Aim Small, Miss Small: Precision Matters When Double Cropping

Locus AG Agronomist David Dyson discusses how to maximize ROI on double crops using biologicals

While walking through a rainy Kansas wheat field and noticing the wheat would be ripening in the next 30 days, I thought of a saying from one of my favorite Mel Gibson movies, “Aim small, miss small.” In The Patriot, Mel Gibson’s character teaches his sons how to aim, shoot, and hit their target with those four simple words. It refers to aiming at a small part of the target instead of the entire target. Sometimes we can get wrapped up in our whole business and forget about the bullseye … ROI. In 30 days, plus or minus a week, we are going to see wheat harvest begin across the United States. This brings an opportunity to the producer to raise more grain and ROI on that acre with the planting of a double crop of soybeans.

What is double cropping?

The definition of double cropping is when a farmer plants more than one type of crop on the same acres during the same growing season. For example, they may plant milo / grain sorghum or wheat with soybeans or corn. Let’s look at the example of double cropping wheat and soybeans. There are three challenges with double crop soybeans:

1. Getting the root system ramped up
2. Producing nitrogen
3. Absorbing critical nutrients, such as potassium

Soybeans require 4 times more nitrogen per bushel than corn. A 50 bu/ac soybean crop will need around 240 units of nitrogen and an 80 bu/ac soybean crop will need almost 400 units of nitrogen. Likewise, soybeans require over a pound of potassium per bushel to be brought up into the plant.

Agricultural Biologicals Ensure Successful Double Cropping

When a soybean seed gets planted in late June or early July, that root system needs a little help getting jump started. Locus AG’s superior biologicals can provide just the kick start that little soybean plant needs. Locus AG biologicals are low rate, easy to use seed treatments that require no complicated delivery system … just the twist of the wrist.

Double Cropping Results with Soil Probiotics

Kansas Soybeans

On a visit to Kansas last year, I examined soybean plots that were treated with Locus AG’s Rhizolizer Prime seed treatment (figure 1). This field was planted 12 days prior to the photo. The soybean plant already showed:

• Increase in root size
• Higher numbers of root hair to the treated section (left side of the treated plants)

Indiana Soybeans

Similarly, a soybean trial in Southern Indiana (figure 2) shows:

• More nitrogen fixing nodules
• Bigger tap roots
• Less root restriction during growth

Soybeans are a root crop, the more nodules that are “fixing” nitrogen and the bigger the roots to take in vital nutrients, the more grain the plant will produce. In conclusion, we need to aim for a small target and hit the bullseye directly in the root zone. As the price for soybeans reaches above $15/bu, we need to squeeze every bean out of that acre. Double cropping soybeans after wheat is a great way of increase your soybean acres without purchasing more land. Jump starting the root system by using Locus AG’s Rhizolizer Prime as a seed treatment will provide:

• A much-needed bacteria to inoculate your soybean seed
• Microorganisms in the root zone to mineralize soil nutrients and make them available to the growing soybean plant

Interested in double cropping this season? Let’s talk.