by Ken Root & Whitney Flach
An Illinois grower is nursing a sixty acre soybean field that may set records for the Midwest. Dan Arkels hit an ideal year on rainfall. He planted early and is continuing to feed the maturing crop into October.
The Town of Tonica, Illinois is about a hundred miles East of Davenport, Iowa for geographic comparison. Dan Arkels has a field of Pioneer Soybeans that has had a lot of scrutiny in recent years as he has gone over 100 bushels per acre on a whole field average. This year, Dan is pushing the limits again and agronomists are coming back with amazing pod counts and potential for a huge harvest.
Dan Arkels uses Stoller products for boosting yield as well as fungicide and insecticide as either treatment or protection against disease and insects. He planted Pioneer Soybeans, Group 3.6 and planted on April 17. He has had no moisture or heat stress on the crop. This is a dry land field, meaning no irrigation is available. Now, Arkels is in finishing mode and talked to Ken Root about his plan to harvest in October.
“I want to link that ripening season as long as I can,” Arkels said. He shares that he is encouraged because they are going really slow by their ripening process. He does this by trying to make that seed larger, pack more weight into the seed, and creating more energy by feeding the plant. Arkels said, “There is something to be said for what you can do to manipulate that seed to produce more yield.” Dan Arkels Full Interview
We will report the yield when he harvests next month.
