Soybean production is up

• Cheaper to produce than corn and ready to harvest sooner, soybeans are becoming more popular.
• Reports indicate that Ohio farmers are planting more soybeans than corn in the last fewer seasons.
• Still, in Muskingum County, corn production outpaces soybean production.
• But farmers are still planting more acres of soybeans every year.

DRESDEN – Steve Little descends from a massive farm machine equipped with 32 rows of buckets carrying soybean seed.

The buckets, attached to the back of a tall tractor, are each numbered with a black marker. As the loud motor dies down, Little explains the machine helps him plant 30 acres per hour of soybeans.

Although rain has hampered some of Dresden-based Little Farms’ planting efforts, the operation is one good day away from finishing up the soybeans, the 54-year-old farmer said.

When all is said and done, workers plan to have planted 500 acres of soybeans this season on their farms, which extend into Coshocton, Muskingum, Guernsey and Licking counties. That will yield a harvest of about 50 bushels an acre, Little said.

Little Farms began planting soybeans in the mid-1970s, said Little, who represents the sixth generation in his family to operate the farm. Although the farm’s corn crop still eclipses its soybean crop by a few hundred acres, it’s indicative of a statewide, even national, trend: As soybeans are cheaper to produce than corn and are ready to harvest much sooner, more farmers are taking advantage of the crop.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has noted an increase in soybean production in Ohio in the last few years.

In Ohio, corn stocks were down to 343 million bushels, compared with 363 million a year earlier, according to the USDA. In that same time, soybean stocks rose in the state from 63 million bushels to 102 million.

This season, the USDA predicts Ohio farmers will plant less corn than last season, 3.5 million acres, making it the third consecutive year with an acreage decline. Soybeans, meanwhile, continue to grow for the third straight year, increasing even over last year, a record year in the state for the crop. Farmers will plant 5.1 million acres of the crop this year, according to the USDA.

Ohio is not alone in this trend. The increased prevalence in soybean production mirrors the rest of the nation, the USDA’s report notes.

But while that is true statewide, the trend may be a little slower to take hold in some counties. In Muskingum County, corn production still outpaces soybean production.

Farmers planted 16,000 acres of soybeans in the county in 2014, compared with 19,000 acres of corn, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

Still, that’s an increase of soybeans in recent years. Two years earlier, in 2012, farmers planted 14,000 acres of the crop.

“We’re seeing a very slight uptick in acreage,” said Mark Mechling, the director of the Muskingum County Ohio State University Extension Office.

Soybeans are a billion-dollar business in Ohio, Mechling said. In Muskingum County, it nets farmers more than $7 million a season, he said.

Like Little, many of the region’s farmers began planting soybeans this month, although they could continue planting them into June. That will make them ready to harvest around September or October, a month or so before corn is ready, Mechling said.

“Soybeans take fewer days to mature so we can plant soybeans a little bit later and harvest them a little bit earlier than corn,” he said.

Yet another advantage for soybeans is that they are cheaper to plant; they require less fertilizer than corn, Mechling said.

“Farmers will study what’s going to bring them the most profit, and if demand is greater for soybeans, then that’s what farmers will plant,” he said.

Still, Little said, with no soybean processing facility within 100 miles, he finds it more convenient to produce corn.

But as demand continues to increase and more uses for soybeans are discovered, Mechling said their production is likely to continue rising.

The oil from soybeans can be used in shortening, margarine, cooking oil and salad dressing. It can also be used for ink, paints, varnishes, and biodiesel products, Mechling said.

“They’re discovering all the time new ways to utilize soybeans,” he said “That’s really where demand is increasing.”

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