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Farmer hopes for an early freeze to help his soybean crop

Southwest Nebraska farmer Don Batie is hoping for an early freeze to help finish off his soybean crop. “The stems are very green, and a freeze would actually speed up the harvest on them.  The beans themselves are dry.  I talked with one neighbor who is cutting 8 percent beans, but the stems were just green, green, green and it was awfully tough to combine.”

He tells Brownfield he’s starting soybean harvest Wednesday and has already cut some corn. “So far, what I’ve been seeing is above expectations. But I think everyone out here with the weather we’ve had, knows it’s been a tough year.  We’re not looking for record crops.”

Batie says one corn field suffered a 20 percent loss in yields from drought ad hail and irrigated soybeans are slightly above average.