Manitoba bean growers haven’t found new crop contracts appetizing this year.
“There is not a lot of activity on the contracting side. Growers are just kind of holding back and waiting,” said Dennis Lange, an agronomist with Parent Seed Farms Ltd., a processing firm from St. Joseph, Man.
New crop pinto and navy bean prices are hovering around 21 cents per pound in Canada’s largest bean-producing province.
That is not high enough to attract much grower attention, but it doesn’t mean bean acreage will fall.
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Judging by the run on seed supplies, analysts expect 2005 Manitoba seeded acreage will be similar to last year’s 200,000 acres, if not slightly bigger.
Meanwhile, American growers are expressing a keener interest in beans.
According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture outlook, U.S. dry bean area is expected to rise 20-30 percent over last year’s 1.35 million acre crop.
Shrinking bean stocks, record-high pinto
prices and disappointing corn and soybean prices are all contributing to strong grower interest in the crop.
“The potential for increased area is greatest for pinto and navy beans, with each expected to rise by about one-fourth,” the USDA said in its Feb. 23 vegetable and melon’s outlook.
“These two classes alone could account for three-fourths of the additional area expected to be planted in 2005.”
The department also expected a moderate to strong increase in kidney beans, baby limas and cranberry beans. Plantings of great northern, garbanzo, black, small red, pink, large lima and blackeye beans are expected to increase marginally, if at all.
Assuming a return to average yields, the USDA expects American growers to harvest 544,000 tonnes of pintos in 2005-06, up 53 percent from last year’s 354,441 tonne crop. That would undoubtedly have a damping effect on what have been phenomenal North American prices.
The aggregate U.S. grower price for all dry beans during the first five months of the 2004-05 marketing year (September 2004 through January 2005) averaged 43 percent more than the same period last year.
Dealer prices for pintos have averaged 36 cents US per pound, up 75 percent from a year earlier. Navy beans have averaged nearly 32 cents per lb., an increase of 41 percent over last year’s prices.
Canadian prices have not been as lucrative, partly because of the strengthening dollar, but they are still attractive. Prices for 2004 crop navy beans have been as high as 33 cents per lb., which is about a dime higher than the five-year average, Lange said.
He said he is worried that producers on both sides of the border are basing their 2005 planting decisions on those old crop prices, which is unwise.
“You should be looking at what kind of new crop levels you can get.”
Lange expected producers would lock in production if new crop prices for pinto and navy beans rise to 23 to 24 cents per lb. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been the end-user pull to boost contract prices to that level.
“The pipeline is getting drier because there wasn’t a big crop in 2004 but it hasn’t seemed to kick into the marketplace yet.”
As a result, it appears growers will rely on spot prices this fall rather than locking up production in the spring, which isn’t necessarily a bad tactic, he said.
One challenge growers will face in 2005 is dealing with the poor quality seed that is available, said Manitoba Agriculture pulse crop specialist Bruce Brolley.
Preliminary tests have shown significant germination problems with some bean seed on the market. Where germination is not a problem, there are vigour issues.
“We’ve had some problems in past years with dry seed and cracked seed. We wish we had those problems right now,” Brolley said.
