Dust kicks up in the afternoon air over rows of crops as Dale Weaver’s combine crawls across a field of soybeans, the roar of the machine blending with the crunch of the stalks.

From a distance, the harvest looks plentiful.

But after months of spring rain followed by a parched end to the growing season, Weaver said his yields are down, just as soybean prices are across the country.

“So you’ve got a little bit here and a little bit there, and it’s not going to be a banner year,” Weaver, who farms roughly 1,400 acres in Noxubee County, told The Dispatch. “But hey, God is good, and we’re thankful for what we’ve got. He’s always been good to us, and we’ll keep going as long as he lets us.”

With the harvest season wrapping up, farmers in the region are seeing yields slightly lower than the norm after a season of difficult weather. Additionally, with China – the country’s primary customer for soybean exports – currently boycotting U.S. soybeans in retaliation for Trump Administration tariffs, farmers across the country are seeing challenges marketing their product this year.

Along with food products and livestock feed, soybeans are used in a variety of products, ranging from biofuel to tires to artificial turf to soy-based foam used on the job by firefighters.

Philip Good, another Noxubee farmer and chair of the United Soybean Board – made up of farmers from across the U.S., the board invests in research, education and promotion targeted at supporting soybean farmers and increasing demand – has finished harvesting roughly 70% of his soybean crop, but he projects his total yield will be between 5 and 10% off from the farm’s five-year average.

That’s due to the combination of a bad start, an average middle and a drier end to the season this year, Good said, starting with record amounts of rain just after his crop was planted around Easter.

“Here in this part of the state it rained – for some of my places – a little over 60 days … and I have another farm, and it was around 70-something days of rain,” Good said. “Whether it rained every day or just a small amount or whatever, plants were not designed by God to live in that environment.”

The same rains delayed Weaver’s planting entirely until the start of June. Higher production expenses, from rising fertilizer costs to water bills from increased irrigation, only added to the problem.

“It got really dry at the end, and we pumped tons of water on these late beans where we have irrigation, and that’s expensive to do,” Weaver said. “Even though we have the facilities, you’ve got to pay the bill when you have to run them. That added extra expense, and then the fact that they were planted late, took the top off the yield.”

Lower prices

On top of market setbacks, farmers are navigating a marketing season amid an international trade war.

During the 2023-2024 marketing year, the U.S. shipped nearly 25 million metric tons of soybeans to China, according to the American Soybean Association. This harvest season, which began Sept. 1, China has not bought the first American soybean, instead brokering deals to get their supply from South America, according to the Associated Press.

That’s less of an issue for Weaver and Good, who similarly to other East Mississippi farmers, send their harvest to processing plants in Alabama, where they are processed for soybean oil and meal. That provides a “fairly consistent and growing market” for farmers in the area, Good said.

“Because we’re so close in an area that grows so much in poultry, we have soybeans that are going to a processor … and then those trucks – for efficiencies on transportation – are bringing soybean meal back into our area for chicken feed,” he said. “So we’re fortunate in this area.”

The same can’t be said for farmers on the other side of the state or in the Delta, who rely more heavily on exports down the Mississippi River and out of New Orleans, Good said.

With China boycotting American soybeans, there’s an outsized amount of soybeans entering the domestic market, resulting in lower prices for the product, currently projected at about $10 per bushel, compared to about $15 per bushel just three years ago, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

As a result, the soybean basis – the difference between the futures price and local cash price for soybeans – is lower.

“That amount is much lower right now because of excess crop, higher shipping, lower water levels, getting the crop to places where they need to go,” Good said. “So we’re facing a lot of different things in the market right now.”

While he’s hopeful the president will land a deal with a new country for soybeans, Weaver worries whether it will be enough to make up for the loss of the country’s No. 1 buyer.

“Trump’s the deal maker, and I think he’s made a lot of deals from what I heard, but when you lose China as your No. 1 customer, hopefully they’ll come to the table before long, but even though you get what’s considered good deals with countries that you haven’t done business with before, it’s just a drop in the bucket,” Weaver said.

‘Not a good time for farmers’

A significant aid package specifically for U.S. soybean farmers is in the works, according to the White House, with “substantial support for our farmers” expected as soon as Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told media.

While he sees the value of such a package, Weaver said he simply does not like “farming that way.”

“I’d rather the government stay out of it, and we get a decent price for our commodities and pay our bills and keep going,” he said. “But the way things are right now, anything will help. I don’t want to do it that way. … Some people might go broke without it. It’s not a good time right now for farmers, that’s for sure.”

On both national and international levels, Good said the United Soybean Board is working to develop higher demand for the crop by growing more markets for soybeans through promotion and research initiatives.

In Mississippi, those efforts include working across industries to find more uses for soybeans.

“We (also) work with developing countries, and we grow the market there, where they can start to learn about how they can increase the food and protein levels for their people, and then eventually they become a soybean customer longterm,” Good said.

Weaver said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about future seasons, especially with hopes of Trump landing more export customers.

“I know Trump has made a bunch of deals with other countries from what I hear, and hopefully those will materialize in the future,” Weaver said. “I’m optimistic. You have to be or you wouldn’t be doing this.

“… It’s just gotten piled on, but hey, that’s the way it is,” Weaver added. “That’s the life of a farmer. We take it and keep going.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.