Plan B: AdFarm pinto beans harvested

November 09, 2009

It wasn’t ideal, but the AdFarm pinto beans were harvested by an alternative method on Thursday, November 5.Cooperating Farmer Fred Lukens reported that he started harvesting the AdFarm fields at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon and finished at 11 p.m. with his 1688 self-propelled combine and 30-foot flex head. The total production for the AdFarm fields was 101,041 lbs. of grade #1 pinto beans. This is an average yield of 1,443 lbs. per acre.

Harvesting the pinto beans with the flex head is not the normal harvest procedure on the Lukens farm. He explains, “We usually run a Pickett one step ahead of the combine to cut, lift and windrow the pinto beans. Yet with our October snow and rain and the prediction for more rain on November 8 and 9, we didn’t want to risk losing the entire crop snow. I’m guessing that we left close to 500 lbs. of pinto beans per acre on the field by flexing the crop compared to our traditional harvest method. As always, Mother Nature holds the cards. Farmers try to play the hand we’re dealt as best we can.”

The average moisture of the AdFarm pinto beans was 18.2%. This is higher than the desired 16% moisture pinto bean processors require for long term storage. The higher moisture resulted in a 2.5% moisture dockage reduction. The beans earned #1 grade based on the low deductions for splits, unacceptable beans (pick) and foreign material. The AdFarm beans graded 1% splits, .15% pick and .2% foreign material for a total of 1.35% dockage deduction. This is an above average dockage deduction.

Mike Hallingstad of Sharon Bean said, “These might be the nicest looking beans we’ve seen all fall. Total dockage less than 2% is exceptional.” Dockage less than 5% makes the #1 bean status.Beans rated below number one are paid at a discounted rate.

Hallingstad expects pinto bean prices to continue moving higher. He says, “On November 1, we had about 50% of the pinto beans in North Dakota harvested. Normal is 95%. We had a short crop going into this year. With our weather this fall, I expect that 15-20% of this year’s crop will be abandoned and not harvested. Our pinto bean price now is 30¢ per pound. I expect 35¢ per pound soon.”

With the AdFarm yield, and the 25¢ per pound contract on the first 800 pounds of production, Lukens projects a 30¢ per pound on the remaining production will result in a break-even price. Stay tuned...

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