Mo. farms counting on late fall, soybeans

QULIN, Mo. -- The hopes of reclaiming this summer's crops are, for many area farmers, rooted in soybeans and a late fall.

Wet weather in April and May, followed by a dry, hot June wreaked havoc this year, according to Rick Nobles of Nobles-Redmon Farms at Qulin. Everything was planted late, he said, and some plans to put in corn or rice had to be abandoned.

"When other things don't work out, we go to soybeans," Nobles said last week from his shop near Highway 53 east of Qulin. "The weather is something you just work around, but it's been a long time since we've had this much delay getting crops in."

Workers at the farm had only six planting days in April and May, he said. He estimated 14 inches of rain fell on his fields. Soybeans in a nearby field stand only a little more than ankle high when they should be up to his waist, he said.

A few miles west of Nobels' land, beans in another farmer's field are just barely out of the ground.

Agronomist David Geally with the University of Missouri Extension Office in Stoddard County said fields like these could see a 40 to 50 percent reduction in yield.

"What the weather has done is push back the optimal planting dates, affecting the yield of everything," Geally said. "I think everyone is going to take a hit, it just depends on how early the fall is."

He said the worst-hit areas were in parts of Butler and Stoddard counties.

"Every year is different, but some have said this is the worst they've seen in 30 to 40 years," Geally said. "We're going to have some excellent yields, and we're going to have some really poor yields."

The Southeast District, which includes Butler, Stoddard and Dunklin counties, typically harvests more than 40 million bushels of soybeans and in 2008 had nearly 63 million bushels of corn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Southcentral District, including Ripley, Carter, Wayne and Reynolds counties, raised a little more than 1.6 million bushels of soybeans and 2.1 million bushels of corn last year.

If the weather cooperates, and it hasn't for much of the summer, farmer Lee Wright thinks the county could bring in 75 percent of its normal crops. Wright is growing corn at Qulin and Neelyville, and also has acres of rice and soybeans.

"If we get an early frost, it's going to be 50 percent because everything is so late," Wright said.

Straight line winds in excess of 60 mph caused him to lose 20 percent of the 400 acres of corn he has at Neelyville, Wright said.

Much of the corn in the area was planted in the second and third weeks of May, said Agronomist Anthony Ohmes of the Mississippi County University of Missouri Extension office. Ohmes said that is past the best time to plant, early April, and the May 10 cut off when yield potential typically begins to decline.

Wright said he started with 1,000 total acres of corn, but had to get rid of 200 acres that were not doing well. He also had to replant 160 acres, something that wouldn't usually happen.

Nobles-Redmon Farms has 1,200 acres of soybeans and 600 acres of rice, 200 fewer than originally planned.

Nobles considers himself lucky they only had to replant 200 acres of rice and 150 acres of soybeans.

"We very seldom have to replant rice. It's very unusual it's too wet for rice to germinate," Nobles said.

Overall things started out rough, Ohmes said.

"But every year, the benefits are different," he said. "Last year we ran into a wet April, nothing was planted until May and we had great luck."

There is no way to know until the trucks cross the scales, Ohmes said.

East of Qulin, everything is starting to look better, Nobles said.

"I think we still have a chance, for us, to do fine as long as the weather cooperates and the smaller beans have a chance to develop," he saidc