Each year, the MSPB solicits proposals for activities that are designed to enhance production on the state’s soybean acres. The distribution of and yields from Mississippi’s soybean acres can be used to assess where research and extension activities are needed to enhance or improve yields to do the most good in the coming years.

Soybean county estimates compiled by NASS give a definitive location and yield picture to aid in this determination. A summary of that information is shown in the below table.

The Delta counties (Districts 10 and 40) contained 71% (1,383,000 acres) and 68% (1,353,000 acres) of the state’s soybean acrees in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The North Central and Central counties (Districts 20 and 50) contained 13% (251,200 acres) and 13.5% (270,700 acres) of the state’s soybean acres in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The Northeast and East Central counties (Districts 30 and 60) contained 13% (250,000 acres) and 15% (299,000 acres) of the state’s soybean acres in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

South Mississippi counties (Districts 70, 80, and 90) contained less than 3.5% of the state’s soybean acres in both years.

It is obvious from the above data that average soybean yields are quite different among counties within a district; e.g. North Delta and North Central Districts. This is especially noteworthy in the East Central District in 2013, where average yields in Noxubee County were considerably higher that average yields in the other counties in that district, and were more in line with the high average yields in the Delta counties.

There was considerable difference in average yields among the districts (e.g. South Delta vs. all other districts). Average yields from the North Central and Northeast District counties were the only ones that did not exceed 40 bu/acre in either year. There is little doubt that rainfall patterns and irrigation played a significant part in these yield differences, but it logically can be assumed that doublecropping soybeans following wheat on a significant acreage in the two lowest-yielding districts may have been a contributing factor as well.

Average yields of soybeans in the South Delta counties were the highest among all NASS districts in both years. I suspect this district had the largest irrigated acreage both years.

The above soybean yield differences among NASS districts can be subjectively analyzed, but objective analysis of these differences is impossible without a thorough knowledge of just what the enhancing or limiting factors in each respective county/district are. Identifying those factors and planning activities to address them should be a part of any soybean research and extension effort at representative sites within each district.

I encourage those who plan to initiate and conduct research and extension activities in Mississippi to consider the above data when planning those activities. This will ensure that your time and resources will be allocated to addressing production problems in those areas of the state that are lagging behind in average yield, and to identifying the production practices that lead to high yields in the districts that continually produce those high yields.

And finally, when you have information that supports either objective, it is incumbent upon you to transfer that information and technology to producers in those regions.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, April 2014, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net