News Filed Under Soybeans

RAYMOND, Miss. -- Mississippi’s agriculture industry remains vibrant with an overall production value estimated at $9 billion, despite a drop in row crop prices.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- For agricultural producers, careful planning in advance of each planting is critical to making a profit or breaking even, but the practice will be especially necessary going into 2025 due to a confluence of unfavorable economic conditions.

Kevin Kim, Will Maples and Brian Mills, agricultural economists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, are part of an effort to help producers make sound business decisions as they enter what will likely be a difficult year financially across the country for agriculture.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Agricultural producers and consultants are encouraged to register for the annual Mississippi State University Row Crop Short Course.

Hosted by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the 2024 Row Crop Short Course will be held Dec. 9-11 at the Mill Conference Center in Starkville.

Harvest for two of the state’s most significant row crops is well underway, with soybeans and cotton both ahead of schedule.
As of Oct. 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that cotton was 43% harvested, ahead of the five-year average of 31% complete by this date. Soybeans were 76% harvested, where typically the crop is just 60% harvested.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Producers got a behind-the-scenes look at the wide scope of agricultural research taking place at Mississippi State University in an Aug. 6 event.

Faculty and specialists with the MSU Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station presented on-farm research projects designed to help growers meet the challenges of row crop production.

Harvest will begin as soon as early August for soybeans, Mississippi’s largest row crop that is overall in good shape heading into the last weeks of its growing season.
Prices, however, are poor, with supply and demand working to push prices even lower.

Mississippi’s 2 million-plus acre soybean crop is mostly planted and looks to be in good shape early on, with the only lingering acres yet to be planted.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that the crop was 86% planted as of May 19, 2024, and 13% in excellent condition and 62% in good condition. The crop is typically close to three-fourths planted by this time of the year.

Did you know the Mississippi State University Extension Service has a laboratory that is designated to diagnose plant diseases and nematodes? Yes, it does! Learn how the Mississippi State University Extension Service Plant Diagnostic Laboratory and its scientists protect the crops that provide our food and fiber along with other home and garden crops.

RAYMOND, Miss. -- Mississippi soybean producers may qualify for free nematode testing through the Mississippi State University Extension Service Plant Diagnostic Laboratory. Limited free tests are available between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Market corn prices are more than $2 lower per bushel than a year ago, so row crop producers in Mississippi are planning to plant less corn and more cotton in 2024.

Growers of the state’s three principal field crops -- soybeans, corn and cotton -- intend to plant 25% more cotton this year than they did in 2023 and 25% less corn, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Soybean production is forecasted to increase by 3%.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi agriculture’s value of production fell 10.3% in 2023, but still posted its second highest result on record at $8.8 billion.

Though the value of poultry production fell more than 22% from nearly $4 billion in 2022, the agricultural commodity still dwarfs all others in the state with an estimated value of $3.1 billion this year. The state’s forestry industry took its usual place as the state’s third most valuable agricultural product at $1.5 billion, an increase of nearly 10% from $1.4 billion in 2022.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Online preregistration for Mississippi’s premier row crop course is open.

Hosted by the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the 2023 Row Crop Short course will be held on Dec. 4-6 at the Mill Conference Center in Starkville.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Cool temperatures and rainfall are two things most of Mississippi has not seen lately.

This winter, however, that could change and help farms that have taken a hit from extreme drought if anticipated El Nino conditions play out. But the rains will not arrive quickly enough to save this year’s crop for some growers.

The southwest quadrant of the state is currently in what the U.S. Drought Monitor report classifies as a D-4 (exceptional drought) zone, while other portions near or below Interstate 20 are in D-3 or D-2 zones.

Mississippi’s 2.3 million acre soybean crop is looking strong late in its growing season, thanks to somewhat earlier planting dates and almost ideal conditions through the end of July. 

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- After a June 14 severe thunderstorm dropped some of the state’s largest recorded hail on Noxubee County, row-crop farmland there suffered up to 50% yield loss.

A 5-inch-diameter hailstone from the eastern Mississippi storm cell made media headlines, but reports of wind and hail damage to crops in the Mississippi Delta began rolling in as early as the previous weekend.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Anytime conditions allow soybean growers in Mississippi to begin planting in April, they have started on the right foot.

On the week ending June 4, 93% of the state’s crop was in the ground, and 87% was reported emerged; both percentages are just ahead of state five-year averages.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- If the newest Mississippi planting forecast holds, more corn and rice will be produced in 2023 compared to recent years, while demand will drive down cotton acreage.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, released its annual prospective plantings report March 31. According to the report, intended cotton acreage is at 400,000 acres, down 25% from the 530,000 acres planted in 2022. Growers also plan to plant 700,000 acres of corn, which is 21% more than the 580,000 acres harvested last year.

VERONA, Miss. -- Producers come across issues each season that need to be addressed, whether they require new research on a problem or a commodity specialist who can help identify timely solutions.

For those people, February is the month to speak up. Specialists and scientists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are available specifically for them at three different MSU Research and Extension Center locations throughout the state during annual Producer Advisory Council meetings.

“Snow” appearing on the sides of highways and bare ground visible for miles is a sure indication that row crop harvest in Mississippi is well underway. As of early October, the majority of the 2022 crop was already harvested, although much work remains for certain crops.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Portions of central Mississippi and the lower Mississippi Delta saw more than 1 foot of rain between Aug. 21 and 25, and flash flooding will affect some agricultural commodities in these areas.

Torrential downpours dropped 8-13 inches of rain in much of Leake, Neshoba, Scott, Kemper, Hinds and Newton counties, as well as parts of surrounding counties, prompting road closures and evacuations.