The harvest delay starting from the physiological maturity has negative influence in soybean seed quality, due to the exposure to unfavorable environmental conditions. Usually, farmers wait for the decrease in seed moisture levels to begin the harvest process as soon as possible. This research had the objective to analyze the influence of harvest anticipation of soybean seeds at different moisture contents on the physiological quality of seeds produced, in search of better seed moisture contents for earliest harvest considering seed vigor and germination. Then trials were carried out with two soybean cultivars, during 2006/2007 crop year and seeds of each cultivar were harvested at R8 stage, at different seed moisture levels, beginning the operation at 28.5% of water and ending at 14.0%. Quality evaluation was made twice: in April, in order to analyze the initial quality of the samples and, in October, to analyze the influence of storage. In each evaluation period, seed moisture content, germination and tetrazolium viability and vigor were assayed. According to the results obtained, the following conclusion can be drawn: soybean seed harvest time can start at seed moisture content below 22.9%.
Glycine max; moisture content; germination; vigor
