Determining your final soybean population can be done very easily by using a hula hoop. It will provide an accurate method of evaluating drilled or narrow-row spacing soybean stands. Randomly throw (or roll) the hoop into the field and count the number of soybean plants inside the hoop. Using the following table, simply multiply the number of soybeans by the multiplication factor that corresponds to the size of the hula hoop. This gives the soybean population per acre. Do this a minimum of 10 times per field. For example, when using a 30-inch hula hoop, if you count 21 soybean plants, simply multiply 21 by 8,900. There are approximately 186,900 plants per acre.
Use this information as a guide and it should not be the only factor in making decisions.