“Think Outside the Pod”
presented by: Ontario Coloured Bean Growers’ Association
~ All Bean Growers Welcome – Past, Present Future ~
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Community Centre, Kirkton, ON
9:50 am – 3:00 pm

For the full agenda and registration details click

Latest March 4 Agendadraft

The Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board (OBPMB) of directors has issued an interim payment to all growers who delivered beans to ‘the Pool’ of $10.00 per bag or $220.46 per Mt.  The cheques are in the mail as of February 19^th 2010.  This is an interim payment which is additional to the initial payment of $22.07/bag ($486.56/Mt.) for a total payment to date for Pool beans of $32.07/bag or approximately $707.00/Mt. less licensing fees that were deducted at harvest.  A final payment for beans delivered to the Pool will be made in late September or early October once the OBPMB has undergone its annual audit.

Dry bean acreage could see an increase in Manitoba this year, says a story from Syngenta Farm.
Roxanne Roels, executive director of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association Inc., said early indications suggest dry bean area in the province could climb to around 150,000, up about 10,000 acres from the previous year.
Last year’s good yields, and favorable that current prices are the driving factors.
Read more of the story here

The Ontario Bean Producers’ has a limited amount of admission tickets to:

Canadian International Farm Show
February 17–19, 2009
International Centre – 6900 Airport Road,
Toronto Ontario

Fill out the application form and fax in by January 31^st and receive a 3 day pass in the mail.

You must act before January 31^st 2010.  Click here or on any of the above links.

The Ag-Alert hotline reports new crop dry bean values are posted at one major buyer: for White Pea (Navy) beans at $33/cwt with blacks around $34. Kidneys and Crans between $35-39.
[Editor’s note: rumors from the country indicate that prices could improve by 1 to 2 dollars per bag to get growers interested in growing dry beans next year.]

Stat Publishing in their full story under ’Strong Finish For Edible Beans’ make an interesting observation:
“There is a growing belief world markets are facing a shortage of white beans because of production problems in both China and Argentina.”
As well the article notes that Black beans may be facing limited stocks.
Editor’s note: — The white beans referenced may be the larger seeded Alubia types or other smaller white seed coated beans that would compete against Small White Beans, Navy (White Pea) Beans or Great Northern type beans from North America.  This comes on the heels of a sharp reduction in White Pea (navy) bean production in North America.

Minnesota had a BIG (profitable) year growing navy beans, says The Land. Some yields exceeding 3,000 lbs/acre. Contract pricing at US$27/cwt., with production costs (including land) of about $350/acre. Net profit went through the roof.
The entire story can be read here.
[Editor's note: This will be Ontario's and other North American production zones competition in the future. ]

In a crop production report released today (Oct. 9th) the USDA showed aggregated (all) dry edible bean production as slightly higher than the August report. Meanwhile Farm Services (another USA reporting system) reportedly showed aggregate white pea bean (Navy) acres some 25,000 less than the USDA’s August numbers.
Using Farm Service’s numbers and adding in currently accepted Ontario and Manitoba numbers total North American acres devoted to White Beans could be just shy of 300,000 acres!
Meanwhile harvest has hit a speed bump for most areas as weather turned wet during the last week of September – particularly in Ontario. Preliminary indications suggest 40% of that province’s crop is in. Reasonably good quality for the first 3 harvest weeks but some disease issues bumping up pick. However with the wet weather and later maturing crop there are and will be more problems with quality and quantity of beans delievered.
Meanwhile a strong Canadian dollar keeps a lid on prices that had weakened because of some early harvest pressure.
Strong values for competing crops such as black beans and possibly soybeans have some market watchers wondering if the current depressed price of White Beans (~$32.00/Cnd/100lb –Ontario grower) will be sufficient to bring growers to the table in 2010 or will the white bean acreage just fade from the Ontario croping scene.

For Sept. 17.  Here are the dry bean highlights:

Edible Beans – Harvest has been limited to date with the bulk of the harvest likely to happen in the next 14 days. Reported yields have ranged widely from 16 – 22 cwt/acre, depending on drainage, seasonal rainfall events, and disease. Quality has been excellent, but low seed moisture has delayed harvest in some cases. There is a warning about weeds, that can cause severe staining. 

[Editor’s note: Anecdotal reports suggest seed size is small due to lack of moisture in recent weeks to help the later pods fill properly.]

Syngenta Farm carries a story quoting Peter Johnson, Ontario’s provincial crop specialist saying yields are variable but better than expected. Yields range anywhere from just 8 cwt/acre to as much as 30 cwt. “We’re getting lots of edible bean yields coming in at 18 to 24 (cwt)/acre.”