There are many, many factors that could cause either of these statements to be true: year-to-year weather variation, yield potential differences in and between fields, planting date differences, etc. (first published March 2019, last reviewed March 2024)

This publication explains the relationship between Leaf Area Index and soybean yield potential.

Remove the soybean plant at ground level to make it easier to stage. Examine each main stem node one at a time to determine the development stage. Focus on the top four nodes that contain fully developed leaves (shown below). A fully developed leaf is one that is located immediately below a node containing a leaf with unrolled or unfolded leaflets (leaflet edges are no longer touching). The soybean crop is considered to be at a particular stage when 50% of the plants reach that stage. Listed with stage description for R1 through R6 are the approximate number of days to R7, or physiological maturity, for full season (FS) soybean planted in May and double crop (DC) soybean planted in June/July.

Over past decades, there has been a steep emergence in the use of larger and heavier agricultural machinery including for tillage, planting, spraying, and harvesting. Although this is done to achieve higher productivity and efficiency, the unregulated traffic in the crop fields raise wheel loads to result in heavy soil compaction risks. Soil compaction is one of the major reasons for soil health degradation impacting physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil and eventually the crop productivity. We present the impact of soil compaction on crop yield and assess Controlled traffic farming (CTF) as a possible solution. Study results show that the soil compaction was higher for the track zone compared to the no-track zone for both the corn and soybean growing fields. Importantly, this impact was prominent in the root zone depth i.e., till and beyond the hard pan. In some cases, the compaction varied so prominently that it led to the formation of two hard pans. Evaluations for the CTF also showed a trend that the field treatments with no cover crop experienced the highest soil compactions whereas the treatments with cover crop experienced the least compaction in most cases. It was also evident that soil compaction led to reduced crop health which likely also impacts the crop yield.

The mature and dried stem, leaves, and chaff remaining after barley and wheat are harvested is known as straw. Many farmers around Virginia harvest straw by baling in small bales, large round bales, or large square bales that range in weight from 40 to 1,000 lbs. plus per bale.

Humans and livestock require a broad range of nutrients to maintain a healthy diet. However, the lack of diversity in diets due to price, geography, and availability makes it difficult to create a well-rounded food supply from staple crops. Biofortification is the process of improving the nutritional quality of food and feed through management practices, plant breeding, and genetic modification. The history, types, and implications of biofortification are discussed with an emphasis on producer, livestock, and human health considerations.

The purpose of this publication is to provide performance data of the many soybean varieties offered for sale in Virginia. These data should be of benefit to producers and agribusinesses in making selections of varieties for their use. It is realized that not all varieties that are offered for sale in Virginia are included in these tests. There is no implication that varieties not included are inferior in any way, but only that they have not been tested.