MSU Extension Hosts Local Dry Bean Field Day

Local dry bean farmers got schooled in their very own fields on innovative production techniques and new research from Michigan State University. The mission of the field day was to bestow the school’s most recent research on farmers in Michigan communities.

Michigan state extension held the dry bean field day to share some of their latest on–farm plot variety research with growers in the state of Michigan.

“Michigan is number 2 for dry bean production in the whole nation. A lot of people don’t think about dry beans as a kind of commodity crop or large farm crop but Michigan is second after North Dakota for dry bean production,” says MSU field crop educator James DeDecker.

Farmers heard directly from DeDecker and other speakers, who covered topics ranging from pest management to new bean plants that have been thriving in northeast Michigan. Todd Ableidinger, who hosted the field day, says the information they learned today helps immensely for planning which crops to grow next year.

“You know this year this field right here is a kind of rough looking field because we got so much rain and its heavy clay…they didn’t do as good. Last year when it was dry they probably would’ve done better than in the light ground. Just to see the different varieties and how they react in different soil conditions,” said Ableidinger.

According to DeDecker, the Michigan State Extension tries to generate information locally that will be useful to farmers, which is why field days like these are so important.

“Because there’s so much variability out there in agriculture, the land that we’re farming, weather and the crops that you grow… we find that growers truly value information that’s generated on their own farms. So on farm education is a big part of what we do in the northeast lower,” he says.