All Is Not Lost A portion of the Agtegra trade territory was hit with bad storms recently, resulting in crop damage, especially in the central area. “High winds sandblasted many of the crops,” says Brad Ruden, Agtegra Agronomy Technical Services Manager. “There was a significant amount of soil moved around.” Now that there has been time to assess the damage, many producers are wondering what to do with crop stands that remain in the fields, particularly if the crop is soybeans. Soybeans Are Tough Soybeans are a tremendously resilient crop, according to Ruden. Even after a severe weather event completely removes the crop’s leaves, soybeans can often bounce back. “Soybeans have an axillary bud wherever a leaf attaches to the stem, including at the base of the unifoliate leaves and even at the cotyledons,” Ruden says. “If any of these buds remain, the plant will send out a new shoot.” Where these buds are located is important. If soybeans are cut off below the cotyledons, then they will not recover. If they are cut off above the cotyledons, then there is a chance they might regrow. If soybeans are going to recover, it will take a few days for them to start sending out new shoots. Evaluating Your Soybean Stands “One of the toughest conversations now may involve plant stand evaluations,” says Ruden. “Soybeans can look really damaged after a high wind and dust event.” Ruden adds that if there are at least 75,000-85,000 remaining live plants in a stand, then yield losses should be minimal. “Losses start increasing significantly after that level at lower populations,” he clarifies. Stand uniformity is important, as well. Soybeans will compensate for gaps of two feet or less. Gaps larger than two feet may contribute to lower yields. See the table below. When evaluating a plant stand, Ruden says that the best method is measuring the plants in 1/1000 of an acre of a row and replicating this reading as many times as necessary to be comfortable that you’ve measured a good representation of the stand. Row lengths for 1/1000 of an acre are as follows: