Research with Michigan farmers is finding early planted soybeans can be worth the risk.

Michigan State University Extension soybean educator Mike Staton tells Brownfield on-farm trials have studied optimum planting windows for the past five years.

“We only had three sites out of all 25 that had statistically significant yield losses,” he says. “When you average all the sites together, we gained 1.5 bushels per acre by planting early.”

He says results are consistent with previous research at MSU which finds the last week of April and first two weeks of May are the best time to plant soybeans in the state.

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