A few friends took a couple of minutes away from harvest yesterday afternoon/evening to give me a line or two about the dry bean situation in their respective areas…
MINN- DAK
- Harvest is 65% complete. Navy quality is excellent. Pinto color only average. Yields are about 15.5-16. Rained out north valley this morning.
- 65% harvested, quality very good. Maybe a little on the damp side but not terrible. Harvested 30% in the last 3 days – we have been really rolling. Yields are all over the board ranging from 8 bags to 22 bags. I’m looking at a very average crop in this area. 14-15 average.
- It depends on where you are. You will hear 75% and 25%. Harvest is really dragging west of 281. Where we’re at, it is 47 degrees and rainy and we’re maybe 25% harvested. Take a look at the extended forecast and we have real issues. Yields are less than the projected 16 bags – probably closer to 14 if all comes in. Long way to go before this crop is in the bin.
- I would say we are about 60% along with the bean harvest both in the valley and out west. Overall quality is pretty good. Yields are all over the board from 8 bags to 18 bags. Beans are very short this year so seeing a tremendous amount of field loss. High dockage out west due to the white mold that set in.
MICHIGAN
- Harvest around here is going in spurts. Busy for a few days and then wait a week. We have had a good run from Thursday through Saturday and has tapered off – and most are reporting more to come in 7-10 days. Yield reports on blacks so far are anywhere from 11 cwt/acre (white mold issues) to 32 cwt/bag on blacks – most in the 23-25 cwt/acre I would say. Kidneys around that 20 cwt/acre, small reds thus far about 22 cwt/acre – not bad so far. Seeing a little white mold in most loads.
- Harvest weather is amazing. Hard to imagine , a few more days of this —- we could be wishing for a nice shower. Small Reds are 85 % harvested. Navies are 60 % harvested. Blacks are 40% at best. Crans and kidney beans are 50%. Quality is good to excellent. There are some mold and maturity issues. Yield so far are good to excellent.
- Harvest is at the 50% level with a few more navy’s done than blacks. Early beans were a better sample with some mold issues, this part of the harvest has a lot of mold issues. Earlier beans were the higher yielding beans, the mold has taken a toll on the later planted beans. It is perhaps up to this point one of the best harvests for moisture not to dry not to wet just right. Will be interesting to see how much product we end up with after processing.
- Yield are not great in spots. Some fields have high screen out. What we have done so far has been ok with 18-19% moisture. We’re in the 18 to 22 bag range.
- Yields are phenomenal where there wasn’t an issue with mold. In my area mold wasn’t too bad. Spraying for mold definitely paid off.
- Harvest is approximately 70% complete in Sanilac County. Yields vary more than normal this year ranging from 600 pounds to 3200 pounds. White mold is a huge problem devastating some yields almost 90%. Moisture has been extremely high ranging from 16.8% to 23%. We are averaging 19.5%. The good thing is that harvesting conditions have been exceptional.
- Looks like we are 75% done. Very long lines and late night dumping. Yields on navy beans in this area are very good. Blacks and small reds little bit lower depending upon region and mold issues. FM/mold/screen outs are high – approximate average 7% on most beans coming in. Quality of black beans is very good, navy beans are mostly good color and small reds are mostly good with a few loads coming in with high pick. Trucks are full, averaging about 700 cwt. per truck.
- Joe had a good weekend. Yields are good on most fields but the impact of white mold is quite evident. Should be approaching one-half harvested on black beans.