Optimizing nutrient management to improve dry bean profitability is at the heart of a research project led by Daniel Kaiser, associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Soil, Water and Climate.
Kaiser said this funding gave an added boost to fund continued research that was already taking place for nitrogen management. This research looks specifically at sulfur, potassium and phosphorus.
Kaiser said such research hasn’t been completed in the last 20 years in dry beans. The results so far are showing that there are no new recommendations.
“I really don't have anything, any strong data to change what recommendations we have right now,” Kaiser said. The research will continue to the end of 2025.
One wrinkle in data that Kaiser has been exploring is that in some cases high rates of potassium chloride fertilizer or potash have reduced soybean yield.
“So I kind of wanted to also put some rates, some higher rates on dry beans to see if we see some of the same issues, which, right now we aren't,” Kaiser said. He added that they also are not seeing any benefit of higher rates on the beans.
The three-year study was funded by a $124,533 USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant. This award was part of $1.2 million in 2023 USDA Specialty Crop Block Grants to 11 projects aiming to boost the competitiveness of Minnesota-grown specialty crops in domestic and foreign markets. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program funds projects focused on marketing and promotion, research and development, expanding availability and access, and addressing challenges confronting producers of specialty crops.
Kaiser said he likes to have three-year trials that can often offer a broad array of weather conditions to study alongside the results.
“It's nice to kind of average all the data together and just see if we see anything significant that would make me change the guidelines,” Kaiser said. “And again, right now, there really isn't any, any information for (potassium, phosphorus and sulfur) that I would really have any growers really look at doing anything different at this point in time.”
The studies involved a broad spectrum of sites including Crookston, in northwest Minnesota; Lamberton, in southwest Minnesota; Staples, in central Minnesota; Becker, in east central Minnesota and on-farm locations in Renville and Norman counties. The research involved fertilizer trial rate sampling throughout the growing season for navy, black and medium red kidney beans. It observes fertilizer uptake in the plants through tissue sampling and measuring yields at harvest.