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News Brief

Oct. 15, 2019 |  By: Jim Farris

Frost damages soybeans

Recent frosts have damaged acres of soybeans in the local area.
Field Specialist in Agronomy with Buchanan County Extension Wayne Flanary says the frost will affect young beans the most.

"We have all kinds of different maturities of beans.  But those beans that were green, meaning the pods were still green and the soybeans were still green - they hadn't turned mature yet, that is going to be the beans that can have yield loss.  They'll become shriveled and pull back within the seed pod."

Flanary also says that you can dry out the soybeans and produce more mature beans that way.

"If you take them directly to market, they'll get docked.  But if you store them for a while, a lot of times in 30-40 days, they'll turn from a green color to yellow.  Not all of them, but they'll be a portion of them that will.  It just kind of depends on how green they were whenever they were harvested."

Flanary says the total amounts affected are low, mostly later season beans.

"I would say to just focus on the really late-planted beans or July beans - say if we use the late maturity groups.  So it's minor acres but there are fields that are affected and of course those producers are very concerned."