The 2025 Soybean Growth and Yield Monitoring Tool has been released by the MU Soybean Farming Systems team. The 2025 edition builds on the 2024 version by offering soybean performance forecasts at a finer resolution across Missouri. Rather than using a few points to represent each region—as in 2024—the new model runs 12 planting date and maturity group scenarios in each ~15-mile segment spanning all crop-producing areas of the state. This improvement allows for more precise predictions to support in-season crop management decisions.

The yield forecast estimates deviations from each scenario’s expected normal yield. It indicates whether a specific planting scenario and region are likely to yield above or below normal (Figure 1) based on season-to-date weather conditions, such as drought, temperature, or solar radiation. We are also reporting water requirements for irrigated fields in the Southeast region from the report’s release through the following two weeks. In addition, drought conditions, crop development stages, and estimated harvest dates are provided (Table 1).

Figure 1 Soybean yield predictions compared to the normal expected yield. Blue = predicted yields are above normal; red = predicted yields are below normal; gray = predicted yields are close to the normal expected yield.

Table 1 Phenology and development

Highlights from the report for July 1 include:

• Soybean fields planted in April (April 5 and April 26) show contrasting yield forecasts across Missouri. In the northwest, dry conditions over the past few weeks have reduced attainable yields by up to 10 bu/acre on average (Figure 1). Later maturity groups (later than MG 4.0) were more affected than earlier ones (~MG 3.0).
• In the northeast and central regions, yields are near normal or up to 14 bu/acre above normal for April-planted fields. Late MG 3s and early MG 4s appear to have benefited most from favorable environmental conditions.
• In irrigated areas of the southeast, forecasts show near-normal or slightly below-normal yields, likely due to excessive cloud cover during late May and June.
• The forecasted irrigation requirement from July 1 to July 11 for furrow-irrigated systems ranges from 1.1 to 1.5 inches.
• Yield predictions for May- and June-planted soybeans remain uncertain, as most fields are still in vegetative or early flowering stages.

The full reports are permanently available at: https://extension.missouri.edu/programs/soybean/soybean-growth-monitoring.

They will also be released twice a month through the IPM newsletter.