Planting soybean out of season
To help improve his ability to grow a good legume crop every year on his fallow, Bill was keen to trial growing a soybean crop through the early autumn to summer period to be harvested as a seed crop for the soybean he would plant into his beds in early summer.
Bill planted the variety leichart, which has an indeterminate growth pattern and he was hopeful it would handle the lack of sunlight hours coming out of winter. Crop established successfully with a plant population of 275,000 plants to the hectare, so it is achievable planting at this time of season to get a crop up. Crop suffered damage during the growth phase caused by slightly saline irrigation water through low pressure overhead equipment. This did not allow us to take the crop through to harvest.
Through good crop management, the aim is to maximise the genetic potential of the seed crop he has grown to then improve the germination and productivity of his main soybean crop that will be harvested and sold.