Drought-stricken soybeans should not be cut for hay except as a last resort, say University of Missouri Extension specialists. Even a low-yielding crop can be worth more than the value of the forage.

"A yield of three or four bushels of soybeans at more than $6 per bushel will pay for combining the crop," said Melvin Brees, crop-marketing specialist at MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). "It almost never makes sense to cut soybeans for hay."

Brees said that even in the driest years of the 1980s, the last major drought in Missouri, soybeans had yields of 10 to 15 bushels per acre.

At 15 bushels, selling for $6 per bushel, that is $90 per acre," Brees said. "That's not profitable, but it's worth more than hay."

Bill Wiebold, MU extension soybean specialist, said, "Soybeans have an amazing capacity for recovery if rains come before the plants stop blooming."

The prolonged dry spell across central and northeast Missouri is testing the limit of soybeans this year, he added. The drought also dried up pastures, causing soybean farmers with cow herds to look at their green fields of soybean as a potential hay crop.

"If a soybean crop looks good enough for a cow to eat, there is potential for seed crop production, Wiebold said. "The problem is I just don't know how much longer soybeans can hang on." The weather forecast for hot weather with no rain is not encouraging.

Soybeans were brought to the United States from China in the dry years of the 1930s as a hay crop. However, the seed, rich in oil and protein, has become a major source of food for livestock and humans. Soybean oil is a major source of cooking oil and used to make biodiesel to power trucks and tractors.

Earlier this year, soybean futures prices rose to $6.50 per bushel on rumors that drought would reduce the supply of soybeans grown in Brazil. With news of a stronger crop from South America, the price dropped back to near $6.00 per bushel. Dry conditions in the Corn Belt resulted in volatile markets, sending futures prices to $7.70 in June before collapsing to about $6.60 after weather forecasts.

With current uncertainty of drought impact on the U.S. crop, the November futures prices have ranged from $6.70 to $7.10 per bushel, Brees said.

Seed quality will be uncertain for farmers who harvest a drought-damaged soybean crop this fall, Wiebold said. Beans from plants killed by drought may be smaller and of lower quality. Soybean seeds may be green or off color, resulting in a price dock at the elevator.

"When drought hits, it triggers a series of bad things that happen." Wiebold said.

Unlike corn, which blooms only once, soybean plants keep producing blooms that try to pollinate and produce seed pods. Each node on a soybean plant has latent plant cells that can produce three sets of blossoms, each with multiple blooms. If the weather is too hot and dry for pollination, another bloom replaces the one that died.

But there is a limit. "Even in a normal year, August is our driest month of the growing season," Wiebold said. "You don't often see a wet August."