NATCHEZ — After facing a season of drought, Asian soybean rust and then torrential rains, Miss-Lou farmers are wrapping up the soybean harvest with success.

“Last year at this time we had just started and were hoping to be finished by Thanksgiving, and this year we’re almost finished,” Natchez farmer Ross McGehee said. “It’s been a good year, all things considered.”

The drought was the biggest problem that soybean growers faced this season, McGehee said.

“The drought affected it with an early dry spell that kept soybeans from coming up,” he said.

Later, the beans that had cropped up had very little water and many died, McGehee said.

“Some folks were in some dry spots and didn’t do as well as they would have liked but I think the region overall survived,” he said.

And then came Asian soybean rust, a deadly fungus that can cause plants to defoliate prematurely and affect bean quality.

While the fungus did make its way into Wilkinson County and Concordia Parish, it wasn’t a catastrophe, McGehee said.

“We always wonder about Asian soybean rust — and there was some in the area — but it never blew up in our face like we expected it to,” he said.

When the drought broke and it began to sporadically rain heavily, some local growers expressed concern that the beans might lose quality because rain can usher in certain molds, rots and insects.

But apparently the rain only brought water, and McGehee said he has seen soybeans yield in the 70 bushel-an-acre ranges, and the double-cropped beans as much as 50 bushels an acre.

And, to top off the season, it looks like the farmers will make some money.

“The markets got good, so we’ll be able to make a little money and be able to face the creditors again next year,” McGehee said.