Local farmers are expecting a plentiful yield this fall

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – At the North Farm at Mississippi State University, rows and rows of soybean, corn, and cotton crops are growing and will soon be ready for picking.

MSU Agriculture Economist Dr. Will Maples says it will be an ample harvest this year.

“The soybeans have been looking good this year for sure. we got the corn planted good and we had a good planting window earlier this year.

There’s one-factor farmers can’t control – weather and the impact it has on their crops. Both the soybean and corn crops were affected by the recent hail storm. But Maple says the rounds of ran have overall been good for the crops.

“It has been a positive because we have a lot of irrigated acreage, especially in the delta, and anytime you don’t have to run an irrigator that saves money.”

Soybeans are the largest crop grown in Mississippi. They’re used in many different industries – like making dog food, vegetable oil, and even biodiesels.

“In Mississippi, agriculture is about a 10 billion dollar industry and soybeans account for about 2 billion of that. over half of the row crops we plant in Mississippi go to soybeans.”