RIVERHURST, Sask. – Joe Brennan strides the soil with the confidence of a titan, like an Idaho giant who has brought his own beanstalk.
Politely deferential Frank Hiebert trots cheerily in his shadow, a solid Saskatchewan yeoman quietly eager to spring upon the vine.
The Canadian and American farmers seem polar opposites, but they share a partnership and a conviction: There’s a good future in beans.
In Saskatchewan, that is.
Beans have been a major, large acreage crop in Brennan’s home state of Idaho for years, but lack of available land and expensive irrigation may force some land out of production. Losing the ability to irrigate would kill production on almost any Idaho land affected, Brennan said.
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But in central Saskatchewan, where Hiebert farms just outside Riverhurst, beans have generally been found only in small garden plots, on supermarket shelves and in children’s folk tales.
Not any more. Hiebert and others are growing many types of beans, including pintos, whites, blacks, reds and pinks.
As he and Brennan load a dusty bean conveyor into the back of a truck at a local bean collecting stations, he pauses to rub the dirt off his hands and sum up what he has discovered about northern bean growing.
“Beans work good in any rotation,” Hiebert said. “It’s quite a switch, but it’s not bad once you get into it.”
Brennan and Hiebert are part of a crop revolution taking the Lake Diefenbaker area from its reliance on wheat, canola and forage crops and introducing high-value crops such as beans and potatoes. Experienced row crop farmers from afar, like Brennan, are working with inexperienced but willing local producers, like Hiebert, to bring crops like beans into common rotation.
Beans need different machinery, different management and force farmers to learn to row crop – a rare skill on the Saskatchewan flatlands dominated by cereals and oilseeds.
Irrigation supporters and pro-vincial agriculture workers have predicted the changes for years, but only now does it appear to be happening, mainly because several factors have come into play: Local farmers are looking for different crop options; farmers with the right experience are moving to the area; the border with the United States is more open, guaranteeing access; and a foreign corporation has come in willing to work with producers.
Production soaring
In the past four years potato acreage has dramatically expanded and bean production is doubling each year in the region. Storage and processing plants are springing up, and there’s a feeling of change in the area.
It’s speculation whether the region can catch up to the high value crop production seen in areas of southern Alberta and Manitoba, but it’s off to a promising start.
“They’re getting into these beans pretty good because they can see right now it’s going to be the alternative to wheat,” said Brennan.
“Wheat’s always going to be in the rotation, but I think they need something that’s going to get them more money.”
The soft-spoken Hiebert agrees.
“You’ve got to do something,” he said from under the bill of a greasy tractor cap.
Hiebert grows about 500 acres of beans.
In the 1980s, when the bottom dropped out of the wheat bucket, Hiebert’s farm poured a lot of its land, money and energy into canola. This provided good returns for years, but recently, probably because they pushed canola rotations too close, yields have dropped and disease is becoming a problem.
Four years ago, Hiebert started growing beans and potatoes, which he now plans to incorporate permanently into his rotation. It’s a cash crop he can count on, he said.
Brennan contracts with local producers like Hiebert to produce beans for a large American processor, Trinidad Benham. The producers do field work and put down chemical, then Brennan comes in and seeds. He cultivates twice during the season and undercuts at harvest time. Then the local farmer combines up the windrows.
The first year, Brennan seeded 900 acres. Last year production expanded to 2,500 acres. This year it hit 3,000.
Brennan said Trinidad Benham would like to have 10,000 Saskatchewan acres in bean production, a place where irrigated water use is less expensive.
Saskatchewan plains are “a lot more humid.”
As Brennan got ready to get in his truck and head for Idaho, a 32-hour drive to pick up a cultivator, he said he’s sure Saskatchewan farmers will take up bean growing with gusto.
“Once they figure out the potential of what the lake’s got to offer and what the ground’s got to offer, I think you’ll see a lot more.”
