Some farmers in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois have had to notch up their economic belts following the rains and flooding of 1993, but they are looking forward to the 1994 crop season with a renewed degree of optimism.

Breached levees that left thousands of acres of crop land under water in Alexander County in Illinois and Perry County in Missouri are being repaired and conditions are slowly returning to normal.

Many farmers will be looking to soybeans as a crop to help them recoup. With soybean stocks at one their lowest levels in many years, prices are expected to hold their own for a while.

Some farmers are also banking on the National Soybean Checkoff to help land new markets and keep soybean prices at a good level.

"The checkoff vote will be completed Feb. 9," said Gerald Bryan, agronomist at the Cape Girardeau County University of Missouri Extension office in Jackson.

"There is a lot of interest in the issue this year, but we don't know how it's going," said Bryan. "More than 125 farmers in Cape County -- which also suffered crop loss and damages due to flooding -- requested absentee ballots, and more than half of them have been returned."

Bryan is urging farmers with absentee ballots to get them in before the absentee deadline Wednesday. Farmers can vote in the regular election for the issue at Cooperative Extension Service offices Feb. 9.

The checkoff calls for farmers to pay one-half of 1 percent of the bushel price for soybeans when they are taken to the grain elevator.

"For example," points out Alexander County soybean farmer Forrest Ice, "farmers would pay 3 cents on a $6 bushel."

Ice, of near Cache, Ill., agrees that interest is big in the program, but like Bryan, does not know which way the farmers are leaning.

"When soybean prices are good, like they are now, some farmers may vote against the measure," he said. "But, we still need to do more new product research and have more exports. Those are the keys. We need to find more uses for soybeans."

More than 10,000 farmers in Illinois requested absentee ballots on the issue.

The national checkoff was created by Congress in 1991 and is governed by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Farmers in every soybean-producing state are eligible to vote.

Some of the money is used to study new uses for soybeans, such as diesel fuel, powdered milk and ink. Soybeans are high in protein and are commonly used in salad oils, tofu and other foods, as well as livestock meal.

"The bad weather of last year has made the soybean crop smaller than originally predicted," said Terry Birk of the Cape Girardeau County Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service office at Jackson.

"Acreage was down, especially in Perry and Alexander counties, and yields were under average," he said.

Given a return to "normal" conditions, however, U.S. soybean farmers have the technology and management skills to produce higher yields, said Sandy Ludeman Tracy, a soybean grower and past chairman of the United Soybean Board.

"The big challenge has been for U.S. farmers to find markets for more soybeans at prices that make production profitable," noted Tracy.

In the past, government programs have banked excess supplies and moved them into export channels. However, continuing cutbacks in federal budgets are leaving farmers increasingly on their own to market products.

That's where the national soybean checkoff enters the picture.

"In the coming fiscal year, the soybean checkoff will invest more dollars in foreign market development than tax dollars going into these program," said Tracy.

More than $40 million is raised nationwide through the checkoff, with half of the funds going to state projects.

Soybean crops were down in both Illinois and Missouri in 1993.

In Illinois, the crop totalled 1.8 billion bushels, 379 million bushels less than the 1992 crop. In Missouri, soybean production totalled 117 million bushels, down 27 percent from the 1992 total, the smallest crop since 1988.

"The odds are good that American farmers will increase the number of acres planted," said University of Missouri-Columbia agricultural economist Richard Rudel. "I expect Missouri farmers to plant 60 to 61.5 million acres, compared to 59.5 this past year."

Birk agrees.

"There are some reasons for the expected acreage increase," said Birk. "First, many acres weren't planted last year because of excessive rainfall and flooding conditions. Soybean growers may wait until later in the spring to plant, and they may do so to take advantage of the higher prices."

Cape Girardeau County farmers usually plant about 45,000 acres of soybeans and Perry County farmers usually plant about 25,000 acres.

The current national average soybean price is about $6.60 a bushel, close to what was forecasted this summer, said Rudel.

But Tracy says the prices could come down in the months ahead. "Good soybean crops have been reported in Brazil and Argentina, which result in lower prices," he said.