Last month, we spoke with the farmers participating in this year’s Supplement Your Soybeans program about their objectives for the season. Here’s what they had to say:
- Patrick Riley — “My goal by participating in the Supplement Your Soybeans program is to achieve a higher yield. More yield equals more money. And with the cost of everything going up right now, it’s important to make every acre count. If we find that putting AMS on our soybeans leads to a bushel increase, we will put it on every acre, and other farmers will see it work, too.”
- Ryan Reimers — “By participating in the Supplement Your Soybeans program, I’m hoping to find ways to push profitability and yield. The field I’m testing has yield potential that I feel has been capped in recent years but could be higher. So, I want to find ways to raise the yield ceiling above where it has been sitting for the last six years.”
- Joel Lange — “My retailer was approached by the AdvanSix team about the Supplement Your Soybeans program and passed the information along to me. We are always working to advance our yield and are looking forward to continuing that trend with AdvanSix.”
- Marc Kaiser — “I participated in the Supplement Your Soybeans program last year and achieved a high yield, so I want to know if that was due to the rainfall we got when we applied the AMS or if it is in fact due to the AMS application itself. I like to monitor trends when making management decisions rather than just rely on a one-year trial. So, if we see high yields a couple of years in a row, it’s easier to feel confident that the results were not just a fluke or due to timing of rain.”
- The Washburns — “We didn’t achieve great yield results from the Supplement Your Soybeans program last year because we received a lot of heavy rainfall. But we know what AMS can do, so we want to see what it does for us this year. We will learn from soil and tissue testing as well.”
- Keith Schrader — “We achieved some good yield results in last year’s Supplement Your Soybeans program and some results were mixed. This year, we are testing out fields that have not had a history of much sulfur nutrition. So, I want to see how that impacts our yield results.”
Whether the end goal is to achieve higher yields or increase profitability, all farmers in the Supplement Your Soybeans program this year understand high-yielding soybeans require more nutrients and a willingness to try more intensive management practices like applying ammonium sulfate to provide those nutrients.
Check back next month for an update on weather challenges the farmers faced this spring and planting/application timing.