By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent

SCARBORO, Ill. — Roundup Ready varieties earned the top five spots in a soybean seed test in northern Illinois, conducted by Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) on the Lee County farm of Rick Kettley.

The top hybrid was Jung 1275RR2, with an average yield of 78.6 bushels per acre. The moisture content for this variety was 10.3 percent, and the estimated gross income per acre was $786.
A close second was Diener 2621CR2 at 78.3 bushels per acre. The moisture content was 10.1 percent, with an estimated gross income per ace of $783.

The next three varieties – Beck XL 242NR, Diener 2812CR2 and FS Seeds HS24A01 – boasted yields of 75.9, 75.3 and 75, respectively. Estimated gross incomes per acre, correspondingly, were $759, $753 and $750.

The test average for the plot was 66.9 bushels per acre, with 26 of the 54 tested varieties producing higher numbers. Average moisture content for the entire test plot was 10.3 percent, and average estimated income was $668.60 per acre.

Kettley’s farm has Grundelein/Waupecan silt loam soil, is non-irrigated and is well drained. He uses minimum tillage practices with no-till in the fall. Pest management applied were Outlook, Optill, Canopy, FirstRate, Cobra, Arrow, Contans, Topsin and Headline.
The beans planted in this test plot followed “Cyst Tech” soybeans, with Treflan and Canopy applied previously. Manager Jason Beyers planted at a rate of 170,000 seeds per acre on May 19, and harvested 143,000 per acre on Sept. 30.

“Plants were all standing perfectly with heights ranging from 25 to 44 inches tall. There was some SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome) present in the plot,” Beyers said.

He said seed size was medium to large, depending on the variety, and almost all the pods had at least three seeds per pod.

For a complete list of all brands tested and a searchable database of information, visit www.firstseedtests.com