Louisiana Soybeans: Hurricane Laura’s Effect on the Crop
By David Moseley, Louisiana Extension Soybean Specialist
The hurricane caused light to heavy lodging (leaning or laying over) throughout the state. A few fields had 100% moderate to severe lodging. Although the hurricane caused lodging in most of the varieties in the official variety trial (OVT) at the Dean Lee Research Station, there were differential results. The lodging data will be available in the 2021 OVT publication.
Pictures from the northwest region show minimum (Figure 1) to moderate lodging (figure 2). Likewise, the lodging in the northeast region mainly consisted of minimum to no lodging (figure 3) in many places; however, moderate to heavy lodging plants (figure 4) were seen in other locations.
Mature soybean plants in the LSU AgCenter core-block variety demonstration in Catahoula Parish suffered minimum lodging during the hurricane (Figure 5). Lodging can decrease yield and harvest efficiency. If the plants are on or close to the ground, the crop may sustain quality issues in flooded or saturated soils.
In addition, scouting for pest could be more challenging in fields containing lodged plants.