By Nathan Gregory
August would typically be too early to accurately forecast Mississippi’s soybean crop, but this year, it is a month ahead of schedule – far enough along to predict a promising harvest.
Mississippi State University Extension soybean specialist Justin Calhoun anticipates a state record-breaking yield in 2026. The previous record, 57 bushels per acre, was last reached in 2023.
Calhoun’s update was one of several shared by specialists and researchers with MSU Extension and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station during the annual Row Crop Field Day at the MSU R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center Aug. 17.
The event gave producers, agricultural professionals and MSU graduate students an opportunity to tour research plots at the facility known commonly as “North Farm.” Participants heard the latest observations from agricultural specialists and researchers on crop progress, insect and disease management, and ongoing research projects.
Growers in the state planted about 2.3 million acres of soybeans this year. As of Aug. 17, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated 66% of the state’s soybeans are in either good or excellent condition, with another 31% described as fair.
Widespread early planting helped give this year’s soybean crop a head start, Calhoun said, and timely rainfall brought about the possibility of record-breaking yields.
“The Delta soybean crops look average. What’s really going to make up the ground, I think, is the beans on the eastern side of the state,” he said. “Most of that ground that has normally been planted in May, maybe even June, got planted in late March or early April, on into that optimal window of mid-April.”
Source : msstate.edu