Flood. Drought. Sliding prices. Soybean growers saw
it all in 1998, but they should be looking ahead to 1999,
says Lanny Ashlock, a soybean agronomist with the Cooperative
Extension Service, University of Arkansas.
"This has been a very challenging year. The dry
May and June made it real difficult to get good stands
and get good weed control, and then, the insects were
with us from the word go," he says. "It's been
a real expensive crop. Yields are not going to be good."
At mid-October, Ashlock said he expected the average
yield to be 23 bushels an acre. That's well below last
year's 28 bushels and the state record 34.
Prices were competitive through June.
"When we saw the July crop report, South America
had a big crop and the Midwest had good crop potential,"
Ashlock says. "Right now, we're looking at pretty
low commodity prices. That takes some of the enthusiasm
out of growing soybeans."
"We'll regroup through the winter and hope and
pray we'll have a better year in 1999 than 1998,"
he says.
"Some of our growers who are comfortable with
marketing, whether they taught themselves marketing strategy
or enrolled in Market Masters or hired a marketing consultant,
found that it really pays off in a year like this,"
he says. "We encourage growers to develop a marketing
plan. That would be the thing to do, to really assess
their production and marketing strategies in the winter
of '98-99."
Soybeans Today January 1999
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