By Bonnie Coblentz
MSU Extension Service
Harvest for two of the state’s most significant row crops is well underway, with soybeans and cotton both ahead of schedule.
As of Oct. 6, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that cotton was 43% harvested, ahead of the five-year average of 31% complete by this date. Soybeans were 76% harvested, where typically the crop is just 60% harvested.
Soybeans in Mississippi benefit from an early planting date, but rains interfered a bit with planting times, making some of the crop later planted and pushing harvest later in the year.
Preston Aust, agricultural agent in Humphreys County with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said soybean harvest in this Delta county is nearly complete.
“We should be finished with soybean harvest in the next five to seven days,” Aust said. “Planting season was so stretched out this year that what is left in the field has not been sitting and waiting for harvest but is just now ready.”