Maximize Yield by Carefully Selecting Soybean Maturity Groups

When you choose your soybean maturity groups (MG), you’re making a critical decision. Longer MG varieties usually yield more than shorter MG varieties, but spreading your risks with a number of maturity groups can help with pest and disease risk and harvest logistics. There are significant limitations with MG selection, as due to average planting date, and latitude, optimal maturity groups can really only be selected within a range of 1.5 to 2.0 MG for a particular area. By thinking strategically and planning holistically, you can select diverse yet complementary soybean maturity groups tailored to local conditions and optimized for profitability within that range.

Here are some of the most important factors to think about when considering soybean maturity groups and the criteria for choosing the right MG at the lower or higher end of that 1.5 to 2.0 MG range for any one geography.

Mitigate weather damage through strategic soybean maturity groups selection

Keeping in mind the narrow range MG you can use, limited by the average first frost date and planting date to get a certain MG to maturity, you can pick soybean varieties to reduce the risk of frost damage. Take caution when selecting late-maturing varieties, as an early frost can create seed-quality issues.
Meanwhile, early-maturing varieties can help you avoid late-season drought and heat stress, if those challenges are common where you farm.

Limit insect pressure by focusing on soybean maturity days

To keep insects at bay, consider using some early-maturing soybean maturity groups within your locally adapted range. For example, in some regions, corn earworm moths arrive in large volumes in July and cause maximum damage from R1 to R5 growth stages.¹ Your goal is to avoid the effects of that kind of invasion. Although soybean flowering is triggered by photo-period, earlier MG soybeans flower earlier and begin pod development sooner than later maturity varieties, so they can gain a foothold and avoid peak periods for later season insects such as the corn earworm moths and other pests such as caterpillars, soybean looper and stink bugs.

If planting late-maturing varieties, recognize the fact that insects might feed on your plants at an increased level. You can manage this with appropriate insect-control strategies such as crop rotation, tillage, attention to soil fertility and pH, row spacing and insecticide treatments.²

Curb disease susceptibility by leveraging soybean maturity differences

Including late-maturing soybean maturity groups in your fields can help with disease management. That’s because these groups often have better opportunities to express genetic resistance to specific disease threats in your region. MG 4 (or greater) soybeans are also able to handle nematodes more effectively compared to earlier-maturing varieties.³

Keep in mind that many of these factors intersect. For example, if you’re leaning on early-maturing varieties and weed pressure intensifies as the growing season progresses, disease risk will grow and vice versa. Whichever maturity groups you choose, always look to incorporate herbicide-tolerant traits.

Improve yield potential and harvest timing flexibility with different soybean maturity groups

You can expect the highest yield from a soybean maturity group that is within about 0.5 maturity groups of the top-yielding maturity rating for your region.
Choose multiple varieties staggered across close maturity groups to spread out your harvest workload. This has the added bonus of mitigating the risk of yield loss from bad weather or insect pests. For each whole number MG,; ie MG 2.0 vs MG 3.0, there is about 10 days difference in maturity.
Note that later-maturing soybean varieties tend to produce slightly higher yields because they have a longer vegetative growth period. This leads to more nodes and pod sites. Select varieties appropriate to your region and environmental conditions.

Take advantage of new tools that can inform your decisions on which soybean maturity groups to select. Variety Selector Tool from BASF enables you to select your crop, desired herbicide traits and preferred maturity for a custom report on best-fit options.

Meanwhile, the xarvio® FIELD MANAGER crop optimization platform now includes xarvio® SeedSelect, which analyzes soybean varieties and advises you on which to plant based on plot trials, field contours and soil types. You can leverage the power of an algorithm to determine which Xitavo™ soybean seed varieties to plant. To see how this works, you can watch a quick video in which BASF’s Amy Pawlick, Digital Farming Marketing Manager, demonstrates the technology.

Experts are available to help you make decisions about which soybean maturity groups to select. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent or a seed company professional like your regional BASF representative.

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Endnotes

1. “Soybeans – Maryland Agronomy News.” Maryland Agronomy News, University of Maryland Extension, https://blog.umd.edu/agronomynews/category/crops/soybeans/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
2. “Chapter 5: Crop Production Management – Organic Soybeans.” North Carolina Organic Commodities Production Guide, authored by Rachel Vann, DJ Stokes, Dominic Reisig, LeAnn Lux, and Chris Reberg-Horton, N.C. Cooperative Extension, North Carolina State University, 19 Mar. 2024, https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/north-carolina-organic-commodities-production-guide/chapter-5-crop-production-management-organic-soybeans. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
3. Vann, R. et al. “Chapter 5: Crop Production Management – Organic Soybeans.”