High Speed Planting Soybean Study

Can you plant soybeans at higher speeds without sacrificing yield?

The speed at which you can plant is important because it will allow you to more effectively cover the acres per day needed to hit your planting window. As we’ve seen in other studies, like our soybean planting date study, hitting this window is vital to achieving your maximum yields and profit.

SpeedTube is a high-speed planting technology that takes the place of conventional seed tubes and consists of a flighted belt. By transporting each seed to the furrow, there is no opportunity for seeds to ricochet into the trench. Even at twice the normal planting speeds, seeds arrive safely at the bottom of the trench, spaced evenly, every time.

When we average data from 2022-2024, there was not a yield difference between planting speeds of 5MPH and 10MPH with SpeedTube. However, at 10MPH, SpeedTube proved additional yield gains of +2.3 Bu/A compared to a normal seed tube system.

In 2025, we evaluated yield response at planting speeds of 5MPH, 7.5MPH and 10MPH utilizing SpeedTube. This study showed only a +2.1 Bu/A  range difference at planting speeds of 5MPH between the two systems. However, at 10MPH SpeedTube proved yield losses of -1.8 Bu/A compared to a normal seed tube system.

Our data suggests that growers can plant at significantly higher speeds with SpeedTube technology without sacrificing planter performance, making it more likely you can hit your ideal window for planting, which can lead to increased yield.

In-Depth Study Videos

Study Details 

Study data collected 2019-2025 at the PTI Farm in Pontiac, IL.