Cotton bucks Missouri's yield-loss trend

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While Missouri's soybean, corn, rice and sorghum yields suffered in 2010, cotton productivity jumped, the state's agricultural statistics service says in a report released Wednesday. The estimated 2010 cotton yield was 1,068 pounds per acre, up 141 pounds for the year. Soybeans averaged 41.5 bushels per acre, down 2 bushels from the year prior; corn yield dropped 30 bushels to 123 bushels per acre; sorghum yields dropped 8 bushels to 78 bushels per acre; and rice dropped 230 pounds per acre to 6,480. Hay yields fell by an average of 0.11 tons an acre.