The theme this harvest season has been solid yields for earlier planted corn and soybeans while later planted crops have taken a bit of a hit, especially soybeans. Pioneer agronomist Jason Geis says that’s true of his territory in Southeast Indiana as well.

“The yields have been very, very good on both corn and soybeans. Certainly, late last week, we started to dive into more of the later May crop and I would say that I’ve heard that yields are starting to maybe dip off a little bit from that early planting window, but growers are still very pleased. But yeah, certainly beans, we just didn’t have much rain at all there in August, we did not have the moisture to fill those pods out like we would have hoped. So, the later planted beans are maybe dipping off a little bit more. And then as we get into fuller maturity, beans, like the group 4s, they’re starting to dip off a little bit more than some of the mid group 3s.”

While we’re still in the thick of this year’s harvest, Geis knows you’re already thinking about next year. He encourages you to reflect on your weed control program. Were you happy with it or do you need to make some adjustments, like introducing different modes of action to battle waterhemp?

He also encourages you to think about your P and K.

“I hear from growers, ‘Boy, I did not expect these yields. This is way more than what I expected.’ Are we matching our fertility program to replace those nutrients? If we go two to three years where I feel like growers have had above expectations on yield, are we replacing the P and K that we’ve been taking out of those fields with these bigger yields than what we expected?”

Hear the full HAT interview with Geis below. You can get in touch with your Pioneer representative to start putting a plan together for next year by visiting pioneer.com/findmyrep.