Field strategies for soybean production are often considered over the span of a few months, from just before the season begins to just past harvest. Is that the best way to approach in-field management, though?

Let’s start answering that question with this important point: Raising soybeans is a way of life, but it is also a business.

Growers are entrepreneurs and business owners and the goal of a well-run business is never just to survive for today. The “win” in a well-run business is the victory of staying in business indefinitely and doing so with increasing efficiency, even when the battle legitimately feels “year to year.”

That means something profound when it comes to any row-crop management system, and thus, it applies perfectly to soybean production.

Successful soybean production is a year-round and year-across-year endeavor. Said another way, soybean production is not a finite contest. Instead, soybean growers are engaged in a never-ending contest, a chess game in which thinking ahead makes all the difference.

Our 2026 Soybean Summit keynote titled “Soybean Management – The Never-Ending Contest” will approach in-season management from this perspective.

The session will break down soybean management into three strategic categories, providing examples of agronomic management in each category.

Those strategic categories include Pre-Plant/Post-Harvest Considerations, In-Season Considerations and Harvest-Time Considerations. Each category represents moves that have immediate and long-term benefit. Additionally, these categories provide a template for growers to better strategize their own never-ending soybean contest. Let’s provide one example for each of those categories.

Pre-Plant/Post-Harvest Considerations: Even when times are tight, maintain the discipline of doing something when it comes to annual soil fertility. If pH requires correction, start there. If pH is OK, look at P and K, replacing what you have taken off. Do not fall into the trap of “mining it all.” You are in a long-term fertility battle.

In-Season Considerations: When engaging in weed management, ask yourself if your efforts will deplete the weed seed bank or if your efforts will result in a net-zero change or, worse yet, a net increase. The advent of metabolic resistance necessarily means making a long-term dent in that weed seed bank. This season’s management stretches across future seasons.

Harvest-Time Considerations: So long as conditions allow, be hammer-down on soybean harvest and pay attention to soybean moisture. If you see dramatic drops in soybean moisture on your own farm, be conscious to watch soybean seed quality going into the next spring. Harvest conditions directly influence planting quality. These categories can help you consider in-field management from a multi-year perspective, and that perspective is critical to survival. However, this template is not enough on its own.

A multiyear mindset requires more than facts, figures and arguments. It requires a mental shift that cannot be accomplished through any one session or presentation. It requires that soybean production feel different, down in the gut, for the individual grower.

So what can a grower do to make it easier to think long-term? The answer is simple but significant.

Do things that force your mind to think long-term. That can mean grand endeavors, but it can also mean simple, but equally profound, endeavors.

On the grand side, consider engaging in activities that benefit soybean production or your own operation directly. Engage in estate planning or lobby for multiyear rental agreements. See what can be done to lock in long-term input pricing, where the dollars make sense. Consider becoming involved with commodity groups or local Farm Bureaus. All such “grand endeavors” force you to think about your operation long-term, even when prices cause walls to draw close.

On the simple yet equally profound side, make a commitment to do the often-unseen things. Get involved with your local church or a community group. Consider finding a young ag enthusiast and take them under your wing. Mentor others. We do these things, first and foremost, because they are good things to do. Here is the side benefit, though: These activities force you to think about the future. These little, unseen things will make you see your own operation less “year by year” and more “multiyear.”

Engaging in those grand and simple things becomes even more important when times are tight and when stressors tempt us to pull away.

Use a version of the long-term management template we’ll present during our session. Do the difficult internal work, the work that forces you to think long-term (when every business metric tempts you to do otherwise). That’s a must for today’s soybean producer.

After all, we are in the never-ending soybean contest.