Dry Edible Beans

Mixed dry edible beans

The latest Extension information about dry bean production and management practices from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nebraska's Dry Bean Industry

Nebraska dry edible bean producers plant anywhere from 140,000 to 200,000 acres of beans annually, producing approximately 1 billion servings. This production is concentrated in western Nebraska, where the climate is arid and the warm days and cool nights provide excellent growing conditions for dry edible beans.

In 2019 Nebraska ranked nationally in dry bean production:

1st in production of Great Northern beans
2nd in production of all dry edible beans
2nd in production of pinto beans and light red kidney beans

Hear from farmers in the Nebraska Panhandle and follow dry bean harvest from start to finish in this film by Joe Patterson with support from the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission.

Learn More About Dry Beans:

Nebraska Dry Bean Commission
The Bean Bag, a resource produced by the Nebraska Dry Bean Growers Association
USDA's Briefing Room on Dry Beans
Northarvest Bean Growers Association, serving North Dakota and Minnesota growers

Carlos Urrea, dry bean breeding specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff (center, in red shirt), stands in a hail-damaged dry bean variety plot at the Panhandle Center, during the annual Panhandle Ag Research and Technology Tour (PARTT) in August 2019.

2019 Nebraska Dry Edible Bean Trial Results

December 16, 2019

Results of the 2019 variety trials for dry edible beans conducted by the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center have been posted on the Nebraska Extension CropWatch website.

Figure 1. A comparison of the bacteria that cause bacterial wilt of dry beans and Goss’ wilt of corn. The rods of Curtobacterium (left) in the dry bean wilt pathogen are shorter and fatter than the Goss’ wilt pathogen, Clavibacter (right).

Puzzling Out Two Closely Related Corn, Dry Bean Diseases

October 24, 2019

Two closely related plant diseases — one in corn and the other in dry bean — have followed similar, but somewhat perplexing patterns of appearing, disappearing, and then resurging as a serious threat to crop yield. A UNL researcher looks at factors affecting the cycle and whether it can be predicted.