Whether it's overflow from something as mighty as the
Mississippi River or water from an isolated deluge on two or
three farms, growers face tough decisions in determining whether
or not to replant waterlogged soybeans. Growers like Todd and
Lynn Allen and their son John don't have much choice when the
Mississippi turns their “Island 40” farm north of West Memphis,
AR, into a lake. “We often have to replant some fields,” says
John, whose family took on government regulators to try and turn
back floodwaters several hundred miles upstream. But most
growers facing underwater fields shouldn't automatically reload
the planter hoppers with seed, says Stephen Kyei-Boahen, soybean
researcher at the Mississippi State University Delta Research
and Extension Center in Stoneville. He says replanting decisions
should be made based on the stage of plant growth when the
floods occurred, plant density after the flood, replanting time,
the varieties to be planted, weather conditions during the
growing season and the cost of r