Grain farmers are looking at ways to cut input costs going into another year of tight margins. Some have already made the switch to more soybeans which cost less to raise per acre verses corn. However, Curt Hoffbeck, Pioneer Field Agronomist for southwest Minnesota, says he also getting questions about cutting soybean seed treatments, which he doesn’t recommend because of the good return on investment.

He says one way farmers can cut costs is through variable rate seeding.

However, Hoffbeck says even if farmers aren’t doing precision planting they can still cut seed costs by managing seeding rates according to each field and by hybrid.

Hoffbeck says farmers need to look at each input for each crop and consider the possible yield loss if they make cuts.