Growers harvested a good quality edible bean crop this year, industry experts said
By Jackie Clark
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Most dry bean growers had their crops off in good time and good conditions this season. In Ontario, the acreage of dry beans was up 20 per cent from 2019, and 50 per cent from 2018, according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs dry edible bean summary.
“For the most part we had a nice harvest, we had good stretches of weather all through September that allowed farmers to get in the field and get things done,” Wade Bickell, origination manager for Hensall Co-op, told Farms.com. “From a dealer standpoint, it was nicely spread out.”
Scott Cottenden, food products manager for The Anderson’s Inc., agreed.
“Yields were average to slightly above, quality was very good, we had a little wee bit that was harvested late but overall we were quite satisfied with the crop produced this year, and that’s in general over all classes of beans,” Cottenden told Farms.com.
Some farmers were initially cut short by wet weather.
“We had a few beans that never got harvested in the normal timeline,” Bickell said. “But we had that really good stretch of weather in November and got the rest of them off with really good quality.”
It’s hard to predict if Ontario will see another significant year-over-year increase in dry edible bean acres, both Cottenden and Bickell explained.
“It’s contracting season right now, where growers are signing up for contracts for next year. Things are progressing well but we’re not done yet,” Cottenden said.
Depending on market outlook, some other commodity crops may out-compete dry beans for acerage.
Farmers may decide to plant more acres of soybeans “with the market for soybeans the way it is,” Bickell said. Also, there may have been “a few more acres of wheat getting planted last fall with the good conditions we had.”
However, spring conditions may also impact final planting decisions, he added.
“We’ve had tough springs where we didn’t get the corn in ... that puts a few more acres of dry beans in the ground,” Bickell said.
Julio Ricco\iStock\Getty Images Plus photo