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Welcome to the No-Till Farmer Podcast. I'm Mackane Vogel, Associate Editor of No-Till Farmer. While soybean yields can be stubbornly stagnant for some farmers, but Bryan Severs has found a way to break through the yield barrier. The Potomac, Illinois grower, who no-tills non-GMO soybeans and strip-tills corn across 5,000 acres, shares his program for raising high yielding soybeans as his farm shoots for 75 bushels an acre in every field, every year. His recipe includes early planting and the right mix of products. And in this episode, he discloses his biggest eye-openers from high yield plots that in turn influence how he manages his entire farm.

Between our families, we're about 5,600 acres, half corn and half soybeans approximately. We no-till all the beans, and strip-till corn. So is that technically no-till? What's your guys' opinion to that? You're still leaving the residue out there, but you are making a nice tillage pass that you can plan in, in my opinion. But I like that. We'll talk about that a little bit more. Vermont County is where I'm from. It's East Central Illinois. No-till, it took a long time to get going. So I would call myself a first generation no-tiller. My dad did not. I'd come home from basketball practice, get into 44, 30, plow. Until I couldn't take no more. My grandpa was the same way. My dad, that's what my dad did, made it black. That's what he wanted to do. So when I started no-tilling, he starts laughing. He's like, "You're lazy." I'm like, "No, dad, not lazy. Trying to take care of the soil and do the right things for the soil."

"Yeah, well, it's never going to work." Well, we proved to him that it's worked over the years. So we do have two planters, and I'm very fortunate to be able to have two planters because we start both basically at the same time. Usually my son who runs the bean planter, Nicholas, he starts before I do, generally. We try to start as soon as Mother Nature says it's okay to start. Sometimes that's the end of March. Sometimes that's the 1st of April, sometimes that's the end of April. Sometimes that's the 1st of May. You never know. You just be ready. Whenever she says the start, you start. That's the key, and you've all heard everybody talk about that when it comes to high yielding soybeans, is early planning. And we got some other things too.

We have a cloth combine, and we do own our own sprayer. If you no-till, you understand the fact that owning your own sprayer is pretty much a necessity. So it's hard to get the co-op to come along and do it exactly when you want it. So planting populations. We've always been around 140. My dad was at 200,000. I never understood that, but didn't want to argue with that. But we'd shoot for 140. Sometimes end up at 120, sometimes have ended up at 80, depending on the varieties that bush, that works well for us. Early planting is the definite. One thing we tried this year, we do soil tests, and I think we'll talk about that later. Do soil tests every two years, and we spread our fertilizer by those recommendations by using, we're using the soil maps. We use the soil test results for NP&K.

We use our yield maps. So we use all those in combined to plant beans. Now, like a bean field this year, let's say it's an 80 acre field, we would have planted 140. So we took that as what we'd totally use on that farm, but then moved it to where it needed to be moved. So we planted it thicker where it's pour ground, and less population where it had the best chance to do it. And that worked real well for us this year. So we might, we're still talking about it, do that across the whole farm. And we did it on corn too, and it showed a positive. So that's pretty important. We use some humic acids, and we try to put our fertilizer on as soon as we get done combining, give it a chance to get in the ground. That's one thing I learned from being in the fertilizer plant.

The guy always wanted his fertilizer put on right before he planted. I'm like, "Let's give it a chance to break down so you can use it in your soil." So I am just starting covers. There's a program that ISA or Illinois Soybean Association has started. And so we've started. We got an 80 acres that we split in half, 40 and 40, and doing it every year. We use barley in front of corn, and then striped it, and then terminate the barley. And then we use rye in front of the beans. So at this point in time, the data, this will be going into the fourth year of it. And we have a little fun. The lady who's in charge of soybean production at ISA, we have a little bet that whoever wins gets a case of Busch Light, which I'm okay with. But she has lost every year with her covers, according to what I do on the other side.

So I don't know. Maybe you all can tell me how covers work to make you more money. I know what it does for soil health, and I'm 110% behind that. I know what it does for the environment, so I'm 110% behind that. But in the end, I got to make money, and that's not counting for the cost of the seed, that's not counting for the cost of putting it out there. I know it's the right thing to do, but we all run businesses too. So I think your business wants to make money, right? Now, I understand the covers on ground that we own, covers on cash rent stuff. Some of the stuff we do cash rent with a year-to-year lease, I have a hard time doing that. And you got a landlord and some of... I got some great landlords, but I got some that only care about their money that they get January 1st.

They don't care about the soil, they don't care about anything. They don't care what you do. And there's got to be a way we can try to convince them that this is the thing to do, is do covers. But it's not. It's going to be hard to do, very hard to do. But then like I said, you all got good landlords and you got landlords that just care about their check on January one. So one was yelling at me because it snowed and I couldn't get there on the 2nd. So I'm like, "What do you want me to do? Mail it to you?" But that's just part of life, part of running our business. So this is something I tried new this year. So I've always used starter on my corn planter. I'm a big starter guy. My grandpa was a [inaudible 00:07:10] guy.

My dad was. I used some different stuff, different combinations of things. So you end up with a three gallon mixture, which is easier than a 10 gallons or 12 gallons. So we put it on the bean planter, just to see what we could do. So we tried a product called, and I guess I should have prefaced this, but I'm not sponsored by anybody guys. I'm just a farmer like you all. So I do, we'll show some products here later that are Helena products, but that's who I buy from. And once I get acquainted with somebody and they're in my circle, we call it circle of severs, then you got to do something really bad to be kicked out. So like I said, not sponsored by anybody at all. So this product's called [inaudible 00:08:02]. I put it on at two gallons the acre. It goes through a [inaudible 00:08:06], so it goes right directly on the seed and it's wide out.

So the analysis on it is 620-3. It's a Helena product, and it does have sulfur in it also. It has 2% sulfur. So my opinion of the micros, sulfurs, zincs, need them, use them, use them. That's what's going to get you the extra, because sulfur especially, we've been using that in our corn fertilizer for years now. Think about when the government took away our sulfur diesel and the coal-fired power plants in our area. I had a farm that was not near as good. It was right next to a power plant, but that son of a bitch could kick out some corn, every year. Well, it had to be from the sulfur. So we've been adding sulfur for a long time in corn. I'm trying it now in soybeans. Also, we add a product called Receptor, which is a Helena product also, and it enhances root growth that's in the starter, and a product called KickStand.

It is a root... It has more zinc in it than anything for the roots. So there's where I'm getting my zinc. The sulfur's coming through the starter. I want to put it on after I plant. I want to put on approximately two to three gallons of it. So go out there and plant, and then take the sprayer and just spray that straight on top of the ground. Give it a chance to work in. So that's something that we're talking about maybe doing next year, probably will do. So trying to learn from that. Seed treatments. That's the reason why you can plant on April 1st, in my opinion, is seed treatments. Now, I don't know a lot about the individual ones. I listed the ones that we use. That's because my seed dealer put him in charge of that. That's talking about the circle of severs.

He's in it. I trust him. Because you need to surround yourself with people who you trust and who know things and who can teach you things, because you can't learn all these things yourself, I don't think. So you find people to help you with. So if you want to ask questions about that, I'm probably not good at answering them. But those are the list of the ones we use. But like I said, you want to use something too so you can plant early that's going to protect that seed when it's not 50 degrees, because you know what happens when you put a bean out and it's not 50 degrees, you're just going to lay there and rock it. So you got to protect it somehow. Get it to when it's warmer, so you can plant earlier. The earlier plant, the bushier of the plants, the more sunlight that the plant gets, that's what makes yield.

That's what put pods on. Then we're going to talk about how you try to keep the pods on, because that's the important part too.

We'll come back to the episode in a moment, but first, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Yetter Farm Equipment, for supporting today's podcast. Looking for innovative solutions to maximize your farm's productivity? Look no further than Yetter Farm Equipment. They're dedicated to providing farmers with the highest quality equipment. From row cleaners and closing wheels, to fertilizer equipment, strip-till units, and stalk devastators, Yetter has the tools you need to optimize your farming operation. Visit yetterco.com to learn more and find a dealer near you. And now let's get back to the episode.

What did your [inaudible 00:11:46] guys tell you about the seed treatments and root [inaudible 00:11:46]? I was going to [inaudible 00:11:46] the plant beans early too, and I asked my seed guy, both of my seed guys that I was buying seed from said, if I bought the full package of protection, they'd basically give me the bean seed to put it back there on the second time. Not that I wanted [inaudible 00:12:06] second time, but if someone else has covered the seed cost on it, why? I was [inaudible 00:12:14].

That's a bingo on that. I agree, 110% on that. Yes. Yes. Because they do back it. They want you to use it. Yes, it's expensive, but to get across the acres without a high speed planter, like I said, Mother Nature is my key. It's not temperature. It's not anything. If I can go out there and not make mud balls, I will plant. Well, no matter what date it is. I really want to try some the 1st of March. Just maybe a small amount, just to get everybody excited. But sometimes I do things I shouldn't, and people watch that. But you always got to try. And that's what I want to get at. It doesn't hurt to try. Go out there and try 20 acres. Go out and try 40 acres. If the day goes... When you always start with your bean planter, always figure basically you're going to get nothing done that first day, but maybe you get lucky and you end up with 120 acres done because everything worked right, because you're being prepared.

And being prepared is a major thing on your bean planner. Spend time. Spend time on it. Spend time in the shop with it. Go through it all. Adjust those disc blades. Make sure everything's right. Make sure that press wheel is straight, because they are not. They need adjusted. So make sure you do all the little things. The little things is what gets you to the next level.

And I'm lucky I got boys that'll help me do it, but you all got people to help you too. So weeds, that's a problem we all have, right? It's a problem that's we're fighting all the time, especially in non-GMO weeds. So before planting, we use, and this is, try to be a day or two in front of the planter. So we own our own sprayer, which helps. Get you a pull type sprayer, that works too. Being a no-tiller, I think having your own sprayer helps. It really does, because it's just hard to get the co-ops trying to sell to a bunch of people, and they all want it at the same time. So we use Zidua PRO, and a Reviton, which is kind of like a Roundup of type, Metribuzin, and Fire-Zone. So this year we tried a product called Boundary. So I guess when we made this slide, we're trying to put it with the first 100 bushel beans that we use.

So we took the Reviton out of it and used a product called Boundary, which is Metribuzin and dual. So what I'll preach to you guys, and this is what I learned when I ran a fertilizer plant for 10 years, which was the best thing my dad ever did to me was make me go do that instead of farm, was residual, residual, residual, residual, residual, residual. As many of them as you can get out there, use them. So we've got too much in a world of contact killer. And Roundup, [inaudible 00:15:20]. Use some residuals, get them out there first and layer them on there.

So the Zidua PRO, which has a sharpening pursuit in it. And the Boundary's got Dual in it. So there's three different residuals out there. So what we try to do is 21 days after, but this doesn't work when you're planting early. So what I learned when I was in the fertilizer management role is that you need to go back to what we did back in the day, especially with non-GMO beans, is you need to do it 21 days. So you don't go out there and start finding weeds like this. You want to kill weeds when you can barely see them. So if you do them after 21 days after it comes up, then you're going to get this stuff to work. So Helena Sinister is a dinonyl phenol like Flexstar. So understand we're planting non-GMO beans here. TapOut is a clethodim. It's their branded clethodim.

Then we got Outlook from BASF, and now we're moving into some of the stuff that we add for foliars, Megafol. I call it a feel good drug. It just seems to make that bean hold pod, or not hold pods, but the growth, just makes it keep going. Now, it's a 3-0-8, and it has some plant residue mixed in it too. So it's definitely a "fertilizer/biological". And then there's surfactants. Now, if you spray your own, you can use dry AMS. The co-op will not let you use the dry AMS because they don't want to mix it, but dry AMS is important to use. It's cheap and it makes your chemicals work that much better, penetrate the leaves of the weeds. Okay. So then round two would be priaxor, propiconazole, which is Tilt. [inaudible 00:17:32] was an insecticide. I've always found that putting an insecticide with your fungicide, there's just some weird chemistry that always makes it work.

If you leave the insecticide out, that fungicide won't work as well. So that's little thing that we do. And then we also put on a product called Coron, which is a Helena product, which is a 10-0-10, and has some boron in it also. So then the high yielding stuff will come back with some Bio-Forge, which is full air fertilizer, and another gallon or two of 10-0-10. So I guess when it comes to ROI, most of the acres get this taken away. This is the play acres that we're trying to get. The high yield is adding that on there and some other things, that other products we keep trying. There's a lot of them. I would say, take a farm, take a 40, take a 20, and play if you can, just to see what works for you, because what works for me won't work for you, and what works for you won't work for me.

I think there's always something out there you can try. So my theory is to keep my non-GMO soybean fields clean, is to keep my corn fields clean. And residual, residual, residual, residual. Guys, Roundup is not a residual.

Liberty, all this stuff that everybody wants to use because it's cheap to save a dollar is not residual. So we always put out a Bicep, some extra atrazine along the lines to a point that the EPA is okay with. Always put out residuals when you can, because that just helps your beans the next year be clean too. And we do spray the corn three times too. Didn't put that down since we're not supposed to be talking about corn. So we'll put a pre-out residual, then come back with a post. We use Callisto and we use Roundup too since we got Roundup corn. And always use AMS. And then we come back with a fungicide the third time. Our sprayer has the ability to spray tasseled corn. So we put on the fungicides, we put the insecticide with it, just like I said in the beans. Insecticide with the fungicide has a synergy that just works.

Throw that extra $3 of insecticide in there, and it just has to be cheap stuff, it doesn't need to be branded. And then also use a 25-0-0 at a gallon per acre when we do the corn. I hope you learned something, and I hope I learned something from you guys, that was my goal too. Just one thing I'll leave you with, kind of another funny thing. If your dreams don't scare you, then you're not trying hard enough or you're not dreaming big enough. So if your dreams don't scare you, you're not trying hard enough. I'll leave you with that. But something my grandpa said. Thanks for your time.

That's all for this episode of the No-Till Farmer Podcast. Thanks to Bryan Severs for that great episode. You can find our archive of previous podcast episodes at notillfarmer.com/podcasts. Until next time, keep on no-tilling, and have a great day.