Reports have the first loads of the 2007/08 harvest arriving at local Huron County elevators this week. Early-planted beans (last week of May) ripened and senesced quickly this season because of drought like conditions during the growing season. Normally the dry bean plant does well under dry conditions but this year the early-planted beans just may have missed that optimum window.
Outturn weights of these first loads are disappointing giving yield readings under 1200 lb. per acre.
Reports on early coloured bean harvest is also disappointing in that seed size this year is well below normal. Instead of the preferred 175 grains per 100 gm. The early harvested beans are running grain counts of 220 or more per 100 gm.
Hopefully the later – June planted beans will do better.

As 3-way battle for acreage develops.
World wheat prices continue to trade higher with Paris wheat futures closing at a record high yesterday (August 28th), noted countryhedging.com. It says “the high price of wheat supports the price of corn which supports the price of oilseeds resulting in a 3-way global battle for acreage next year.”
Hopefully Dry Beans will not be left on the outside looking in. See our Op-Ed “A Dysfunctional Bean Market?!” posted Saturday August 25th 2007 below.

Edible Beans – OMAFRA in its Aug. 23 crop update indicates Edible Beans are maturing quickly, with harvest of early planted fields underway.

The USDA is projecting this year’s North Dakota crop at 9.6 million 100-pound bags, up 25% from last year and close to the 2002 production record of 10.6 million bags. In contrast, the U.S. crop is pegged at 23.7 million bags, down 2% from last year and 11% below two years ago. Planted acres were down about 8% and acres for harvest were expected to be down about 6%. North Dakota typically produces about one-third of the nation’s dry edible beans.
Read more of the story here

Growers, both in Canada and the US are noting their prices are deeply discounted to the ‘out-market’
Stat Publishing states: “Widening spreads between grower bids and values obtained on inter-dealer and export markets (also know as out-markets) is a feature of both Canadian and U.S. markets.”
The report goes on to say: “There were reports during the week of Canadian growers seeing bids for new crop navy beans between $11 and $15/cwt. Cdn for those same beans trading at U.S. $875 ($39.70 US/cwt) on a C&F basis. Cranberry beans are quoted between $1100 and $1150 USD/MT ($51.00/cwt) delivered (CIF) main European ports.”
In some cases grower bids are so heavily discounted that growers are asking whether this is a properly functioning market.
Stat Publishing postulates: “…processors are making a clear statement that they are not interested in buying from growers unless the grower is desperate to turn beans into cash.”
The following is an op-ed (opinion editorial) from the desk of the Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board on where the bean market finds itself today.
An alternate explanation would be that the market paradigm has changed. Dry Beans are no longer “The Adam Smith Market” we are accustomed to. There has been a consolidation throughout the value/supply chain. The market now has only a handful of end-users. Similarly the processor/dealer fraternity has shrunk and speculators that gave the market its liquidity have fled. We may have entered an era of a proprietary supply chain that is managed from the top down. Whether it is “lack of end user support”, lack of liquidity, and/or lack of price discovery transparency, one thing is certain. The rules have changed. End users don’t seem prepared to put their money into beans, processor dealers are managing risk and not using their lines of credit to buy beans. So growers need to shoulder the burden of ownership, which today means a discounted price. Yet all participants in the chain are under the illusion this is a functioning market that will at some point give ‘accurate’ and fair price signals.
Dry Beans have become a narrow based supply chain that is working from a dated ‘MO’ of out-waiting the grower until he becomes “desperate to turn beans into cash”.
The biofuel based commodity price boom may bring about a re-thinking by all the members of the value chain as to how to make dry beans a better and more ‘fair market’. A market where margins accrue to all participants and the disparity of “deeply discounted” grower prices narrows and disappears. A market where growers become the business partners of the end user, instead of the “goose that lays the golden egg”. Meanwhile we continue to delude ourselves that we have an Adam Smith market.
Click here to read the Stat Pub story. “World Bean Markets Hold Firm”

London-area farmers who just weeks ago looked skyward for relief for parched crops are bracing themselves against the opposite — too much rain, says a story in the London Free Press.
For many crops, yesterday’s rain comes too late to do any good. Rain is expected to persist this week
However, precipitation, if extended, could bring rot, mildew and disease to crops (editor’s note such as dry edible beans) that earlier this summer suffered from a lack of rain.
Read more of the story here

The province’s weekly crop report says that earlier maturing varieties of edible beans are showing leaf yellowing and pods are changing from white-green to white. Later maturing varieties are mostly still green although some leaf yellowing is visible. There may be some early varieties cut in the Portage area this week, primarily because of a lack of recent rainfall. Cutting of beans in areas that received more rain in August may start next week.

But a lower planted and harvested area will still keep production below a year ago. In its August 10th crop update the USDA forecast total American dry bean production at 23.7 million cwt (1.075 million tonnes), down 2% from last year and 11% below two years ago. The average U.S. yield is forecast at 1,649 pounds/lb, an increase of 72 pounds from last year although that is more than offset by an 8% reduction in planted area to 1.5 million acres.
Read more of the story here

Steve Scholze of Parrish & Heimbecker was quoted after the August 7th ‘wide spread rainfall’. “This was the first amount received in many areas for several weeks. Dry bean fields have begun to yellow and mature. There is evidence of pod drop/aborting from the previous drought conditions. This past Tuesdays’ rain avoided a near production disaster in Ontario. Grower’s are now … targeting average crop yields… .”
“To summarize, the overall North American trade consensus at this moment seems to indicate that bean yields should achieve average levels at very best. … Values should remain constant to slightly firmer on most varieties with many dealers withdrawn from offering firm tonnage until we move closer to the harvest period.”
Read the entire “Few Changes in Beans” story here at Stat Publishing

According to the USDA’s latest crop production estimates released today Aug 10. U.S. dry edible bean production is forecast at 23.7 million cwt (100 pound ‘bag’ units) in 2007, down 2% from a year ago.
Acreage changes since the June report slightly increased planted area (less than 1%) and upped expected harvested area by a similar percent.
Planted area is now estimated at 1.50 million acres. Harvested area is forecast at 1.44 million acres, down some 6%.
Production is expected to be below last year in 10 of the 18 producing States because of lower acreage.
The North Dakota crop was rated 71% good to excellent compared with 29% last year. Above normal seasonal precipitation has led to the improved ratings.
In Michigan, dry conditions persisted throughout the summer, reducing yield potential.