Virginia Soybean Yield Contest.

The purpose of the Virginia Soybean Yield Contest is to emphasize and demonstrate the practices necessary to produce maximum economic yields, to recognize those producers who grow high-yielding soybeans, and to gather data on the practices utilized by these outstanding producers.  The Virginia Soybean Association in cooperation with Virginia Cooperative Extension sponsors this program.  There are four Soybean Yield Contest categories: 1) Full-Season, Non-irrigated; 2) Double-Crop, Non-irrigated; and 3) Irrigated (Full-Season or Double-Crop; and 4) Most Efficient.  A full-season system is defined as the grain or seed harvest of one summer crop (soybean in this case) from the same field in one year. Double-crop is defined as planting soybean immediately following grain harvest of barley or wheat; thus harvesting two crops from the same field in the same year.  If field has been irrigated one or more times, the entry will be considered an irrigated field and the will be placed into the irrigated contest.  Yield alone (bushels/acre) determines the winners in the first three categories.  The goal of the most efficient yield contest category is to emphasize practices associated with efficient and profitable soybean production and to gather data on the practices utilized by top producers.  It compares cost of production (cost to grow a bushel of soybean) instead of yield.  All full-season and double-crop contest entries are automatically entered into the MEY Contest.