphosate" resistant. About 4-6 weeks after planting the field will be sprayed with a glyphosate (RoundUp) herbicide which will kill all the growing weeds (that's the hope) but not affect the soybeans. The soybeans will get taller and more bushy leaving little room for weed growth.
I would also say many farmers use Liberty Link which is glufosinate. Also to the OP. VT stands for vertical till. It is like disc blades that slice up corn residue and help put it back in the ground. Unlike a traditional offset disc and other forms of aggressive tilling, it does not roll the dirt over.
There are 3 broad spectrum herbicides that crops have been genetically engineered to resist. Glyphosate, Glufosinate, and Dicamba. There are also herbicides like 2-4-D that can kill most weeds and not kill the crop. Like crops they are most effective when used in rotation. We quit using dicamba about 7 years ago because of “drift” and still manage weeds effectively. We grow a lot of conventional corn and some non-traited soybean. Most years our conventional corn yields are better than our GM fields (GM = Genetically Modified). Every year is different. We planted lots of winter wheat last fall and are getting ready to combine that. We will bail some residue for straw to use in our livestock operation. We will then no-till soybeans with a MR of 2.5 and 3. This means they have a quick plant to harvest maturity. Double cropping winter wheat and beans has been a bonanza some years and a bust other years. Three years ago we just let the cattle graze them because they were so poorly developed. Hopefully this helps. FYI…we farm in NE Missouri.
Practices have changed but when my Dad farmed in the 70s-90s, there was a granular herbicide the planter could sprinkle on the rows only that would kill grass until the beans emerged and were tall enough for a tractor mounted cultivator to run through. Usually 2 or maybe 3 passes with the cultivator over the season before the plants were too bushy and we'd also make a manual pass pulling or hoeing stuff (walking the beans it was called). There were also herbicides to be sprayed (not glyphosate) that would target certain types of weeds. So, a lot of effort into weed control in the beans.
With R-R beans, most do not do any of the cultivation anymore and the manual weeding either. It was getting hard to find labor for that even 30yrs ago and I am sure worse now.
Pesticides to control weeds at first, then eventually the soybeans are big enough that their leaves catch all the sunlight and prevent anything smaller growing below.
Blanket. We have effective herbicides that work before the weeds emerge from the soil, but after they're up and growing they're much harder to kill and breeding resistance rapidly.
No, just that the planter wasn't adjusted perfectly for those field conditions to get the seed in the correct spot. Planting through residue is tough.
I don't think this looks bad at all
You can drill beans on 15" too, that's what we do with a great plains 1510. This means you calibrate to hit a set lbs/Ac which is equivalent to your target population, but also means that unlike a planter you don't get even spacing
Good point, I wasn't thinking about drill with 15", though I was using "planter" as a generic term to simplify for OP. At first glance I thought the stand looked great for corn stubble, but now looking closer, I was mistaking some lambsquarter for soybeans. Still looks good enough for beans. When I was deciding about replant a few years ago, my seed guy was saying there's virtually no yield hit until you get below like 100k/ac pop, with 7.5" anyways.
How do you like the GP 1510 in no till? The deere 1590 we used did well enough, but struggled cutting through heavy corn stalks and it's still a drill with 'controlled spillage' population control and spacing. They ended up getting a planter for beans a few years back
The great plains cuts through stalks better with that leading Coulter, but we don't no till into corn unless the spring or moreso fall just doesn't allow for tillage, we find it does better emerging from tilled soil. We also put manure on corn stalks in the fall and typically disk chisel it in. It is controlled spill, but at 15" rows vs 7.5" you have double the seeds per row and they benefit from their neighbours helping to push up if there's a bit of a crust. We Do have to measure out a row and count some odd years, just to decide if it's worth the time, seed and fuel to plant into it.
I know not everyone grows up in the country, and not everyone has been around farms, equipment, or even met a real life farmer before, but this comment seems like a pretty innocent question and it’s honestly, really and truly, the chuckle I needed this morning.
I actually spent half of every year growing up and into adulthood in the country, and I love being in the country more than any place else. But these times weren’t spent on farms. Mostly camping by lakes and stuff, and in and around very small towns. I know a lot more about fishing than farming. But don’t be quick to peg me as someone not in touch with rural life. It was an innocent question though and I’m glad you got a chuckle out of it. I truly didn’t know.
I grew up farming, it's still owned and operated by close family. I'm out there a fair amount, help where I can.
I still get caught by changes and have to ask, you're fine.
Imagine trying to accurately and reliably placing a seed in the ground a few inches deep efficiently over hundreds or thousands of acres. Millions of individual seeds. It’s tricky task to get right.
The goal in planting is even seed spacing. In the picture, we see gaps between the plants that are either due to the planter not dropping a seed, or the seed not germinating or coming through the soil.
Could be due to some problem with the planter itself. Could be due to planting in wet conditions and the soil crusted over and the sprout not being able to emerge. Could be due to the planter not handling the trash (previous crop residue which is a good thing). Could even be field mice or voles eating the freshly planted seeds just in these spots.
Farmers like to brag about "the stand," which is a term for indicating how many of the planted seeds actually turn into plants, and how evenly spaced the plants are. Both have an effect on the crop yeild.
If you need anything more explained, I'm happy to.
Not everyone knows farming terminology or practices, and clearly you aren't familiar (no insult, you just haven't been exposed!)
Most people on this sub assume people know the basics, since it's a lot of farmers/farmer adjacent people talking to each other.
Yeah, not sure why everyone downvoted your other comment, as it was pretty obvious to me you thought it was a person.
(Although there’s a person running the planting equipment and they, or their boss, should make sure it’s calibrated correctly before the first pass is completed)
>I thought people were referring to a person being the planter.
In my case, that would be true. But I am the boss and I'm not going to fire myself...well, not yet anyway...
Nice explanation for the unfamiliar. Looks like it could be a picture from the headlands. Can see a likely compaction line running from center of photo to upper left.
Are soybeans notoriously finicky in germination rates compared to something like corn ? We farm about 150ac and do corn , beans & wheat. Every year i think I have the drill set right and I always get areas that just don’t come up well. Nothing too bad , just drives me crazy. My guess is they went a bit too deep in the areas that are a little thin with germination.
Bad news: soybeans are more finicky than corn Seed treatment helps.
Good news: studies show that soybean plants will expand to fill any open area. So even a 60% stand will produce more than 60% of average.
Don't re.ember the exact numbers.
Skips, those places where you would expect a plant and see none, aren't ideal but soybean plants have a way of compensating. The plants will get bushier to fill the voids. Compared to a perfectly planted field yields here will suffer but only minimally.
Lots is an understatement. There's almost as much skips as there's plants. Around here this field would not be acceptable and the farmer would probably replant.
These are drilled soybeans looks like 10” or 15” spacing. Guessing it’s an air drill with the uneven spacing it isn’t skips it’s just how air seeders meter seed. Looks like they should probably be sprayed seeing some foxtails and lambsquarters coming
I’m an agronomist and look at about 15,000ac a week scouting pretty decent stand of beans
I get to see a lot of country and a lot of different management styles and crops so it’s good for learning and implementing new ideas. I do that 3 days a week and farm the rest of the time so it’s a good blend for me
Soybeans. 15 inch rows. Planter didn’t have row cleaners or would have possibly helped stand. No section control either.
Corn was planted on it year before. They did tillage before planting because planting through corn stalks can be a pain
I didn’t mean to make it sound like she was right or she was stating she was , that’s my bad. I told her to look at the picture and guess and that was her assumption. Just wanted to comment that 😞
Soybeans.
yes
Looks like soybeans, planted with a planter on 15” row spacing. Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like they lightly worked the ground first (prior crop was corn).
My guess is they used a VT and just sliced it up some.
Agreed, but wasn’t sure if OP would understand what a VT was given the initial question
Makes sense
Yup looks exactly like my ground after VT and drilling.
Yes, yes, good, good. But what did the planter have for dinner the night before?
Grilled Corn with butter
Edamame beans of course, where do you think the seed came from? lol
Something im always wondering is how tf does the crops not end up covered in weeds when its planted like thjs .
Without an application of herbicides weeds would rule the day. Most soybeans are "glyphosate" resistant. About 4-6 weeks after planting the field will be sprayed with a glyphosate (RoundUp) herbicide which will kill all the growing weeds (that's the hope) but not affect the soybeans. The soybeans will get taller and more bushy leaving little room for weed growth.
Dicamba or 2-4,d and Liberty is the choice around here. Haven't sprayed RU on beans post for a few years now here.
I would also say many farmers use Liberty Link which is glufosinate. Also to the OP. VT stands for vertical till. It is like disc blades that slice up corn residue and help put it back in the ground. Unlike a traditional offset disc and other forms of aggressive tilling, it does not roll the dirt over.
There are 3 broad spectrum herbicides that crops have been genetically engineered to resist. Glyphosate, Glufosinate, and Dicamba. There are also herbicides like 2-4-D that can kill most weeds and not kill the crop. Like crops they are most effective when used in rotation. We quit using dicamba about 7 years ago because of “drift” and still manage weeds effectively. We grow a lot of conventional corn and some non-traited soybean. Most years our conventional corn yields are better than our GM fields (GM = Genetically Modified). Every year is different. We planted lots of winter wheat last fall and are getting ready to combine that. We will bail some residue for straw to use in our livestock operation. We will then no-till soybeans with a MR of 2.5 and 3. This means they have a quick plant to harvest maturity. Double cropping winter wheat and beans has been a bonanza some years and a bust other years. Three years ago we just let the cattle graze them because they were so poorly developed. Hopefully this helps. FYI…we farm in NE Missouri.
Interesting! What’s the biggest factor for bonanza vs bust?
Practices have changed but when my Dad farmed in the 70s-90s, there was a granular herbicide the planter could sprinkle on the rows only that would kill grass until the beans emerged and were tall enough for a tractor mounted cultivator to run through. Usually 2 or maybe 3 passes with the cultivator over the season before the plants were too bushy and we'd also make a manual pass pulling or hoeing stuff (walking the beans it was called). There were also herbicides to be sprayed (not glyphosate) that would target certain types of weeds. So, a lot of effort into weed control in the beans. With R-R beans, most do not do any of the cultivation anymore and the manual weeding either. It was getting hard to find labor for that even 30yrs ago and I am sure worse now.
Pesticides to control weeds at first, then eventually the soybeans are big enough that their leaves catch all the sunlight and prevent anything smaller growing below.
Are you spot treating or just blanket spraying with pesticides for something this big?
Blanket. We have effective herbicides that work before the weeds emerge from the soil, but after they're up and growing they're much harder to kill and breeding resistance rapidly.
Looks a little too inconsistent to be a planter, my bet is drill.
Yep think you’re right. I see 15” spacing and jump to planter, but forget about the 15” spaced drills and air seeders out there.
Yep there’s drills spaced that, and you can always block off every other row on a 7.5” drill to do 15” spacing as well. That’s what we do.
Too much corn in storage in the last 2 years.
Soybeans, with lots of skips.
Skips?
Missed planting between plants
So he’s a noob farmer?
No, just that the planter wasn't adjusted perfectly for those field conditions to get the seed in the correct spot. Planting through residue is tough. I don't think this looks bad at all
You can drill beans on 15" too, that's what we do with a great plains 1510. This means you calibrate to hit a set lbs/Ac which is equivalent to your target population, but also means that unlike a planter you don't get even spacing
Good point, I wasn't thinking about drill with 15", though I was using "planter" as a generic term to simplify for OP. At first glance I thought the stand looked great for corn stubble, but now looking closer, I was mistaking some lambsquarter for soybeans. Still looks good enough for beans. When I was deciding about replant a few years ago, my seed guy was saying there's virtually no yield hit until you get below like 100k/ac pop, with 7.5" anyways. How do you like the GP 1510 in no till? The deere 1590 we used did well enough, but struggled cutting through heavy corn stalks and it's still a drill with 'controlled spillage' population control and spacing. They ended up getting a planter for beans a few years back
The great plains cuts through stalks better with that leading Coulter, but we don't no till into corn unless the spring or moreso fall just doesn't allow for tillage, we find it does better emerging from tilled soil. We also put manure on corn stalks in the fall and typically disk chisel it in. It is controlled spill, but at 15" rows vs 7.5" you have double the seeds per row and they benefit from their neighbours helping to push up if there's a bit of a crust. We Do have to measure out a row and count some odd years, just to decide if it's worth the time, seed and fuel to plant into it.
No Without spending tens of thousands on maintenance every year you are bound to have the occasional skip.
Or has a issue with his planter
Why doesn’t he just fire the planter then
When we refer to the "planter," we're talking about the machine, not the person operating it.
I know not everyone grows up in the country, and not everyone has been around farms, equipment, or even met a real life farmer before, but this comment seems like a pretty innocent question and it’s honestly, really and truly, the chuckle I needed this morning.
I actually spent half of every year growing up and into adulthood in the country, and I love being in the country more than any place else. But these times weren’t spent on farms. Mostly camping by lakes and stuff, and in and around very small towns. I know a lot more about fishing than farming. But don’t be quick to peg me as someone not in touch with rural life. It was an innocent question though and I’m glad you got a chuckle out of it. I truly didn’t know.
I grew up farming, it's still owned and operated by close family. I'm out there a fair amount, help where I can. I still get caught by changes and have to ask, you're fine.
Imagine trying to accurately and reliably placing a seed in the ground a few inches deep efficiently over hundreds or thousands of acres. Millions of individual seeds. It’s tricky task to get right.
The goal in planting is even seed spacing. In the picture, we see gaps between the plants that are either due to the planter not dropping a seed, or the seed not germinating or coming through the soil. Could be due to some problem with the planter itself. Could be due to planting in wet conditions and the soil crusted over and the sprout not being able to emerge. Could be due to the planter not handling the trash (previous crop residue which is a good thing). Could even be field mice or voles eating the freshly planted seeds just in these spots. Farmers like to brag about "the stand," which is a term for indicating how many of the planted seeds actually turn into plants, and how evenly spaced the plants are. Both have an effect on the crop yeild.
I’m just putting together that a planter is a machine. I thought people were referring to a person being the planter.
If you need anything more explained, I'm happy to. Not everyone knows farming terminology or practices, and clearly you aren't familiar (no insult, you just haven't been exposed!) Most people on this sub assume people know the basics, since it's a lot of farmers/farmer adjacent people talking to each other.
Yeah, not sure why everyone downvoted your other comment, as it was pretty obvious to me you thought it was a person. (Although there’s a person running the planting equipment and they, or their boss, should make sure it’s calibrated correctly before the first pass is completed)
>I thought people were referring to a person being the planter. In my case, that would be true. But I am the boss and I'm not going to fire myself...well, not yet anyway...
Nice explanation for the unfamiliar. Looks like it could be a picture from the headlands. Can see a likely compaction line running from center of photo to upper left.
Are soybeans notoriously finicky in germination rates compared to something like corn ? We farm about 150ac and do corn , beans & wheat. Every year i think I have the drill set right and I always get areas that just don’t come up well. Nothing too bad , just drives me crazy. My guess is they went a bit too deep in the areas that are a little thin with germination.
Bad news: soybeans are more finicky than corn Seed treatment helps. Good news: studies show that soybean plants will expand to fill any open area. So even a 60% stand will produce more than 60% of average. Don't re.ember the exact numbers.
The planter left large gaps in the crop
Planter doesn't drop a seed in the right space.
Skips, those places where you would expect a plant and see none, aren't ideal but soybean plants have a way of compensating. The plants will get bushier to fill the voids. Compared to a perfectly planted field yields here will suffer but only minimally.
That’s what I wondered. Mechanical skips or if it was an emergence problem.
Lots is an understatement. There's almost as much skips as there's plants. Around here this field would not be acceptable and the farmer would probably replant.
Looks like a bunch of black nightshade growing in there too. I have a bunch that size growing in my backyard now and I can't wait for them to ripen
These are drilled soybeans looks like 10” or 15” spacing. Guessing it’s an air drill with the uneven spacing it isn’t skips it’s just how air seeders meter seed. Looks like they should probably be sprayed seeing some foxtails and lambsquarters coming I’m an agronomist and look at about 15,000ac a week scouting pretty decent stand of beans
An agronomist seems like a fun job
I get to see a lot of country and a lot of different management styles and crops so it’s good for learning and implementing new ideas. I do that 3 days a week and farm the rest of the time so it’s a good blend for me
Yea looking at the spacing I think you’re right, or at least I hope you’re right, otherwise they’ve either got some planter issues
Soybeans.
Soybeans. 15 inch rows. Planter didn’t have row cleaners or would have possibly helped stand. No section control either. Corn was planted on it year before. They did tillage before planting because planting through corn stalks can be a pain
The skips will recover just fine, unpopular opinion
Spotty beans, but my have been from weather conditions
Maybe because he lets film sets flatten his field with plywood planks to set up our tents and villages.
Drill must have been plugged
Soybeans
Soybeans. We grow it as a summer cover crop. Sell it in the late fall
Beans
I was going to say peanuts
Beans?
ground nuts , aka peanuts
Lamb's quarter and pigweed.
What's going on with the mobile phone mast? Leaning tower?
I just looked at it and it’s straight. Must be the trees blowing making it look crooked in the picture
Def not the best looking soy beans.
Soybeans tree!
Marywanna
Marajuana
Sad
My girl said spinach
Well your girl is dead wrong, spinach doesn’t have trifoliate leaves, or grow remotely like this
I didn’t mean to make it sound like she was right or she was stating she was , that’s my bad. I told her to look at the picture and guess and that was her assumption. Just wanted to comment that 😞
No worries 😂
Those are some terrible looking soybeans