Soybean School: 15" versus 30" rows - the great debate

Should growers plant soybeans in narrower 15-inch rows or should they go wide and plant at 30 inches?
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soybean specialist Horst Bohner has been listening to the debate for years, and rather than taking sides, he likes to focus on the fact that growers can choose an option that's best for their farm.
On this episode the RealAgriculture Soybean School, Bohner notes that Ontario row-width research conducted over the years does show narrow rows typically outyield wide rows by about four bushels per acre. But research also indicates that the yield gap closes when growers "do things right" when managing 30-inch rows. That includes feeding the crop, choosing the right variety, planting early and selecting good soil types and yield environments.
Bohner admits growers will have to invest in feeding the crop to eliminate the yield gap but they also need to consider the benefits of wide rows in areas of high white mould pressure.
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[@LtColDaddy71]

I eventually settled in to 20” across the board. For me, on my farm, with organic being a factor, it’s what has worked best. I do grow some twin 60” corn to boost fall cow chow to graze, but I limit that to keep the weed seed pressure down. Cows actually like weeds, but I don’t, and neither do my neighbors.
All the dry edible beans are 22” it seems, but aside from having to build your knifing tool bars up yourself, 20” works just as well. Any legume planted on 15” spacing will produce a very weed free stand, but the mold pressure jumps way up. 30” is very much free of those issues, but weeds are a problem, and on the organic side, I run in to a problem with the plants losing steam by trying to bush out so much, instead of fill the pods it’s already started.
Their is no out of the box system. We’re spread out over 4 counties, we have one area where the weed pressure is so high, we have to go in with a group 0 bean and 10” row spacing. Get it to harvest quick and get it out before it molds. That took a lot of trial and error. We have row mows, and weed zappers set up for 20”, but it took so many passes to keep the weeds down, we found that not letting them get any light once the rye thatch breaks down is the best option. But a turtle will lap the combine at harvest. I’ve literally seen birds walking faster than the combine. The population we use in that one scenario is sky high for us, but demand for the beans is really high. It’s worth the trouble even for the humble yields.
If I were a conventional operation, I would still do 20” beans. It’s not settling, it’s the best of everything. Mold pressure goes way down, lots of tillering, but not too much, I’d still no till in to standing rye and roller crimp. Follow that up with a wheat crop that you can put in a nice cover crop behind, do a shallow till, like with a salford plow, and then a good corn crop. After a few cycles through the rotation, all the yields will be in the top 20% in your area. You’ll only need 50 units of N on the wheat, and 100 on the corn.

[@mcleanfarms2639]

For the 4 bushel difference between 30" beans vs 7" not trampling while spraying would bring the bushels per acre pretty close

[@TheDD5623]

Along with the saving on seed by lowering population when planting.

[@Mrpaul490]

Why the different seeding rates when trying to compare row width? It's one more variable at play that could affect conclusive results.

[@RealAgricultureMedia]

Horst Bohner replies: "Thank you for the quesiton. I have now done close to 100 replicated population trials over 20 years. Using a different seeding rate is absolutely the right methodology when comparing different row widths. It actually gets you more accurate results because too many plants in a single row of 30’s causes other problems. Trust me on this one. It’s the only way to get accurate results."