Earlier Vs. Later: How Have Corn and Soybean Planting Dates Changed in the Past 20 Years
Your 2023 crop is likely out of the field or on its way out, which means the 2024 planting season will be here before you know it. Deciding when to plant is likely one of the biggest decisions you make each year.
NASA Harvest, a new consortium commissioned by NASA and led by the University of Maryland to enhance the use of satellite data for food and agriculture, recently explored how planting dates across the Midwest have changed over the past two decades.
In addition to studying how planting dates impact yields, NASA is interested in how the timing of planting influences carbon cycles, soil erosion and water use.
Which Crop Do You Plant First?
In the past seven years, research conducted by Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie and his crew at Crop-Tech Consulting has found planting soybeans early is one way to increase yields 5 bu. to 10 bu. per acre.
“In central Illinois, a large percentage of the soybeans will go in ahead of corn, which just 10 years ago would have been unheard of,” Ferrie explains. “It’s been something that’s worked from central Illinois all the way up into Canada.”
Now’s the time to get everything in order to plant soybeans earlier.
“You just can’t wake up on April 10 and decide you’re going to plant soybeans,” Ferrie says. “The land has to be ready, the herbicide has to have been applied and the seed needs to be treated. If you don’t have everything ready, you might miss that window and end up planting in May anyway.”
There’s some wiggle room when planting soybeans, but that’s not the case for corn. To avoid seed chilling, he advises farmers to plant corn only under two conditions:
- The soil temperature must be 50°F or higher.
- The weather forecast must be promising in the days following corn planting.
“If you can’t plant corn and soybeans at the same time, don’t waste good corn planting conditions to get soybeans planted,” Ferrie says.
