Marlene Boersch of Mercantile Consulting Venture Inc. in Winnipeg said large carryouts and lower prices over the past year will likely mean fewer pulse acres this spring.

“Like for all commodities, prices are down quite a bit. So your return-per-acre calculation will change very significantly,” Boersch said. “On top of that, for both lentils and peas, you will have some very significant carryout.”

Seeded lentil acres were estimated at 4.138 million tonnes, down 5.5 per cent from last year. The total would be the least amount of acres in three years and the second-least since 2020. One reason for the decline would be the 2025-26 carryout of 1.695 million tonnes, more than three times larger than the previous year’s.

Dry pea acres were also set to be lower, dropping by 12.3 per cent at 3.078 million acres. The figure was also the lowest in three years and the second-lowest since 2012. Dry pea plantings will decline in all three Prairie provinces, most notably Saskatchewan where it will lose 16.6 per cent for a total of 1.479 million. The 2025-26 carryout for dry peas was 1.31 million tonnes, nearly triple from the previous year.

The amount of edible bean acres is projected to decline by 30.7 per cent at 295,000 acres, the smallest total since 2015 and one year after the biggest edible bean crop since 2020. Manitoba’s seeded area was estimated at 120,000 tonnes this year, down 44.7 per cent from 2025.

StatCan estimated faba beans acres this spring to total 55,900, 18.8 per cent lower than in 2025 and the fewest acres since 2016. It would also mark the fourth straight time faba bean acres in Canada declined year-by-year.

Chickpeas were the only pulse to buck the trend. Canadians are expected to use 6.3 per cent more land than last year to grow the crop at 575,000 acres. It would be the fifth straight yearly increase for chickpeas and its largest seeded area since 2001. This is despite 2026 ending stocks for chickpeas having more than quadrupled from the year before at 275,000 tonnes.

The planting survey was conducted from mid-December to mid-January. However, rising fertilizer prices tied to the escalating conflict in the Middle East could shift planting intentions, said Glacier FarmMedia analyst Bruce Burnett. He said the relatively lower input costs for pulse crops compared to other options could lead to more area going to peas and lentils this spring than earlier expectations.

The post Pulse Weekly: StatCan projects fewer pea and lentil acres appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

What if, instead of blanket spraying an entire field to wipe out invading insects, you gave them something to munch on that you want them to eat?

Trap cropping — where plants favoured by a pest insect are planted to draw insects away from a main cash crop (usually planted later) — is making new inroads with farmers, particularly those with small to mid-sized fields and who want to lower insecticide use, according to Héctor Cárcamo, a senior research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

WHY IT MATTERS: Spray costs, resistance concerns and increasing awareness of beneficial insects have driven more research attention to integrated pest management practices. In some cases, that’s meant taking a leaf out of our grandparents’ book.

Speaking to pulse growers near Taber, Alta., in December, Cárcamo pointed to various Prairie research projects testing the concept in pest hot spots.

Trap cropping relies on the idea that, by concentrating pests in designated areas for food and egg laying, farmers can monitor and manage the pest population more efficiently. Maybe they can limit their spraying to that limited area, or release beneficial insects.

Spraying a smaller area might mean less input cost, while also keeping things friendlier for beneficial insects and making control efforts more targeted and precise.

Matchmaking pests and trap crops

The secret is finding which trap crop will draw the most pests away from the crop the farmer is trying to protect, Cárcamo said.

For faba bean growers, lygus bugs are one pest insect they’d like to keep well clear of their fields. They also might be enough of a picky eater for trap crops to work.

Cárcamo’s work into trap crops against lygus bugs was highlighted by the Western Producer last year. At that time, the researcher noted that the pulse crop’s timing — filling pods while surrounding crops are drying down — tends to puts a target on the still juicy faba bean plants for any lygus bugs in the area.

Researchers tried various trap crops as bait, along with targeted insecticide and beneficial predator release. They tried mustard, canola, hemp and sunflowers.

Winter peas got a good jump in development, while spring-planted peas faced struggled to achieve the needed difference in crop staging compared to the protected crop. Of the seven crops tested, one was the clear lygus bug favourite.

“I’ll give you a hint. It’s yellow flowers and produces oil. Canola was the clear favourite,” Cárcamo said.

Sunflowers also showed potential, echoing results also seen in China with a different species of lygus bug.

Last year’s coverage of Cárcamo’s lygus bug work also noted that faba beans planted next to safflower showed less damage than those planted next to canola in 2022, and that safflower seemed to retain the pest insects for longer.

How realistic is it?

There is promise in trap cropping fields, those listening to Cárcamo’s presentation heard. At the same time, results will vary depending on the pest and specific strategies used. There’s timing, field arrangement, pest pressure and follow-up management like local spraying and beneficials introduction that are critical.

In the faba bean trial, for instance, while canola had lygus bugs flocking to the trap, it also had to be followed up with well-timed insecticide to keep the bugs from exploding back into the protected crop.

There’s also the question of how well it meshes with the average farms. Most farms on the Prairies today are large, with large fields. More complex and time consuming agronomic pest management alternatives may not be attractive.

“Trap cropping, you need to do things at different times and some farms have thousands and thousands of acres. If someone has the time, maybe they are retiring and want to play around, then try trap crops,” said Cárcamo.

The post Trap crops to cut faba bean spraying? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A pulse consumption per capita study from 2021, found Canada ranked 47th out of 144 countries, at 3,381 kilograms per capita, an alarming 30 per cent drop from the previous year. It’s been a continuous decline since it reached an all-time high in 2017 of 11,030 kg.

WHY IT MATTERS: Increasing domestic consumption of pulses at home in Canada helps with exporting pressures abroad when trade barriers pop up on the international stage.

Pulses are found to be more highly consumed in developing countries than in industrialized ones, accounting for 75 per cent of the average diet.

Looking to reverse these trends in domestic consumption, Pulse Canada had its 25 by 2025 strategic initiative to diversify the industry by directing 25 per cent of pulse production to new markets and end-use categories to encourage consumption abroad and domestically. Also, the Road to $25 Billion campaign by Protein Industry Canada looks to bolster ingredient manufacturing and food processing at home to make domestic consumption easier.

Reasons for not consuming pulses identified in both North American and European studies include:

• dislike of taste and/or texture,

• low knowledge of health value

• lack of knowledge around cooking method

• negative perceptions of time and effort in preparing and cooking

• potential for gastronomical issues

Pulse Canada did a deep dive into the production volumes of each pulse and have found dry beans, faba beans and chickpeas as the largest growth potential for domestic consumption. Direct-to-consumer promotions such as its Love Canadian Beans social media push have showcased its affordability in food security and their ability to be consumed in a variety of ways in meal and recipe types.

“To complement that, we recognize consumers do need to have an almost direct experience with food to encourage them to consume and make new dishes at home,” says Julianne Curran, vice president of Market Innovation for Pulse Canada.

“We’re leaning into opportunities with food-service operators here in Canada, where consumers may have an opportunity to try something when they’re dining out,” says Curran. “After a positive experience, then they would be more encouraged to perhaps buy a can of beans and make something at home. We do have a lot of natural interest from food service operators here in Canada, that are also looking at increasing their plant-based offerings (on their menu), recognizing affordability being a real big concern amongst their clients.”

The Canadian pulse industry is also making its way into educational institutions to sing the praises of pulses to Gen Z, where university and public-school aged students are putting a higher priority on plant-forward dishes along with the general public.

Alberta Pulse Growers unveiled this academic year, a partnership with School Sports Alberta in promoting its Pulse to Plate campaign in its over 400 schools, including easy-to-make delicious recipes for families on the go.

“The other thing we’ve been doing more of is leveraging some of the marketing messages that you can be highlighting about being nutritional benefits and continuing to educate the companies that are manufacturing bean products for retail sales, so that they can use a lot of that messaging on their labels and in their marketing as well,” says Curran, adding in higher fibre and protein intakes in a food security affordable way.

“There are various nutrition claims that you can make around beans. We’re wanting to ensure that companies know all the things they can say.”

For the food-manufacturing industry, Pulse Canada is promoting the increase of the domestic utilization of faba beans and chickpeas. Given the quality of the crop grown in Canada, it lends itself to value-added processing.

“Faba beans in particular do lend themselves really well to the same type of processing as we’re seeing for dry peas,” says Curran.

“So that’s fractionation processing, flour processing. We’re trying to promote to the food-manufacturing industry here in North America the value in terms of added nutrition and functionality that those ingredients can provide to food products.”

There has been some successful use of fava beans in animal feed, with markets also available in pet food as an end-use product.

Demand for chickpeas has traditionally been for humus, but the versatile pulse can be ground into a gluten-free flour, rich in protein and fibre, for baking, thickening or binding, or used as an egg substitute in vegan recipes.

“It’s got high uptake by consumers, and so we are working to promote chickpeas for those value-added processing streams that are really seeing growth here in North America. We’re doing that through a lot of projects to demonstrate the performance of Canadian chickpeas into some of those newer applications and market that to the food industry,” says Curran.

The post Pulse Canada eyes home-grown push amid lagging consumption appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The pests were first found in Lethbridge, but can now be found throughout the province.

“Historically, it was more of an economic issue in southern Alberta, but we do see higher populations in central Alberta and the Edmonton area. We’re still trying to tease apart the relationship between yield losses in central and northern Alberta,” said Jorgensen.

WHY IT MATTERS: With the right conditions, the pea leaf weevil can cause significant yield losses in pulse crops, especially field peas and faba beans.

Hector Carcamo, entomologist at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in Lethbridge, said the pea leaf weevil made its way to the west coast in Canada in the 1930s, was discovered on the Canadian Prairies in the 1990s and has been moving east ever since.

This is the first year the pea leaf weevil has been a problem in Manitoba.

“We’ve seen a lot of damage in central Manitoba,” said Carcamo, at an Alberta Pulse Growers regional meeting in Taber.

Reproduction

The insects can feed on field peas, faba beans, lentils and beans, but can only reproduce on peas and faba beans.

The pea leaf weevil produces one generation per year.

Females lay about 1,000 to 1,500 eggs in the soil. The pea leaf weevil tends to have more of an impact on faba beans. However, there are fewer faba beans in the province, so the Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, Plant and Bee Health Surveillance section staff concentrates their surveys on peas.

“Adults will feed on leaves, which is a nice way for us to scout for their presence, looking for those distinct notches. But that notching usually isn’t economic unless you have so many weevils that there’s not much plant left, which does not happen very often,” said Jorgensen.

The pea leaf weevils find areas with thick residue and perennial forage crops like alfalfa to spend the winter.

The weevils can overwinter as adult beetles and start feeding on non-reproductive plant hosts.

“That’s just an adult feeding. It’s not necessarily an economic concern,” said Jorgensen.

Weevils arrive early in pea fields in warm temperatures above 20 C. If the weather stays around that temperature for more than a few days in late April or early May, that may correspond with higher pea yield losses. If the weather is cool during the same period, pea yield is generally not as compromised.

New adults may emerge later in the growing season in late July through August, and search for any pulse crop to continue feeding before overwintering.

In March or April, they emerge from hibernation and start looking for any plant in the bean family to feed on before laying eggs from May through July.

“They really want to find the field peas and faba beans. There is something that gets them in a romantic mood when they find field peas and faba beans. They start thinking about mating and laying eggs,” said Carcamo.

“Even if they find alfalfa, they will not lay as many eggs in a field of alfalfa.”

Identification

The adult pea leaf weevil is slender, greyish brown and about five-millimetres long. They can be identified by the presence of three light-coloured stripes extending lengthwise down the thorax and the abdomen.

The larvae are C-shaped, light milky white in colour, with a dark brown head. They have no legs and are cylindrical, soft and fleshy. They are about 3.5 to 5.5 mm in length.

Economic loss

Weevils will move from alfalfa or another legume to a faba bean or pea field. They feed on faba beans and pea fields and start mating and laying eggs in the soil. The pupae emerge as adults towards the end of August and then start feeding on nodules, which causes the economic losses.

When larvae feed on root nodules, there is decreased nodulation, as well as a decrease in the amount of nitrogen that peas or faba beans are going to be able to produce.

“That’s really where our yield impact comes,” Jorgensen said.

“Sometimes the relationship between the number of weevils and the yield isn’t as clear cut, because of all the different agronomic factors that could impact the amount of nitrogen that’s already in the field. The amount of moisture the plant is getting is going to impact how that reduced ability to produce nitrogen is going to impact yield.”

Moving north

The pea leaf weevil has made its way to the Peace Country, and there is a hotspot in Saddle Hills County northwest of Grande Prairie. But there are still low levels of insects in that area.

“We did see a population increase, so we’re keeping an eye on it,” said Jorgensen.

The pea leaf weevil is most found in pea fields south of Highway 1, with density of the insect and resulting damage increasing towards Lethbridge.

“We recommend producers pay attention to what they’ve seen in their own fields in terms of yield impact, because this year, we saw high numbers of pea leaf weevil in the central and Edmonton area, but we don’t have any people reporting yield losses,” said Jorgensen.

Overwintering

The pea leaf weevil needs moisture to develop. They need a good snow cover or mild winter to survive.

“If we have a harsh, cold winter with low snow cover, then a lot of weevils are going to die over the winter, and if they don’t have the best moisture conditions over the summer, they will persist but won’t do as great,” said Jorgensen.

If moisture conditions are good, that will often help plants compensate for the damage.

Pest management

If producers see pea leaf weevil consistently in their area, seed treatments are the best solution, Jorgensen said.

“There are foliar insecticides that are registered for pea leaf weevil, but we’re finding more that they really do not decrease yield impacts from pea leaf weevil. Pea leaf weevil has a long emergence period for adults to be active.”

In areas that consistently have pea leaf weevil issues, using a registered seed treatment is one of the best things a grower can do.

Growers should keep track of yield issues and decide to see if treated seed is worthwhile for their farm.

“It’s worth noticing whether they have had any yield issues, and to make that decision whether using a treated seed is worthwhile for them specifically,” Jorgensen said.

The 2025 survey was conducted by Alberta Agriculture staff who stop at random pea fields and visit producers who have called. The survey for pea leaf weevil is conducted during the spring.

“We really appreciate the volunteers, because we have random sampling fields that we see driving by between the four and six node stage. It’s hard to track a pea field at that height, so we always appreciate people letting us know where we can find them,” they said.

The team surveys by counting the number of U-shaped notches on the leaves.

When the surveillance team has their information about what they saw in the spring last year, it’s still helpful for producers to make their own decisions about what they want to do in the field, they said.

The survey is helpful for making decisions, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect what will happen after overwintering conditions.

Unfortunately, pea leaf weevil is an insect that growers cannot spray for.

“There are foliar insecticides that are registered for pea leaf weevil, but we’re finding more and more that they do not decrease yield impacts from pea leaf weevil, because pea leaf weevil has a long emergence period for those adults to be active,” they said.

A foliar application is going to miss a good portion of adults, and they will still lay enough eggs that there could be a yield issue.

The post Growers urged to monitor for pea leaf weevil despite low 2025 activity appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Producers across Saskatchewan, and into neighbouring areas of Manitoba and Alberta, can access the site, input their location, and soil type, and find detailed trial results and variety information. The performance data will then help in making informed decisions about which pulse crops perform best in their specific geographic areas and growing environments. The enhanced platform builds on a previous tool, with several significant improvements:

Updated Pulse Varieties: The platform has a broad range of pulse varieties including lentils, peas, chickpeas, faba beans and dry beans.

Advanced Data Sets: Enhanced with detailed data sets that offer deeper insights into variety performance, including ratings for maturity, seed coat colour, protein content and disease resistance.

Weather Data Integration: Weather data is included to compare varietal performance under variable environmental conditions, helping producers understand how different varieties respond to climate patterns.

Superior User Experience: Completely redesigned interface ensures intuitive navigation and streamlined access to critical information. Compare all varieties available for a selected crop and region simultaneously.

Multi-Device Compatibility: Optimized for seamless performance across desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones, enabling farmers to access vital information anywhere, anytime.

Complete Feature Integration: All popular features from the previous version have been preserved and enhanced, ensuring continuity for existing users while providing expanded capabilities.

“We are excited to introduce this powerful new tool that will help pulse producers make more informed variety selection decisions,” said Winston van Staveren, SPG Board Chair in a news release. “The enhanced Pulse Variety Hub represents our continued commitment to supporting farmers with the most transparent and accessible agricultural information available.”

The platform serves as a resource for pulse crop producers seeking to optimize their variety selection based on specific growing conditions, regions, market requirements and production goals. The comprehensive database includes detailed information on agronomic characteristics, average yields, disease resistance profiles, maturity ratings and performance data across various growing environments.

The post New Pulse Variety Hub launched in Saskatchewan appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The regional event was held in late July at AgSmart and hosted by Olds College. Weigum will represent Alberta at Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers competition in November 2025 in Toronto.

Weigum specializes in pedigreed seed production and retail sales. She co-owns the business with her parents, who started the farm and seed business in the 1980s.

Weigum returned to the farm in 2011 after studying English literature at university, working in communications in British Columbia and Ottawa, and cooking for a tree planting camp.

She used those diverse experiences and skills to improve marketing, expand her customer base and connect with professionals across the grain and seed industry.

Alect Seeds produces wheat, barley and peas but also niche crops such as fab beans, flax and fall rye.

Through field days, writing for farm publications, involvement in grower groups and many conversations on the phone and in the community, Weigum has supported farmers who want to grow crops outside the box.

She is president of Alberta/British Columbia Seed Growers and is also a board member for her local seed plant co-operative.

READ MORE: Check out last year’s regional OYF nominees from across Canada HERE.

“The Alberta Outstanding Young Farmers have once again put on an incredible event, attracting alumni, sponsors, friends and family. This year‘s winner, Sarah Weigum, demonstrates the values that our program stands for: excellence, sustainability and passion,” Amy Cronin, president of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer Program, said in a press release.

“Sarah operates a seed business and exemplifies the spirit of collaboration, creating a model that can be used by other farmers as well. She is an advocate for agriculture and takes pride in being a journalist who put some of the most technical information into articles that the industry can easily understand and adopt.”

Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers is an annual competition aimed at rewarding farmers who demonstrate excellence in their profession and promote agriculture’s contribution.

It is open to participants aged 18 to 39 years old, whose major source of income comes from agricultural sources. Participants are selected from seven regions in Canada, and two national winners are chosen each year.

The post Outstanding Young Farmer named in Alberta appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) has updated its normals — that is, the yield expectations in a given risk area which help determine insurance coverage — to reflect provincial faba bean production reported from 2000 to 2024.

As a result, producers insuring faba beans, which are sold for livestock feed as well as human consumption, for less than five years will see an increase in their coverage.

The change was made in response to concerns expressed by the Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) industry group over faba bean normals being too low for the higher yields the sub-sector has achieved in recent years.

This resulted in lower amounts of coverage than production warranted, says Shane Strydhorst, a central Alberta crop producer and chair of APG.

The federal insurer analyzed faba bean production data from the past two decades and found APG’s assessment correct.

“We did the analysis and the data to see what we needed to do and we increased the startup normals for the risk areas where faba beans are grown,” said Nancy Smith, AFSC product coordinator.

Alberta Pulse hopes this adjustment will take some of the financial risk out of growing the beans while, at the same time, offering an incentive for producers to try planting them on their own farms.

Strydhorst calls the move “fantastic.”

“Just by having this increase in dollar coverage per acre, it does remove an obstacle by reducing the risk that the farmer is taking on.”

Under the changes, coverage steadily shifts from being 100 per cent based on area normals in the first year to 100 per cent based on the producer’s historical production in the fifth.

“It’s divided by 20 per cent so you start out at 100 per cent of the area normal,” says Smith.

“And then, as we take your information (through) your harvested production report, we’re going to put in 20 per cent of yours and use 80 per cent of the normal (in the second year). And then we’ll put in 40 per cent of yours and 60 per cent of the area normal.

“And it’ll start to change to be just about what you do, not what the area can do.”

Faba beans in Alberta have been steadily growing in acreage over the past few years. AFSC expects around 50,000 insured acres of the beans by the crop reporting deadline of June 20, says Smith. It’s a small jump from 47,000 acres in 2024, but a leap from the previous year’s 37,000.

Looking at acreage from a more historical perspective, Strydhorst says faba bean numbers tend to jump around depending on whether the year is dry or wet. Faba beans grow best in high rainfall areas or under irrigation, he says, limiting the pulse’s best growing areas to a handful of regions in Alberta.

“They’re grown in quite a few different areas of the province. There’s a little bit in southern Alberta on irrigation. There’s quite a bit in what I would consider central Alberta focused around Edmonton.

“There’s some (faba bean) farmers around Sylvan Lake, Lacombe. They’re really successfully growing them around Camrose, New Norway, Fort Saskatchewan, and of course where I’m located, which is the Barrhead-Westlock area.”

He says any region that consistently receives at least 10 inches of rain per year is a candidate for faba bean production.

“(For) areas of the province where there’s generally less rainfall or less consistent rainfall, then they could be a risky crop to grow.”

However, they tend to grow very well in areas with the appropriate conditions.

“I know farmers in each of these areas that have harvested 70 to 80 bushels (per acre) of faba bean crops. A farmer that I know from Fort Saskatchewan even topped 100 last year.”

Strydhorst’s own luck has improved over the decade-plus he’s been planting the beans.

“The last couple years I think maybe we’ve just gotten dialed in a little bit better with fine-tuning our production. And we’ve seen fair consistency in those 60, 70, 80 bushel crops the last number of years, which is kind of exciting.”

Due to their long growing season that usually starts in late April or early May, Strydhorst’s faba beans are the first crop planted and the last one harvested.

“They’re very tolerant of cool soil and cool weather in the spring, so there’s not really a risk with planting early. Basically, as early as we can get in the field when it’s not too muddy, we’re trying to get our faba beans in.

“Some years we do experience frost damage, but that hasn’t really impacted feed market opportunities for faba beans. So there’s always been a market for them.”

Smith praised the strong relationship AFSC and Alberta Pulse Growers, adding faba bean normals will be reviewed on an annual basis from this point forward.

“They’re the people who are representative of producers. We listen to the individual client for sure (but) sometimes the voice comes through a little bit stronger through these industry groups.”

Strydhorst shared a similar sentiment.

“For as long as I’ve been on the board — and long before that — Alberta Pulse and AFSC have had a really good long-term working relationship.

“We have our meeting every summer, usually in July or August, where several staff and several of the directors from Alberta Pulse meet with AFSC staff at their office in Lacombe and we talk about pulse crop insurance coverage and improvements that can be made on behalf of farmers.”

The post New crop insurance policy enables easier startup for faba beans appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Maybe, maybe not, says a provincial pulse expert.

“I just can’t see them going away,” said Mark Olson, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s pulse crops unit head. “I don’t think the acres are going to go down to 1,000 (acres) or even 5,000. We did take a drop this year, but I think we’re going to gradually build the acres.”

Alberta fababean acres exploded over the past five years, climbing from just 8,000 acres in 2012 to about 20,000 acres in 2013, and then 80,000 in 2014. But after peaking at around 100,000 acres in 2015, acreage fell by half this year.

Last year’s drought is partially to blame, he said.

“It was no secret. We told farmers that, if you’re in a drier area of the province, you’re better off to grow lentils or peas,” said Olson, adding faba yields plummet when it’s dry.

“You’ll see yields in the mid- to high 20s bushels per acre when you don’t have the moisture, and when you have the moisture, you get upwards of 60 to 70 bushels per acre.”

As well, other pulse crops were more attractive at the start of the year, said Chris Chivilo, president of W.A. Grain and Pulse Solutions.

“Producers switched away from fabas after a poor year into crops that were a little more reliable and higher priced,” he said. “Peas were far more attractive price-wise to put in the ground this past spring, as were lentils and chickpeas, for anybody who could have seeded fababeans.

“The risks of growing fabas compared to peas in most cases just weren’t enough to justify seeding fababeans.”

Global competition

Producers who did seed fababeans this year saw average yields, said Chivilo, but those yields were still less than that of peas.

“Peas probably averaged 55 bushels per acre, and fababeans likely averaged 50 bushels per acre, which also isn’t a big help in increasing acres,” said Chivilo.

But quality was up from last year.

“We had a longer grower season and the crop matured, so we’re seeing nice, good-quality seed,” said Olson.

Despite that, fababean producers “aren’t selling a lot” so far.

“We’ve got about the same amount at this time as we did last year,” said Chivilo. “We’re being shown a lot of samples, but with the quality being better, we expected more selling. Pricing is not as attractive at this time as producers would want, so they’re tending to sit on them right now.”

But there’s “very little potential” for higher prices, he said.

“You might see an extra $10 or $20 (a tonne) throughout the winter, but there’s not a lot on the horizon to tell us that we’re going to see a price pop up $30 or $40.”

Prices are largely set by Egypt, which imports more than half of all food-grade fababeans traded annually.

“You’re kind of hung out to dry with one customer, and they can buy cheaper from the Baltic states — which have become very competitive over the last two years — as well as Great Britain, France, and Australia, which has higher-quality beans than all of the rest of the countries,” said Chivilo. “Unless there’s a bad crop in a couple of the competing nations, we’re really price dependent on Egypt.”

On average, Canada exports about 6,000 tonnes of fabas — a drop in the bucket compared to other producers that are closer to major customers in northern Africa and the Middle East. As a result, prices will fluctuate from year to year, and so will acreages, said Chivilo.

“We’re a small, small supplier compared to almost everybody else, so we don’t really have any impact on pricing at all,” he said. “I’d like to say that we should see a gradual trend toward higher prices over time, but it’s totally dependent on these other countries. If the Baltic states decide to grow something else, our price will go up. If Australia cuts back on acres, our price will go up.

“But we have no impact whether we seed 100,000 acres or 50,000 acres.”

Other markets

The feed market for fababeans is also hurting Canada’s export market — “but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Chivilo.

“Most of last year’s crop went into feed, and it got a lot of new users using fababeans because of the protein benefits compared to peas,” he said, adding a reliable feed market has been helping increase acres over the past five years.

While faba prices could drop this year with the abundance of feed grains hitting the market, livestock feeders still need a protein source, and fababeans fit the bill.

“They need some kind of a feed protein, whether it’s soybean meal or canola meal, and fababeans and feed peas replace that to a certain extent,” said Chivilo. “The main competition to fababeans and feed peas is soybean meal. If soybean meal goes up, the feed fabas and the feed peas will go up.”

There are also plans for fractionation plants in Alberta, which could help boost acres.

“If you break it into its protein, starch, and fibre, fababean has got some really nice qualities about it,” said Olson. “We were hoping that the fractionation of the crop would really help with the market. The plants that were on the books are progressing, but not as quickly as we had hoped.”

Global demand for plant-based protein is set to double by 2024, and as high-protein ingredients, fababean fractions work better than pea fractions to replace cereals in baked goods, pastas, and other food products where wheat or barley are traditionally used.

“We have a huge world population to feed, and they need protein,” said Olson. “I think it’s going to be a no-brainer. We’re very well situated. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I just can’t see fababeans going away.”

But Alberta producers shouldn’t hang their hats on a fractionation plant, which would increase fababean acres in the province only marginally, cautioned Chivilo.

“If someone built a fractionation plant for fababeans, that could increase the acreage, but it likely wouldn’t impact things more than 10,000 or 20,000 acres overall,” said Chivilo.

“We could probably support 200,000 acres if we had a half-decent export program and maintained or grew the feed side of things even marginally, but that would be the limit right now.”

The post Fababeans get a reality check appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The grower group contributes levy funds to the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre pulse breeding program. In return, Sask Pulse holds exclusive commercial rights to varieties developed in the program.

Most new varieties are released royalty-free to seed growers through the variety release program. By distributing new and better varieties, Sask Pulse aims to grow the industry. Nationally-recognized select seed growers can request breeder seed as long as their provincial pulse groups have an agreement with Sask Pulse.

“To date, 115 varieties have been released through the variety release program,” a Sask Pulse release said Friday. The variety release program (VRP) includes peas, chickpeas, beans, faba beans and lentils.

But varieties that don’t have an established market would likely fail if released through this program, Sask Pulse said. For such varieties, the group instead considers offering exclusive rights through its tender release program (TRP).

Sask Pulse takes into account several factors before deciding whether to tender the rights to a market class or variety, from demand and product volume to whether it risks disrupting markets already supplied by Saskatchewan growers.

Seven of those tender agreements will sunset in 2017 and 2018. Before deciding whether to renew the tenders or release the varieties more broadly, Sask Pulse is looking for feedback from farmers and other stakeholders.

The grower group will also examine “performance of the tender partners to date, prospects for growth and an assessment of the need for exclusivity for the market class or variety to succeed,” the release said.

The tenders up for review include:

• Large Red Lentil (KR-1, KR-2 CL) – AGT Foods/Saskcan
• Spanish Brown Lentil (CDC SB-1, CDC SB-2, CDC SB-3 CL – Simpson Seeds
• Green Cotyledon Lentil (QG1, QG2, QG3 CL) – AGT Foods/Saskcan
• Large Seeded Food Grade Faba Bean (FB9-4) – AGT Foods/Saskcan
• Yellow Bean (CDC Sol) – Scoular Canada (formerly Legumex Walker)
• Black Bean (CDC Jet, CDC SuperJet, Blackstrap, Blackcomb) – Scoular Canada (formerly Legumex Walker) and Martens Seeds
• Slow to Darken Pinto Beans (WMI, WMII) – Scoular Canada (formerly Legumex Walker) and Keg Agro

The deadline for providing input is Friday, June 3. Growers and others can throw in their two cents through an online survey.

More information on the tender release program is available on the Sask Pulse website.

— Lisa Guenther is a field editor for Grainews and Country Guide at Livelong, Sask. Follow her at @LtoG on Twitter.

The post Some Prairie pulses’ limited releases under review appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Fababeans require a lot of moisture to produce well, according to Dale Risula, a Saskatchewan provincial specialist for special crops in Regina.

“The crop is basically not growing as rapidly as we would hope at this time of year,” he said.

Risula said at this point he doesn’t think dryness will cause large-scale damage, but it will have an impact on yield if it continues.

Dry conditions are also a problem for Alberta’s fababean crops, said Jenn Walker, research officer for Alberta Pulse Growers.

There was a good seeding window earlier in the season, she said, so growers planted fababeans early, but a lack of moisture has impacted crops across the province.

“We’re maybe not at the growth stage that we had anticipated if we had adequate moisture,” she said.

A frost also hit faba beans in May, but didn’t cause huge losses, she said. “Fortunately fababeans are one of those crops that recover quite nicely from frost.”

Alberta’s fababean area has grown in recent years from 15,000 acres in 2012 to 71,000 in 2014, according to government data.

Saskatchewan’s acreage is also rising, with industry estimates saying area could be 15,000 acres or more.

“It’s an up-and-coming crop, it’s gaining a lot of popularity. The interest in fababeans is growing,” Risula said.

Fababeans could move to replace peas, he said, as famers have had difficulty with root rot in pea plants due to wet weather in the past.

There has been a shift in faba bean usage, as an increased amount of beans go to market for human consumption, as opposed to being used for feed, Walker said.

“The appetite for that seed could just keep growing, and so because we have good demand I do think there’s a lot of room for growth.”

— Jade Markus writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

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