By Mary Hightower
Flat pods and seeds that never matured are throwing doubt on predictions of a record Arkansas soybean crop, said Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
The September Crop Production report put Arkansas state average yield at a record 57 bushels per acre. Soybeans were 72 percent harvested, according to Monday’s Crop Progress report from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The harvest was well ahead of the 46 percent five-year average and “moving at the fastest pace on record,” said Scott Stiles, extension economics program associate for UADA.
“Soybean harvest has not slowed down but yields on many of the fields are lower than expected,” Ross said on Monday. “I’ve walked dozens of fields over the past two months with reports of flat pods and pods with aborted seed that did not mature.
“We are still investigating the cause, but it appears that the extreme high temperatures we observed during July, August and September are a major factor,” Ross said. “Other factors, including genetics and diseases, seem to also be contributing to the lower-than-average yields in soybean.
“Many farmers have called saying that their soybean crop looked like 70-80 bushels per acre, but they are harvesting 30-40 bushels,” he said. “We are continuing to gather data and figure out exactly what caused the low yields.
Source : uada.edu