Louisiana Soybean Planting Moving Rapidly

By Don Molino, The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network

So far, so good as far as the Louisiana soybean crop is concerned.  LSU AgCenter soybean specialist Dr. Ronnie Levy repots about 25% of the crop is now in the ground, but that figure won’t last long.

“Right now, the bean crop looks really good,” says Levy. “They’re growing well, the weather has been ideal even though the last couple of days have been cool but really not cold enough to impact those beans that are already up and growing.”

Levy says Louisiana growers always experience weed problems but right now they’re little problems and can still be controlled.

“We anticipate some insect problems because we’ve had some high counts of stink burgs early, but as of right now, they haven’t moved into soybean fields,” said Levy.

He goes on to point out as of this date, soybean producers have very little in the way of disease, insect or wed problems.

“With a weather scare of big chances of ran last week, most people waited until this week to start planting. So I would expect by the end of the week we may be 75 to 80% planted across the state,” said Levy.

Levy, who has worked for the LSU AgCenter the last 38 years and served as state soybean specialist the past 9 years, will work his last “official” day for the AgCenter this Friday.  Happy Retirement, Ronnie, from all of us at the Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network and Newsletter.

(This report is a service of the Louisiana Soybean and Grain Research and Promotion Board)