Soybeans planted a week to 10 days ago are having a tough ride. Seedbed conditions were lousy all spring. Now the rains have stopped. Crusts have formed as the surface dries and there is not much you can do but wait and hope Rotary hoes are useless. They only work, sort of, when the ground is still soft. A RTS or coulter cart may work if set real shallow, but you are going to break some necks. A timely shower is the only perfect solution. Beans planted in May got those showers and are looking pretty good. In the mean time, the June planted weight lifters have to show their stuff.
Will these beans make an acceptable stand? To early to say, but I think they will. Crusting and stand establishment problems are the reasons why we over populate our soybean fields. The second reason is the use of drills which do not have accurate depth control. We can loose 30% of a 200,000 seed drop and still have excellent yield potential. We can't loose 30% of 150,000 and still have the same potential.
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