Long-term approach for crop management

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The difference between successful and less successful farming operations ultimately hinges on whether “we’re in this for the long term or short term.”

Matt Montgomery, Beck’s agronomy education lead, spoke of “Soybean Management: The Never-ending Contest” at the Illinois Soybean Association’s Soybean Summit.

“If we’re looking at year-to-year survival, which is the tempting environment that we find ourselves in at this moment, every market force is making it very tempting for us just to think about survival and rightfully so,” he said.

“The tendency is going to be to mine (the nutrients already in the soil) and go ultimately with some long-term consequences that really hurt us for long-term yield.”

Short-term versus long-term approaches make the difference in what strategies the farmer decides upon, and Montgomery gave his premises accordingly.

“My first premise is that too often we tend to approach soybean management maybe with a few months in mind, really thinking about it over the short term. We often approach soybean production as if we’re in a single-year contest, especially now for the world that we find ourselves in,” he said.

“My second premise is growers are in business. The victory when you’re in business is being able to stay in business.

“My third premise is an important one because I think this actually is going to play out over time. The difference between successful and less-than-successful operations is going to ultimately hinge upon whether we think we’re in this for the long term or short term.

“If we have a year-to-year survival mindset, we’ll migrate toward one set of strategies. If we have a multiyear mindset, we’re going to migrate toward other strategies, and the people that can hold on when everything is pushing you otherwise to have a long-term strategy in mind, those are the people that are probably going to come out better.”

Montgomery broke the season into pre-plant and post-harvest considerations, in-season considerations and harvest-time consideration and their associated short-term and long-term benefits.

Pre-Plant, Post-Harvest

“I’ve talked a lot with people this last year who said, ‘I can’t afford to do everything.’ I get that. Let’s, though, maintain the discipline of at least doing something when it comes to soil fertility,” he said.

“There’s been many a moment I’ve visited with a young man or a young lady stepping into this industry who finds their soil fertility levels wrecked because a decision was made years ago not to apply fertilizer and they can’t afford unfortunately at that point to get out of that train wreck.

“When we step out of doing soil fertility, when we don’t maintain the discipline of doing something and we just decide to cut it all off, the unfortunate thing about that is that it is a really easy habit to slip into and it is a nasty habit to step out of it.”

Even when times are tight, maintain the discipline of doing something when it comes to annual soil fertility. If pH requires correction, start there. If pH is OK, look at potassium and phosphorous, replacing what was removed.

Do not fall into the trap of “mining it all.” It’s a long-term fertility battle.

Pests, Diseases

Pre-plant decisions also include pest and disease issues, including managing soybean cyst nematode and red crown rot.

“We do not live in a world anymore where we have silver-bullet solutions when it comes to pest management, unfortunately. You’re going to continue to hear more and more ideas about rolling various management techniques together, and SCN is a good example why,” Montgomery said.

Most of the genetic protection from SCN in soybeans is through the PI 88788 breeding line. However, SCN populations have developed resistance.

“The good news is that a lot of work has been done, and we’re really beginning to see the fruit of that labor on bringing a different type of resistance in — Peking,” Montgomery said.

“It will help us if we integrate. It will help us manage and steward PI 88788 and take some of that pressure off of it.”

Long term, in order to maintain as many tools as possible to protect soybeans from SCN, Peking lines are being integrated in varieties, but should not be completely relied upon due to SCN developing new resistance.

“We’re going to have to rotate the corn as we’ve always done. We’re going to have to rotate between PI 88788 and Peking. We can’t just go with one of those being our silver bullet and we live in a world where, fortunately, we have some seed treatments now, that are not a silver-bullet solution,” Montgomery said.

“They’re good at managing that first and second generation of cyst. They don’t provide full-season protection from cyst, but they do represent new hurdles for cyst to leap over that probably will help us steward PI 88788 and Peking that much better.”

A new soybean pest — red crown rot — has similar symptoms as sudden death syndrome, and the seed industry has been developing varieties that provide resistance.

“On top of that, the industry just introduced a new SDHI seed treatment, Victrato, that a lot of seed companies are migrating toward. It is a really good product versus red crown rot, but I do not want to treat that thing like it’s a silver bullet. It’s going to require integration with the other three legs of the stool — variety, Victrato — and then in some of our work, we’ve caught a hint that managing other stressors in the field actually is a really big deal,” Montgomery said.

“Managing other stressors won’t knock out red crown rot, but I do think it will help reduce the ‘nickeling and diming’ away of yield that tends to happen with the red crown rot. This strategy is not a short-term strategy. This is a strategy that has a long-term view associated with it. We’re integrating things to make sure that those products, those techniques, work deep into the future.”

In-Season Considerations

When engaging in weed management, ask yourself if your efforts will deplete the weed seed bank or if your efforts will result in a net-zero change or, worse yet, a net increase.

Adding to weed management challenges is the advent of metabolic resistance.

“Metabolic resistance is different than what we have worked with up to this point. You apply the herbicide, the active ingredient gets into that cell, but that cell has mechanisms built in there for self defense and it recognizes that herbicide active ingredient as trouble and so it tears it apart fast before that active ingredient can have its impact on the weed,” Montgomery said.

“Metabolic resistance is a new type of resistance, and the scary part about that is that that type of defense mechanism actually plays across multiple modes of action.

“It’s about getting that seed bank whittled down. We’ve got to do things that reduce the weed seed bank. That is mission critical when it comes to metabolic resistance. We’ve got to eliminate we before they ever go to seed. We’re nipping this thing early before metabolic resistance has a chance to even have its opportunity to play.

“We want to save dollars, and it’s easy to move away from this, but we no longer live in a world where we can’t use residual herbicides. We’ve got to be willing to swallow that additional cost of a residual if we want this thing to work out for us over the long term.”

In a recent ISA webinar, Patrick Tranell, University of Illinois crop sciences professor, said there have been three separate confirmed populations of waterhemp that were resistant to Liberty glufosinate.

This finding indicates there are now waterhemp populations in Illinois that have been found to have resistance to every post-emerge herbicide on the market.

“That is scary, really scary, but it doesn’t mean game over. What it means is we’ve got a warning shot, and now we step in and try to do things to correct that. So, no glufosinate Liberty-only application,” Montgomery said.

“That’s terrible to say with the environment that we live in, because that means additional cost. I get it, but what I’m saying is if we don’t do that, we’re going to be engaging in a short-term strategy that will burn us over the long term.”

Fungicide

Multi-modes of action should also be used for fungicide applications as a long-term strategy.

Montgomery noted field trials at Beck’s Practical Farm Research sites to find what practices are PFR Proven. A practice that results in a yield bump and positive return-on-investment over three years is given PFR Proven status.

Eighty percent of the PFR wins were a combination of strobilurin and triazole fungicides, strobilurin and SDHI, or triazole and SDHI.

For fungicide, Montgomery said another long-term strategy is to make applications earlier in the day, around 8 a.m. for the best ROI. That allows the active ingredient more time to soak into the pathogens and not degrade.

Also, pay attention to the pH of the water that’s mixed with fungicides.

“If we have pH extremes, that product degrades and that means less active ingredient going into the target. It means less efficacy. It means more wasted dollars. It means more chances for resistance development,” Montgomery said.

Harvest-Time Considerations

Harvest conditions directly influence planting quality. Montgomery noted he has seen a dramatic increase in hair-pinning in fields over the last few years.

“We set the planter right. We want to make sure that we have good seeding depth and have a hard time getting seed-to-soil contact because of residue getting in the way,” he said.

“We have some really good research that says some of those tools that will really chop that material up in fine pieces, increase the surface area and let that residue degrade, they have some yield benefits. I’ll bet part of the reason is because we’re getting better seed-to-soil contact, better stands, more uniformity of stands.”

Low Soybean Moisture

There were reports of single-digit moisture levels in soybeans in fields that then got some rain and the seeds began shattering.

“Many of you ran into single-digit soybean moisture at harvest. And if you think back, that’s been a few years issue when it comes to what we delivered to the elevator. It’s also been an issue for a few years in the seed production industry across the board — running into really dry soybean moistures has been a problem,” Montgomery said.

“What that means is, you ran into low soybean moistures this year and probably the folks producing your seed had some fields that ran into that, as well. I would fully expect for there to be some lower germ scores on beans going into 2026.

“Dump some soybean seed into a box and if you notice an unusual number of holes and splits this year, it is a good moment to pause and to call up your seed adviser or your dealer and have them come out and take a look, because all of those people want to avoid an issue with poor-quality seed and resulting poor-quality stand on the front end rather than finding that out later down the road.”

Grand, Simple Endeavors

So, what can a grower do to make it easier to think long term? The answer is simple, but significant.

“Do things that force your mind to think long term. That can mean grand endeavors, but it can also mean simple — but equally profound — endeavors,” Montgomery said.

“On the grand side, consider engaging in activities that benefit soybean production or your own operation directly. Engage in estate planning or lobby for multi-year rental agreements. See what can be done to lock in long-term input pricing, where the dollars make sense.

“Consider becoming involved with commodity groups or local Farm Bureaus. All such ‘grand endeavors’ force you to think about your operation long term, even when prices cause walls to draw close.

“On the simple yet equally profound side, make a commitment to do the often-unseen things. Get involved with your local church or a community group. Consider finding a young ag enthusiast and take them under your wing. Mentor others. We do these things, first and foremost, because they are good things to do.

“The side benefit is these activities force you to think about the future. These little, unseen things will make you see your own operation less ‘year by year’ and more ‘multi year.’

“Engaging in those grand and simple things becomes even more important when times are tight and when stressors tempt us to pull away.”