Latham® Hi‑Tech Soybeans are producing record yields this fall. One of our new Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield™ Soybeans recently topped a plot in Dallas County, Iowa, with record 80.2 bushels per acre (b/A).

“This is the first time that we’ve raised 80-bushel beans,” says Dale Meyers, whose family farms near Redfield. He and his son, Michael, also have a Latham dealership. “I believe the early planting date and good seed bed were key. Fortunately we had good planting conditions and received timely rains throughout the growing season.”

Meyers planted his soybean test plot on May 9 in a field that had previously been planted to corn with minimum tillage. He and Michael chiseled the ground last fall and then field cultivated in the spring after applying Trifluralin. Their plot averaged 71.36 bu/A, which is well above his farm’s average of 66.7 bu/A.

Variety selection is one of the most important factors to producing 80-bushel yields, according to Iowa State University (ISU) Extension agronomist Palle Pedersen. Pedersen says that raising a bumper crop begins with preseason planning including:

1. Planting the right genetics
2. Planting early
3. Planting in narrow rows
4. Protecting the plant from early weed competition

Meyers agrees that seed selection is key.

**Latham® is a registered trademark of Latham Hi‑Tech Hybrids, Inc.
Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield™ soybeans are trademarks of Monsanto Technology Group LLC

We’re receiving amazing reports across Latham’s marketing territory about the increased potential yield this fall of Latham® Hi‑Tech Soybeans with the Genuity^TM Roundup Ready 2 Yield^TM trait.  Yesterday Travis Slusher and I looked at a field in Dallas County where we saw significantly more pods per plant on the Latham RR2Y beans than on the Pioneer beans that we’re competing against.

Here’s an example of how more beans per pod equates to a lot more beans in the bin come harvest:

Latham L 3184 R2 v. Pioneer 93M11

……………………………………….  L 3184 R2                              93M11

Pods per plant                          34                                           28

2-bean pods                               6                                            12

3-bean pods                              28                                           16

Total beans per plant              96                                           72

The Latham Advantage is 24 beans /plant = 3,504,000 seeds per acre more

Both are have an estimated final stand of 142,000 plants.

This spot will run on WHO Radio starting Feb. 9. Roundup Ready 2 Yield is showing great results in field trials. We’re pumped about it!

There’s been much concern and speculation about the potential seed quality from the 2008 soybean crop. The delayed planting and cold wet conditions during and immediately following planting had many people convinced that most fields would not be able to make even the minimum standards required for seed conditioning. I’m happy to report that these concerns seem to be unfounded! We’ve been blessed with an excellent seed crop.

We don’t have all the germination reports back yet from our composite bin samples, but what reports we do have are all testing in the upper 90s. Most germination reports range from 97 to 99 percent! Reports on conditioned lots including L2085R, L2158R and L2348R are all running in that same range.

Seed size does not appear to be as big of concern as was initially feared. While some varieties may have slightly smaller seed size, others are similar to last year. The overall net effect will be minimal, perhaps just a bit smaller on average as compared to the 2007 crop.

In general, the 2008 seed crop looks to be an excellent one. Despite the challenging growing conditions, we were pleasantly surprised with the yields we received and are grateful for the terrific quality. Latham customers can once again head into the new season knowing that they have superior quality in their seed purchases from Latham Companies.