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LA PLATA, MO -- Cooler temperatures mark the arrival of fall and that means harvest time is right around the corner for many farmers.

With this summer’s drought having devastating impacts on area corn crops, many farmers are holding out hope for their soybeans. And for many who planted a little bit later, that hope is still high.

“I am really surprised that we have the bean crop we are having because of the lack of the moisture for 90 or 100 days in there. They are still green and still putting beans in the pod. We looked at a pod the other day and it has the beans in it and I’m going to say 10 days ago they were almost flat. Now you can feel the beans in there so they are going to amount to something, but we don’t know what yet,” Jackson Farm Country Connection’s Bob Jackson said.

Farmers who planted their beans early are not fairing quite as well. Those beans are already beginning to reach maturity and turn yellow.

Soybeans have a 120 day maturity period and as long as we have a late frost and warm temperatures, the later bean crop will continue to develop.

This is good news for farmers hoping for a little bit of good news amongst this summers devastating drought.