Developing Phenological Prediction Tables for Soybean

• Published in: Crop management Vol. 2004
• Main Authors: Zhang, L, Zhang, J, Watson, C.E, Kyei-Boahen, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Plant Management Network 2004
• Subjects: crop models; developmental stages; Glycine max; irrigated farming; maturity groups; phenology; plant development; plant growth; prediction; regression analysis; soybeans; Mississippi
• ISSN: 1543-7833; 1543-7833

Accurate prediction of soybean growth and development stages is important for soybean farmers and researchers to effectively manage production practices. The objective of this study was to develop accurate time-tables to predict soybean growth and development stages under field conditions. Data from experiments conducted under irrigated conditions at Stoneville, MS from 1998 to 2002 were used. The period of prediction covered the entire growing season from early March to late October, and maturity group (MG) ranged from early III to late V. Tables were constructed based on regression analysis using iterative approximation. Cross validation was performed using randomly selected subsets of the 2002 data set. Accuracies of prediction were similar to model fitting errors. Overall, the error of prediction ranged from 0 to 8 days. It was concluded that soybean phenological stages could be adequately predicted using regression approaches and tables and methodology of table construction can be used by other researchers to build models and tables for their particular situations.