FRANKENMUTH, Mich. – Michigan’s dry bean producers are set to finish another good harvest, with no huge obstacles this year to a good crop.

That’s the word from Michigan Bean Commission Executive Director Joe Cramer. In a recent interview, Cramer noted there were some weather issues this year. A lot of rain came in July and early August. “That robbed growers of some yield or a lot of yield,” he said. “I’m hoping we can come out of it with an average of 22 bags an acre.” A bag of beans is 100 pounds.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the harvest of dry beans in Michigan was 52 percent complete as of the week ending Oct. 1. That was the same as the five-year running average complete to that date. Last year the harvest was 60 percent completed by that time. As for the quality of the beans, that is another story. According to the same report, none of the beans are in excellent condition and only 16 percent are in good condition. Fifty-seven percent are in fair condition and 27 percent are in poor condition.

Late last month the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) issued its Dry Bean Stocks Report, a yearly publication. MDARD explained in an announcement that dry bean stocks are not included in the USDA’s Agricultural Statistics Board system of grain stocks reports.

Dry bean stocks data included in the report were tabulated from administrative reports supplied monthly by elevator operators to MDARD. “The report helps buyers and sellers make more educated market decisions about the direction of the market, whether there’s an oversupply, limited supply and so forth,” Cramer said.

According to the report, commercial elevators in Michigan held 1,223,392 hundredweight (cwt) of dry beans in storage as of Aug. 31, 2023. The quantity on hand included 641,141 cwt of navy beans, 436,225 cwt of black beans, 76,748 cwt of small red beans and 68,978 cwt of all other classes. Stocks account for all beans in commercial off-farm storage, including a small portion of non-Michigan grown products. The report does not include an estimate of the quantity of dry beans held on farms. This is the 20th report of its kind and is sent at the request of the Michigan Bean Commission and Michigan Bean Shippers Association. The Michigan Bean Commission is the state-sanctioned commodity group for dry bean growers in Michigan.

Michigan producers grow a variety of dry edible beans, including black beans, cranberry beans, great northern beans, red kidney beans, navy beans, pinto beans, small red beans and yellow eye beans. Michigan growers produce over 400 million pounds of edible beans each year and are the nation’s second largest producers of total dry beans.

Michigan is first in the nation in the production of black beans, cranberry beans and small red beans, and second in the country in the production of navy beans.