MarketsFarm — Pulse growers in Manitoba are waiting for one thing: rain.
So far in May, growing areas of the province have not seen any significant precipitation, according to Dennis Lange, industry development specialist for pulse crops with Manitoba Agriculture.
Dry beans, he said, are the last pulse crop farmers have been planting in Manitoba and are about 75 per cent complete as of Tuesday.
“They were rolling along very quickly,” he said. “They only got going early last week.”
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As for field peas, he said, planting is pretty much finished for this year and they got off to a good start.
“Emergence has been quite good this year. There’s been good soil moisture even though we have not had any significant rainfall this May,” Lange said, noting earlier-planted field peas were at the third to fourth node stage.
Planted area estimates from Statistics Canada put field peas for the province at 185,300 acres, compared to 188,600 in 2022-23, he noted; planted dry bean acres are expected to shrink to 115,800 from last year’s 125,400.
While field peas benefitted from better soil moisture levels, Lange said some dry bean growers are planting a little deeper than they normally would, down to 1.5-1.75 inches rather than the usual 1.25-1.5.
“Any deeper than two inches, it takes too long to come out of the ground,” Lange said.
Farmers’ other option, he said, has been to plant dry beans at normal depths and hope rain comes in time.
Prices for dry peas have held steady for the past month, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Old-crop green peas remain at $12.50-$14.50 per bushel delivered and new-crop is at $12-$12.81/bu.
Old-crop yellow peas stood at $9.95-$12.80/bu. with new-crop at $9-$10.30/bu.
Among dry beans, white navy were at 52-55 cents/lb. for old-crop and 43.5-46 cents/lb. for new-crop. Pinto beans were at 47.5-50 cents/lb. for old-crop and 43.5 to 46 cents/lb. for new crop.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
