Louisiana’s soybean yield leads the nation, LSU AgCenter soybean specialist Ron Levy recently announced during the 2015 St. Landry Parish wheat and feed-grain production meeting in Opelousas, The Advertiser reports.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that Louisiana had a state average yield of 57 bushels an acre in 2014. That placed it at the top of the list, followed by Illinois and Indiana, which each posted an average yield of 56 bushels an acre. The national average was 47.8 bushels per acre.
“Not many years ago, we were close to the bottom,” Levy says of statewide figures.
Across Louisiana, about 1.4 million acres were given over to soybeans last year. Levy says part of the credit for the state’s high yield is due to bad weather early in 2014. The long coldsnap, with two ice storms, delayed planting and encouraged a number of farmers in southwest Louisiana to switch their crop of choice.
As a result, he says, a number of farmers were able to produce high-yielding soybeans on land traditionally used for sugarcane. Some of those farmers were able to achieve yields of as much as 100 bushels of soybeans per acre with the new crop, he says. Timing is critical for this year’s crop, too.
“Doing everything on time is the most important thing you can do with soybeans, starting with having fields ready to plant,” Levy said.
