Last week took me on a trip to northern Minnesota soybean fields with problems in need of a diagnosis. In a field of otherwise phenomenal looking soybeans, there was a very large patch of soybeans that were visibly paler, shorter and thinner (nowhere near closing rows) from the road. First things first. Upon entering the field, I made a beeline for the dividing line between the gorgeous, healthy soybeans and the sickly soybeans. It is this area of a field of plants that can provide the quickest clues as to the cause of the problem. I gently dug up the plants to inspect the roots, as pulling plants from even moist ground may help to obscure the cause of the problem. There was evidence of the plant encountering a compacted layer of soil. This could be easily observed by all of the taproots taking a sharp turn to the right or left and not growing straight down. However, the taproots prevailed, breaking through the compacted layer of soil to again grow downward ( Figure 1 ). Figur...
