Soybean seed treatment products are widely utilized by many farmers in southeastern South Dakota and the surrounding area. These products often consist of an insecticide/fungicide combination, and/or inoculant that is mixed and placed on the seed as a pre-treatment before the grower plants the crop. Many insecticide/fungicide combination seed treatment products are marketed and developed to protect seeds and seedling plants from insects and plant diseases that may damage the seed or suppress/kill the seedling. In addition, inoculant is designed to enhance soybean performance using rhizobia by adding beneficial bacteria to the soil. The effects of inoculant are often most prevalent in soybean crops that have not had soybean in the rotation for several years.
Although these products have become commonplace, understanding the positive effects of soybean seed treatments and inoculant is not commonly measured. Therefore, a study was developed near Baltic, SD to measure soybean stand and yield performance where various seed treatments were placed in an on-farm trial in a randomized complete block design.
