Pulse weekly outlook: Manitoba has an OK dry bean crop

MarketsFarm — As with the great majority of field crops this year in Manitoba, dry beans have seen production fall due to excessive heat and severe drought, according to provincial pulse specialist Dennis Lange.

“Dry beans usually do fairly well on drier years, but this year has been extremely dry for a lot of the producers. So the yields are greatly reduced from where our average numbers would typically be,” he said.

The province’s five-year average yield for dry beans is a little more than 1,700 lbs. per acre, he said, noting yields this year were 800-1,200 lbs./ac.

“There were some bright spots in the some of the areas that did receive moisture, down in the southern parts,” Lange said, citing the Altona and Plum Coulee areas as examples where yields came in at 1,600-2,000 lbs./ac.

“I think overall the quality was still pretty good, but just the yields are greatly reduced. So not a banner year for dry beans.”

Although the amount of acres in Manitoba devoted to dry beans has been on the decline over the last number of years, Lange pointed out that farmers have concentrated the crop on land more suitable for it.

Yields 10 years ago would have averaged 1,500 to 1,600 lbs./ac., he said.

This year Manitoba dry bean growers planted about 174,000 acres, Lange said, down from the 185,000 seeded in 2020.

“A little bit of a drop, but still fairly higher than we were expecting” — about 150,000 acres, he said.

Other than heat and drought, Lange noted no other major issues with this year’s crop in terms of disease.

Over the past week dry bean prices in Manitoba have seen movement either way, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire.

Navy beans have lost a half cent to come in at 51.5-54 cents/lb. Black beans as well were down a half cent, at 55-58 cents/lb., but pintos climbed six cents, to 57.5-60.5 cents/lb.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.