Bean harvest expected to bring average yield

It’s harvest time in Presque Isle County and farmers have started to remove produce from the fields, or are tuning up equipment, in anticipation of it beginning. On the Chuck Rhode bean farm near Hawks, the second full day of the harvest was on Sunday, and crews were going to continue to work until they are finished next week. Rhode said, depending on the weather, it can take about 10 days.

The weather conditions, especially during the morning hours when the dew is on the ground, have been ideal for bean farmers and they want to take advantage of the late summer. It’s a contrast to the weather conditions in May and June when farmers struggled to get the seeds in the ground.

“THE WEATHER overall for the beans has been pretty good,” said Dave Glenn, Presque Isle County’s MSU Extension director. “Beans don’t like it quite that cool, but they don’t like it too hot either, because they actually can lose quite a bit of yield in the middle of summer if it gets too hot. So this was actually not a bad year for beans. Moisture-wise, it’s been real good too.” Don Selke of Hawks was preparing to harvest 150 acres. His crop wasn’t expected to be ready for harvest until the weekend. Selke is expecting the yield to be about where it was last year, or about average. The good news for bean growers, due to unexpected weather events in Minnesota, North Dakota, and China, demand is high, and so is the price.

Last year, the price for 100 pounds of dark red kidney beans was $25. The highest in 2003 was $26. This year, it’s $30 to $35 per hundredweight. Rhode said, initially, the “prices sound good.”

“WE’VE HAD four years in a row of not be able to break even,” said Selke, who has been a bean farmer since 1970. “I think the kidney beans should do fairly well this year,” said Glenn. “I think they’ll be about average, nothing exceptional.” Glenn believes late planted fields probably won’t fare as well, but said that’s expected. “Soybeans, on the other hand, are probably going to be on the low end of average to poor, in terms of yield,” said Glen. “There are some good fields out there, but then there are a lot of fields that are going to be kind of poor.” Glenn said soybeans react differently to conditions and are more dependent on sunlight.

“BETWEEN TH

E cool weather and the late planting…beans are going to struggle to have a good crop,” said Glenn. “We need weather like we’ve had the last 10 days, for the next three weeks, in order to really make a decent crop.” Glenn said that includes corn.

As Selke prepared for the bean harvest, he was hoping for a little more moisture. “We could use a little rain,” he said.

For Rhode, the recent conditions have saved his family business “time and money.” To take advantage of the dew on the ground, the harvest has started early in the morning for the Rhode family.

Bean farmers won’t know what the prices for seeds will be until after the first of the year. They’ll put them in storage and begin marketing them sometime next year.

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