Soybean Acres Could Top 1.3 Million Across Louisiana

By Don Molino, The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network

According to LSU AgCenter Extension Service Soybean Specialist Dr. Todd Spivey at the Dean Lee Research Station just south of Alexandria, as of last week, about 25% of this year's soybean crop was in the ground.  But at this same time last year, farmers had put a little over 50% in the ground, most likely due to the wet, cold weather this spring.

"Most of our growers were able to delay planting enough to get away from the cold weather that we had," says Spivey. "Some of the beans that were in the ground were a bit slow because of the weather but most folks delayed enough that we shouldn't have too much of an issue with any cooling or killing injury or anything like that."

The US Department of Agriculture is guesstimating Louisiana growers will plant about 1.3 million acres in 2018 which is a little higher than last year.

"But I wouldn't be surprised if a fair amount of corn acres is transitioned into soybean acres this year just because the wet, cold weather that we had, a fair amount of corn acres weren't able to be put in the ground.  So that number could be a little higher," said Spivey.