By John Pirrung, SWNYDLFC Technician 

Poor soybean emergence is one of the more frustrating situations a grower can face in early summer, and it raises an immediate question: do I replant, or do I make the best of what I've got? The answer is rarely straightforward, but understanding a few key decision-making factors can help you make a more confident and financially-sound decision. 

HOW MANY PLANTS DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED? 

The most important thing to identify first is your plant population. Research from 2025 shows that a healthy stand of about 70,000 to 75,000 plants per acre can still achieve about 95% of the yield potential of a full stand at 100,000 plants per acre. This is to say, if you've lost about 25% of your plants, but conditions are otherwise favorable going forward, you can likely still reach a yield within 5% of what you'd get if you didn't experience any stand loss. In some cases, growers have lost almost 50% of plants and still produced within 95% of maximum yield, though this requires absolutely ideal conditions. If your stand is below 70,000 plants per acre, *and* you're facing additional unfavorable conditions, then you might want to start considering a replant.

Also, consider how the stand loss is distributed. If the losses are spread out evenly and uniformly across the whole field, then it has a better chance of bouncing back. If you're seeing inconsistent patches, with spots of 6-10 square feet or greater with no plants at all, then consider trying to replant those areas specifically. 

While a thinner stand has the potential to still reach high yields, be aware that it might also become more susceptible to different management risks, especially pests. Although soybean plants can compensate for low plant population, they may not be able to completely fill in gaps if plants are spaced more than a foot from their neighbors. In this case, weed pressure will almost certainly increase, as a delayed or incomplete canopy closure means more sunlight reaching the soil and more weed competition throughout the season. If you move forward with a thin stand, you might want to budget for additional scouting and potentially another herbicide pass, in order to prevent yield reduction. 

HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT TO MAKE A DECISION? 

Unless your field has experienced a complete washout or some other event that truly wiped everything out, it's best to wait 7-10 days before making any replant decisions. This wait gives more time to ensure that any seeds that can emerge, will emerge, and to see which growing points were were able to recover, allowing you to get a more accurate stand count. With that being said, if you've already planted late, then waiting another 10 days could start to risk future yield loss towards the end of the season. If your first planting is in early-to-mid-June and losses make you consider a replant, then you'll have to weight the risks of losing even more from an even later planting date (June 15th should be considered a cutoff point where maturity can be threatened by an early frost). Generally, the earlier you've planted, the more time you're afforded to wait and get an accurate stand count before making a replant decision. 

DO I NEED A FULL REPLANT, OR JUST SOME REPAIR PLANTING? 

Not every replant scenario is all-or-nothing. You might be better off doing only a partial replanting: 

• Repair Planting (fill-in/spot planting): You plant right into the existing stand, either throughout the whole field but at a reduced seeding rate, or at a full rate but only in specific areas. If done within the right window of time, most existing plants can survive while the new plants fill in the rows. These new plants will likely take longer to mature, which may push back harvest time a little bit, but otherwise they should fit in fine. 

• Full Replant: You terminate whatever remains of the existing crop and the field is started over entirely. This is going to be the best option when stand counts are extremely low (<50,000 plants per acre) and will probably be the best course of action after significant flooding events. 

Remember, it might be worth to use both strategies if your fields have uneven damage. If you have a field where one half was completely washed out and the other half was just thinned a bit, you can always do a full replant on the first half and then a very low-rate fill-in planting on the other half. Also, if your damage is uneven but also very localized, be aware of the limitations of your machinery, and plan your passes accordingly, so you don't end up adding seeds to parts of the field that don't need it. 

ONE MORE NOTE: 

If you do end up replanting a field, in part or in whole, consider leaving behind a few untouched rows to leave as comparisons. At harvest time, you can see how these rows compare to the rest of the field. Check how yield and pest pressures differed and record that information so you can use it to inform any future replant decisions. 

Replanting is expensive, time-consuming, and not always necessary. In the end, your goal is to grow a profitable, successful crop. While picture-perfect fields are ideal, use numbers and the calendar to guide your replant decisions, not aesthetics. 

This article is largely based on the following research paper from March 2025: https://acsess.onlinelibrary.w...