Louisiana Soybean Harvest -- A Tale of Two Extremes

By Cesilee Oliver & Karl Wiggers

Louisiana Farm Bureau

With nearly 50 percent of soybean harvest complete, many farmers are hoping for a good crop this year to help cover their losses from last year.

This harvest season, farmers faced hot and dry weather, while last year’s story was the other extreme with heavy rainfall. Roy Eley, a Franklin Parish grain farmer is among those who really needed a better crop this year.

“We’re going to have a mediocre crop this year,” Eley said. “We needed a good one to make up from last year.”

Last year, he had an excellent soybean crop until the rain started. Eley, along with other farmers in north Louisiana, received more than 21 inches of rain in just seven days, rotting the crop on the ground.

Eley had to sell his soybeans at less than one-third of its value due to rejection at the grain elevator and forcing him to sell them for salvage last year.

“I can’t sustain farming if I don’t remain profitable and I have to remain profitable in order to survive this industry,” Eley said. “Since the yield was made and it just had damage we didn’t receive an insurance payment.”

Though ad hoc disaster aid has passed, farmers are still have not received any relief as they are waiting for the USDA to roll out the money. Andy Brown, Louisiana Farm Bureau National Affairs Coordinator, has spent the last year trying continually to help these farms get the relief they to continue their operations.

“It gets frustrating for these guys,” Brown said. “Not just frustrating, it’s nerve racking. Their livelihood and their bank loans depend on that and they get told its coming.  They have to try to farm through it until it shows up.”

Eley and other soybean farmers are expected to put crops back in ground after having little to no profit margin. With this year’s crop expected to have suffered from the summer, these farmers need the help they’ve been waiting for sooner rather than later.  

https://lafarmbureaunews.com/news/2022/12/21/37-billion-in-disaster-aid-in-senate-omnibus-bill