Pulse weekly outlook: Manitoba bean yields unlikely to top 2017’s

CNS Canada — A lack of rain at key times during the summer of 2018 has left Manitoba’s edible bean crop unlikely to match last year’s yields.

Last year’s yield was about 2,000 lbs./acre on average, but according to provincial pulse specialist Dennis Lange, that won’t be the case this year.

“I think for this year we’re looking more 1,600- to 1,800-lb. range,” he said.

A few fields may hit 2,000 lbs., he said, while some would be under 1,500, depending on where the moisture hit.

Harvest in Manitoba is roughly 80 per cent complete, with light red kidneys and cranberries being the first varieties taken off.

“We’re working now on pintos and some navys and blacks with a few dark red kidneys,” Lange said.

Most of southern Manitoba has already been harvested, with yields looking relatively average.

Bean quality seems fairly uniform so far, but Lange said he had “been hearing some good yields on pintos this year.”

While the yields are generally expected to be slightly lower than last year’s, Lange said it has still been a decent season for beans; it just would have been better if they had gotten the moisture in late July and early August, when the crops were at the filling stage.

Bean area in 2018 is pegged at 120,000 acres — about the same as last year, according to Lange.

According to Prairie Ag Hotwire, navy beans, blacks and pintos remain clustered in a range of 29 to 38 cents/lb., relatively similar to the same time last year.

— Dave Sims writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.