Many soybean farmers have been waiting for a growing season like the one they had in 2016, according to Delbert Knerr. "Good yields. Good weather patterns," says the University of Missouri Variety Testing Program project leader. "Actually, what I saw throughout northern and central Missouri, the bean yields were excellent in all of the tests harvested."

In the Central region, it was soybeans growing in Roy Cope's plot near Truxton that caused Knerr to do a double take. The highest Group 3 soybean individual yield was Beck’s 387R4 at 91.8 bushels per acre, and Dyna-Gro's S43XS27 in the Group 4 soybeans posted 90.3 bushels per acre. "It seems like the weather pattern with timely rains really helped in this area," he notes — especially since this was a portion of the state that had highs of just 50 bushels last year in the test.

In the North region, Steve Cunningham's plot near Craig surprised Knerr with a yield of 79.7 bushels per acre on Group 3 beans, with Hoegemeyer HPT 3422NR. "That's phenomenal for this area of the state," he adds. Then at the Greenley Research Farm in northern Missouri near Novelty, MorSoy 40X46 had the highest yield of the northern region Group 4 plot, with 88.5 bushels per acre.

However, soybean farmers in the southern regions of the state did not have anything to write home about, according to Knerr. The southwest had a wet spring, he notes. "It was tough getting things in the ground," he says. However, the summer weather turned around and improved growing conditions. "The yields were OK," he adds, "just nothing spectacular."

The Bootheel region also found lower yields than expected, according to Knerr. GoSoy 43L16 led the Group 4 plots, with an overall average of 57.7 bushels per acre. MorSoy 47X76 posted the highest total in the region, with 69.7 bushels per acre.

MorSoy 52X25 took the Group 5 plots, with an overall average of 55.4 bushels per acre.

The Southwest region saw MFS MO Exp20337 post the highest average yield, with 62.3 bushels per acre for the Group 4 soybeans. Pfister 48RS01 saw the highest yield posted at any site in the region, with 69.7 bushels per acre.

Of the Group 5 soybeans, MFS MO Exp20124 had the highest average yield, with 60.4 bushels per acre, while Lewis 4972X had the highest total yield recorded at any site in the region, with 66.4 bushels per acre.

Take a look at the top 10 highest-yielding hybrids from each region and soybean maturity group in the tables accompanying this article.

Knerr reminds farmers that before they select a soybean variety for the farm, to consider multiple years of data. Soybean growers can access years of the MU Variety Testing Program data in the "Archive" section at varietytesting.missouri.edu/archive.htm.