Different Perspectives on Harvest

Different Perspectives on Harvest

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
In a conversation with Don Morishita, the Kimberly center superintendent and a weed scientist who is performing several research studies on dry beans told me: “ Harvesting is the biggest thing so historically, the way that beans have been harvested here in Idaho, they are actually undercut and then put in a wind row and then they dry down and a grower will come in with a harvester that has a pickup unit on it that will pick these beings that are in a wind row compared to soy beans where it is all direct cut.”

 

Okay that’s one perspective. But that harvesting technique can produce problems according to Dr. Mark Brick a Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Colorado State University. Traditionally, U.S. pinto varieties have “prostrate” architecture. “They would grow upright initially; then mid-season, when they started to show pods, they would vine out and grow horizontally along the ground.” Harvesting prostrate beans is a complex process. Harvesters cut the bean plants below the ground, pull them out, and lay them on the field to dry in piled rows. Finally, combine harvesters are used to thresh and harvest the dried beans.

 Each step in this harvesting process has the potential to decrease yields by shattering of the bean seeds. Additionally, while beans are drying in the fields they remain exposed to the weather, which can discolor seeds, damage yields or even ruin the crop completely. It's like apples. No one wants to eat an apple that is all beat up and pock marked. Same thing with beans. they have to look good.” Different perspectives which is what makes farming so challenging and so very interesting.

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