Farmers in Leflore County are seeing this year a higher than normal rate of damage to their early harvested soybeans.
High summer temperatures and stink bugs have been factors for crop deterioration this year, but one of the largest problems has come from an unseasonably heavy amount of rain late in the growing season.
Excessive rainfall prior to harvest, when the crop is trying to dry, can cause soybeans to shrivel, wrinkle or discolor.
“The soybean crop is represented by different varieties, planted on different dates and at different maturation points in their growth,” said David Lavender, general manager for Express Grain Terminal in Sidon in an email. “Weather conditions affect the quality of those plantings depending on the point in their growth. Moisture to a plant already matured can be detrimental, while another field planted much later is getting beneficial rain.”
Lavender said, “The mature soybean requires ventilation, temperature and moisture control to keep it from heating. Normally, this is a concern while storing soybeans, but until that soybean finds its way to a controlled storage facility, the situation is uncontrolled by the elements in the field.”
Although soybean damage is higher than in recent years, it’s considerably less than what occurred in 2009, when heavy rains spawned by a run of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico saturated the crops at an inopportune time.
When soybeans have excessive moisture, the price farmers receive for their harvested crop is reduced.
“This crop year is about one-third of what we experienced in 2009 from a percentage of receipts standpoint, but this still is a huge amount of money,” Lavender said. “This is a moderately bad year for quality.”
The ideal grade for a farmer is under 2 percent damage, Lavender said. Between 2 and 5 percent is tolerable. Anything over 5 percent will result in a progressively higher damage discount.
Grain discounts are made based on moisture, test weight, foreign material and damage, he said.
For 2009, almost 74 percent of the crops received at Express Grain suffered between 5.1 percent to 100 percent damage, according to Lavender. The overall damage grade that year was 31.09 percent.
So far in 2017, about 34 percent of the crops received at the elevator have shown from 5.1 percent to 45 percent damage, Lavender said. The overall damage grade has been 4.77 percent.
Leflore County Extension Service Agent Andy Braswell and a soybean specialist from Mississippi State University spent Friday afternoon trying to determine what sources were adversely affecting the crop.
“He didn’t know if it was environmental-related,” Braswell said. “It seems like it is worse in some places than others. I am sure it is probably weather- related. I just don’t think we really know what it is.”
Although some soybean farmers are experiencing crop damage, others say the problems have been minimal.
“I haven’t had much damage, but that is because mine are just now maturing as opposed to people who planted earlier,” said Harry Roland, who planted 1,000 acres of soybeans this year. “I have had a little damage, but I have been lucky.”
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
