Tom J. Bechman
ROLL THE HOOP: Jim Facemire, Edinburgh, Ind., counts plants within the hula hoop after rolling it in a random spot within the field. Once you determine stands, figure out if enough plants are present.
How do you determine if you have enough soybean plants to leave the stand? Shaun Casteel, Purdue University Extension soybean specialist, is working on a way to make that decision based on a drone flight. Until he does, your best option is field scouting, using a hula-hoop rolled at random in several places within a field to determine average stand count.
Casteel says the key is to take those stand counts early, when soybeans are no bigger than the VC stage, with a pair of unifoliate leaves extended over the cotyledons.