11.5- Mustang parts

Soybeans awaiting harvest near NC 55

According to the NC State University College of Agricultures and Life Sciences, soybeans are NC's largest acreage row crop, with 1.2 to 1.5 million acres grown annually.

Average farm-gate value of the state's soybean crop is approximately $200 million, ranking it 3rd behind tobacco and cotton.

There are many varieties of soybean plant grown in the area, with different colored flowers and different colors in their ready-to-harvest stage... I couldn't tell you whether these particular beans are "Croplan 4955," "Dyna-Gro 33C59," or "Progeny 5650RR," but these are a bit more of a rusty color than many of the fields around here.

The NC Soybean Producers Association http://www.ncsoy.org/ explains that in addition to "multitude of edible products [and] animal feed applications," soy beans produce oils and meal products used to make tractor body parts, newspaper ink, crayons, candles, machine lubricant

... and even the seat-foam in your brand-new Ford Mustang.

In 2008, North Carolina farmers were expected to plant nearly 1.6 million acres of soybeans. In 2006, North Carolina farmers produced 43 million bushels of soybeans on 1.4 million acres.

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