Kentucky’s soybean harvest is ahead of schedule and higher quality compared to last year.
Farmers in the commonwealth planted two million acres of soybeans planted in 2018, with 75% of those acres having been harvested by November of that year.
Many Kentucky farmers rotate their fields between corn, wheat and soybeans. Because of this, the 2019 soybean crop is slightly less, with around 1.7 million acres planted.
David Knopf is the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistics Service in Kentucky. He said recent statistics continue to show positive trend in soybean production.
“Yields have been generally above average the last few years,” Knopf said. “We had pretty good conditions for harvesting the crop.”
Knopf said excessive rain was the reason for delays last year, and the severity of the rain caused Governor Matt Bevin to ask for a disaster declaration. The rain was replaced by drought conditions this year.
Despite extreme weather conditions, harvests have still been strong in recent years. Since 2014, harvest averages have increased from 47.5 bushels per acre to 50.
Knopf said he expects 1.69 million acres of the 1.7 million acres planted are expected to be harvested by the year’s end.
