How many seeds does it really take to get 100,000 plants per acre at harvest?

In last week\u27s article, Soybean seeding rates: The balance between cost and yield, the case was made that 100,000 plants per acre at harvest was sufficient to reach both full yield potential and economic return. An important question that is often asked is, how many seeds need to be planted to attain this final stand at harvest? In a perfect world, the relationship would be 1:1, indicating that every seed planted would correspond to a plant at harvest. We all know this is not the case. Since 2003, Iowa State University Extension researchers have conducted more than two dozen experiments with the checkoff and the Iowa Soybean Association at multiple locations across Iowa