Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 10/27/20


Soybean seed quality issues are widespread across the NC Coastal Plain and parts of the Tidewater region this year in indeterminate varieties planted prior to Mid-May. We do not have a complete understanding of the drivers behind the observed issues this year; however, these are likely a result of an environment by genetic by management interaction in many fields. We have been involved in calls with our County Cooperative Extension agents in many fields across the region over the past month and will discuss some commonalities and differences in damaged fields below. 

Field commonalities
• Use of indeterminate varieties: The vast majority of damaged fields have been from a <MG5.5, with the majority of the varieties having an indeterminate growth habit. These varieties were approaching maturity when excessive rainfall was encountered in early September. It is worth noting that at this point it is still too early to determine if these issues will persist into later maturing (determinate) varieties or even earlier maturing varieties planted at later dates; however, we have research trials with soybean maturities from 2-7 this year where we have observed seed quality issues in our earliest maturing, indeterminate varieties (<MG5) that have yet to be observed in our later maturing varieties planted at those same planting dates. In general, in our trials, seed quality has improved in later planting dates with all maturity groups, as was observed in 2019. 
• Early planting: At this point, most of the problem fields were planted in mid-May or earlier. 
• Excessive moisture in early September: Many of the areas with the worst observed damage had 4-8 inches of rain from the end of August through mid-September. The rainfall events were persistent, often dropping 1-2 inches of rain over several subsequent events during that time period.

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