Читать книгу Dry Beans and Pulses Production, Processing, and Nutrition - Группа авторов - Страница 45

Advances in plant breeding drive agronomic change. This has been observed with the green revolution in parts of Asia (Peng et al. 2010), mechanization of processing tomato, and pickle cucumber harvesting in the US. In the absence of these genetic changes, agronomic or management changes would not have been possible. In dry beans, the traditional harvest method across the country was to undercut and pull bean plants at maturity, windrow these plants into larger rows, and thresh plants when dry using a pickup reel on the combine, all in separate operations. These traditional operations are costly in terms of time, equipment, fuel, and labor that prevent growers from expanding bean acreage.

With the development of taller, more upright varieties that resist lodging (Kelly 2000; Soltani et al. 2016), growers started to explore the possibility of direct harvesting beans similar to soybeans. Without that change in improved plant architecture, growers would not have had that opportunity. In Michigan, over 80% of beans planted are direct harvested (Figure 2.6) in a shorter time-period with minimum wear to the combine (no root/soil entering the machine), resulting in a cleaner product to sell to the elevator. The same growers can plant 25–30% more acres to beans compared to traditional harvest methods, freeing up additional tractors for other farm operations. The change in plant architecture has positively impacted all MA bean classes but has had little effect on the shorter-statured bush type kidney and cranberry beans.