Air September 13, 2000

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. I guess we’ll just take this one step at a time - first the temperature, now we’ll get to work on the rainfall.

I have started to get phone calls about green beans. Now, I don’t mean the ones that we grow in the garden and pick pod and all - we’re talking about soybeans here. Soybeans aren’t supposed to be green, they’re supposed to be a nice creamy yellow color. They’re also supposed to be fairly round and plump. If you are picking soybeans and they are not all of the previously mentioned, then you do have problems! If the soybean plant died before the beans matured, which is probably the case with 85% of the beans in this area, then you need to proceed with caution. The beans will be lower in test weight and obviously also in yield. Start shelling out a few beans. First of all are they round or still fairly oblong. If they are round, this is a good sign, even if they are small. Secondly, what color are they? If they are round and normal color, then this is a good sign. Even though they may not be great, they will still be quite marketable. However, if they have a greenish look, or are just plain green, proceed further. Are they round and when you cut them open are they normal colored inside, or at least not green all the way through? If the seeds are basically round and not green all the way through, then there is a good chance that they green color will go away with 6 weeks or more of storage time. Then you can market them normally. If the beans are green clear through, or if they are more oblong than round and green, you’ve got a problem. The elevator is going to severely discount these and storage time won’t change their look. Most of these beans would be classified as sample grade which is the absolute worst grade you could get. Sample grade beans will bring very low prices IF the elevator will take them at all. If you do have good beans you could try to blend them, butif all you have is immature green beans, the best option is to feed them yourself or sell them to some other producer to feed to livestock. And the final word is that unless you have irrigated beans this year, you probably don’t want to hold any thing back for seed!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2000.

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