An early frost that killed off some soybeans and corn in the Midwest didn’t do much damage locally, but it didn’t help, according to area farmers.

For what little filling beans could have made up in the next few days, that early frost slowed the process. Furthermore, this year’s bean crop is already below par, according to local bean farmer Corey Hansen.

“They’re finishing off really slow,” he said.

Hansen harvests his beans for next year’s seeds and said an early frost on immature beans could mean they won’t germinate and grow the following harvest. Although Hansen wasn’t concerned about that in this area, he said this year’s crop is poor anyway.

Brown County Extension Agronomy Educator Ron Dodds said a hard freeze of less than 28 degrees killed nearly all of the soy fields he visited in South Dakota and North Dakota.

He said soybean plants were already two weeks behind maturity because of a cold, wet spring. Then the freeze came about two weeks earlier than normal.