Soybeans: half a crop if lucky
Nov 4, 2009 11:00 AM, By Mary Hightower, University of Arkansas
“We had a good soybean crop. The yield was there. We have lost at least 60 percent to 80 percent due to the weather.”
The rain-shocked 2009 growing season may prove to be devastating for Chicot County, Ark., where more than 65 percent of the county is farmland.
SUNKEN SOYBEANS — This Chicot County, Ark., soybean field seems equal parts water to soy. Farmers in the southeasternmost county of Arkansas may wait days or weeks to be able to get back into their fields. (University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture photo by Gus Wilson)
On Monday and Tuesday, Gus Wilson, Chicot County Extension staff chairman for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, made the rounds, visiting farmers and getting a first-hand look at what record rain has left of crops in the state’s southeasternmost county.
He said on Tuesday that he believed Chicot and neighboring Ashley and Desha counties were the hardest hit by the 2009 rain.
“It’s bleak,” Wilson said. “It’s going to really hurt these poor Delta counties because here, agriculture is all that we’ve got.”
Earlier this season, the harvest outlook was promising.
“In September, I was pretty happy with what I was seeing in the fields,” he said. “Now we are going to be lucky to make half a crop compared to the last couple of years, all because of the weather.”
“Seven or eight weeks ago, we were looking at 1,100- to 1,200-pound cotton” lint yield per acre, Wilson said. “Now we’re 500 to 600 pounds.”
The soybeans are just as bad. Back in September, “we had a good soybean crop. The yield was there,” he said. “We have lost at least 60 percent to 80 percent due to the weather.”
“Our rice is going to be half,” Wilson said.
Wes Kirkpatrick, Desha County, Ark., staff chair for the U of A Division of Agriculture, said, “I have heard instances where producers had fields that traditionally yielded 1,200 to 1,400 pounds per acre are yielding 700 to 800 pounds per acre this year.”
Soybean quality is also an issue, and the quality issues vary widely from field to field, he said. “Some fields have no damage and other fields have nearly 100 percent damage.”
