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VIDALIA, La. — Some of Concordia Parish’s largest crops saw a decline in their yield for 2023 and a below-average yield when compared to the last five years, according to data from the LSU Ag Center Extension Service.

According to the data that was presented to the Concordia Parish Police Jury during their Monday meeting, the crops with above average yield for 2023 include wheat and rice.

Kylie Cater Miller, extension associate for Concordia and Catahoula parishes said wheat had 3,417 acres harvested with a five-year average of 2,907 acres and a yield of 59 bushels per acre where the five-year average is 54 bushels per acre.

Rice had 5,376 acres harvested with a five-year average of 5,648 acres and a yield of 185 bushels per acre with a five-year average of 179 bushels per acre.

It was “a pretty bad year for soybeans,” Miller said, though soybeans remain the parish’s largest crop over the past five years. Last year, 121,476 acres of soybeans were planted with a five-year average of 118,168 acres.

Soybeans had and a yield of 40 bushels per acre with a five-year average of 54 bushels per acre.

Corn, the parish’s second largest crop, and cotton, the third largest, also had yields below average.

Cotton had 5,920 acres harvested with a yield average of 700 pounds per acre whereas the five-year average was 9,083 acres harvested with a yield average of 939 pounds per acre.

Corn had above-average acres harvested at 19,034 acres where the average is 16,986 acres but below-average yield at 185 bushels per acre with a five-year average of 188 bushels per acre.

These top three crops also saw less yield in 2023 than in 2022, data shows.

For cotton, the average yield was 848 pounds per acre in 2022, corn was 190 bushels per acre and soybeans was 52 bushels per acre.

Miller attributed the decline to excessive heat and drought last summer.

Overall, the data shows the combined yield of cotton, corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat and rice pushed the 2023 average of 155,223 bushels/pounds per acre over the five-year average of 154,161 bushels/pounds per acre.