Greetings, and welcome to NBGA's August 2026 newsletter!

We hope everyone is having a nice summer! Small grain harvest time is here, and dry bean harvest is getting close. Northarvest Bean Growers Association wishes everyone a safe and productive harvest season.

Our Directors and Staff have been actively advocating for the dry bean industry this summer, as you will see in this newsletter. Late last month, the 2026 NDSU Dry Bean Field Days were a great success, and we want to thank everyone who joined! Keep reading for photos and updates about the field days, our recent summer board meeting, NBGA's booth at the North Dakota State Fair, links to USDA reports and the Dry Bean Scene, and much more.

If you can, please consider sharing this newsletter with someone else to help us spread the word. Anyone can subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter here.

Happy reading, and enjoy the rest of your August!

Summer Board Meeting

August 2026 Newsletter Table of Contents:

• Northarvest BeanGrower Summer 2026 Publication
• USDA Weekly Dry Bean Market Review
• Bean Institute: Quick & Flavorful Bean Dishes
• Bean Nutrition Corner: How Breeding and Processing Can Improve Consumer Appeal of Beans
• Northarvest in the News and on the Move
• The Dry Bean Scene
• Announcements

Below, you can find links to the most recent USDA Weekly Dry Bean Market Reviews. Click on the date to see the report.

• The next USDA Weekly Dry Bean Market report will be released soon. You will be able to find that report here.

• For the Dry Edible Beans Daily Grower Bids, check here.

• August 10, 2026: "Compared to last week: Trade remained light. According to the NASS Progress report August 2, 2026, Montana has 3% and North Dakota has 6% lentils harvested and Montana has 9% and North Dakota has 7% dry edible peas harvested."

• August 3, 2026: "Compared to last week: Trade remained light. According to the NASS Progress report July 26, 2026, Montana has 1% lentils harvested."

• July 29, 2026: "Compared to last week: Trade remained light. According to the NASS Acreage report June 30, 2026, dry edible bean 1,161,000 2026 planted vs 1,366,000 2025 planted and chickpea 482,000 2026 planted vs 536,000 2025 planted and lentils 747,000 2026 planted vs 1,072,000 2025 planted and dry edible pea 1,047,000 2026 planted vs 1,173,000 2025 planted."

• July 20, 2026: "Compared to last week: Trade remained light."

It's always nice to have a few quick and delicious recipes in your repertoire, ready for whenever you need an easy but satisfying meal. These recipes from the Bean Institute are bean forward and do not skimp on flavor!

Check out the recipes and photos below, all from the Bean Institute website.

Chili Bean Quesadillas

The combo of chili beans and salsa makes these Chili Bean Quesadilla irresistible. Plus, you only need five ingredients to make this recipe, making it perfect for a busy weeknight or quick and satisfying lunch!

➡️ Find the recipe here.

Mexican Bean Pizza

You only need a few ingredients for this tasty recipe! It's nice to have a quick, go-to recipe for when you want an easy meal at home, and this recipe definitely checks that box. If you can't find a black bean and corn salsa, you can make your own, or top with another salsa of your choice. Feel free to get creative with your toppings!

➡️ Find the recipe here.

Tex-Mex Pink Bean Pepper Bites

This recipe for flavor-packed pepper bites calls for pink beans. The flavor and texture of pink beans works very well for the recipe, but also feel free to substitute a different bean - or to combine pink beans and another bean. After all, the more beans, the better!

➡️ Find the recipe here.

In their July 2026 newsletter, the Bean Institute highlighted how beans perfectly round out meals featuring summer produce: "With their mild flavor, satisfying texture, and easy pairing with fresh vegetables, beans can help turn summer produce into a full meal. They add plant-based protein, fiber, and staying power to dishes that might otherwise feel more like a side than dinner."

➡️ Read the full post - Got Summer Produce? Add Beans - here. It includes several tasty recipe ideas, too!

Did you know you can follow the Bean Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube?

Click the icons below to follow on your favorite platform!

Every month, the Northern Crops Institute hosts a webinar as part of their Pulse Potential webinar series. Dr. Karen Cichy, a Research Plant Geneticist at USDA Agricultural Research Service in the Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit, presented about her research for the July 2026 webinar. She focused on how dry bean breeding and processing can help increase dry bean intake by providing opportunities for dry beans in convenient, tasty, and healthy value-added products.

Below, we summarize key takeaways from her presentation, Improving the Consumer Appeal of Pulses Via Plant Breeding and Food Processing.

Beans as an Ingredient

Dr. Cichy explained that even though beans have excellent nutrition and are incredibly beneficial for our health, most Americans are not eating enough beans to reap the benefits. She and her research team focus on opportunities to increase bean consumption, and one of their research areas is on how beans can be used as an ingredient in value-added products.

Adding beans can significantly boost the nutritional value of foods, but there are challenges to overcome when milling beans into flour. They are actively working on addressing these challenges, which can include that bean flour behaves differently than wheat flours, it has a different texture, and it may have strong beany flavor notes that do not align with all products.

In the webinar, Dr. Cichy shared about several of the bean-based products that her team and others at Michigan State University are investigating, such as:

• Crackers
• Pancakes
• Pasta

For pasta, Dr. Cichy's team has worked with multiple market classes, including pinto, yellow, black, white kidney, and navy beans. They have made significant progress and found many nutritional benefits of bean-based pastas.

Bean Pasta Has Strong Potential

Dr. Cichy is excited about the potential of bean pasta to be a convenient, tasty, and nutritious product for consumers. Making pasta with beans results in a high-fiber, high-protein, healthful pasta that could be an easy swap instead of a wheat pasta.

In fact, researchers have found that bean pasta can have higher iron bioavailability (i.e., the amount of iron that your body can actually absorb and use) than whole beans. This is due to milling breaking up the cell walls and making the iron more accessible. You can see this in the webinar slide below.

However, this high iron bioavailability appears to only be the case for light colored beans, and not for darker colored beans like black beans. That is because there are compounds in dark-colored beans that, although they provide antioxidants and other benefits, reduce iron bioavailability. Therefore, it is beneficial to include a variety of beans, to maximize the slightly different nutritional and health benefits provided by each type.

Summer Board Meeting

The Northarvest Bean Growers Association, North Dakota Dry Bean Council, and Minnesota Dry Bean Research & Promotion Council recently held their two-day budget board meeting. Thank you to all of the Directors for their time and leadership. We also wish to extend our gratitude to Christina Iliev with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for participating.

There is a lot of important work ahead for dry bean farmers in Fiscal Year 2026-2027. Thank you to everyone for your dedication and hard work!

NDSU Dry Bean Field Days a Success

The Northarvest Bean Growers Association would like to thank NDSU Researchers and Extension for hosting this year's NDSU Dry Bean Field Days on July 21 in Forest River, ND and July 22 in Hatton, ND. Thank you to dry bean farmers and others in the dry bean industry for showing up in a big way! We had great turnout both days.

Thank you Dr. Ana Carcedo and Dr. Juan Osorno for organizing this important effort and presenting about their research. Also a big thank you to Dr. Sam Markell and Dr. Joe Ikley for discussing dry bean diseases and weed management, and to all the staff and students who support our research colleagues. This could not happen without you!

Advocating for Beans at Recent Agriculture Advisory Committee Roundtable in Crookston, MN

Past President Eric Samuelson represented the Northarvest Bean Growers Association at Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach’s Agriculture Advisory Committee roundtable in Crookston, Minnesota. Thank you, Representative Fischbach, for providing a platform to listen to your agriculture constituents in your District!

This was a good opportunity to discuss important issues to dry bean farmers. Top priorities for NBGA include:

1. Dry bean farmers need further economic assistance through the FSA's Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program. NDSU Risk Policy Center data show dry bean farmers require an additional $25/acre to put us on equal footing with program crops.
2. Farm Bill 2.0 will support transitioning dry beans from a specialty crop status to a program crop status, providing a better safety net for farmers.
3. Farm Bill 2.0 has a mitigation provision to support dry beans for food aid that will support the dry bean industry.
4. The Pulse Crop Health Initiative (PCHI) has been congressionally authorized for funding levels as high as $25 million. Today the program funding is set to $5.5 million. The pulse industry is ready to see escalation authority activated.
5. With a restructure of domestic and international food aid at the federal government, it is imperative we get back to purchasing levels of dry beans the government typically supports for soft diplomacy.

As shared in Rep. Fischbach's newsletter: “In Crookston, Rep. Fischbach held an Agriculture Advisory Committee roundtable to hear directly from local producers about the challenges they are facing and how I can continue to use my positions on the Ways & Means and Rules Committees to support our ag industry. The conversation highlighted the need to keep government bureaucracy out of the way so local innovation can drive our Main Streets and support our rural communities.”

The Northarvest Bean Growers Association would like to sincerely thank Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach for the invitation to participate in her Agriculture Advisory Committee Roundtable in Crookston, MN. We also appreciate Samuelson for representing the dry bean industry so well.

National Agriculture in the Classroom

A delegation of twelve Minnesotans attended the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization (NAITCO) Conference in Providence, RI, June 22-25, 2026. This conference is the premier professional development event for pre-K-12 teachers, volunteers, and professionals in agricultural literacy.

This year's conference theme "Illuminating Agriculture" highlighted the ideas, innovations, and connections shaping agricultural literacy. Northarvest Bean Growers Association Education & Sponsorship Committee Staff Lead Jennifer Hansen attended with our great partners from the Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom program.

Jennifer Hansen (far left) with others from the

Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom program

Sampling delicious hummus

Meeting with Manitoba

The Northarvest Bean Growers Association would like to sincerely thank Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers Executive Director Dr. Patti Rothenburger for organizing efforts with North Dakota Soybean Growers Executive Director Stephanie Sinner and NDSU Dry Bean Breeder Dr. Juan Osorno to bring a broad group of Pulse and Soybean leaders to North Dakota for leadership discussion. Our nations are important to one another!

Topics included government relations/policy, genetics, weed management, disease management, value added processing, data analytics, extension efforts for farmer and industry leaders, tours of facilities, and more.

The Dry Bean Scene is sponsored, in part, by NBGA. Click on the links below to listen to the most recent episodes.

• ➡️ August 10, 2026: NDSU Extension Cropping System Specialist Jeff Stachler talks about disease pressure in dry edible beans.

• ➡️ August 3, 2026: Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers Association, Pulse Canada, Soy Canada, and Ontario Bean Growers Association were in Fargo this past week, meeting with commodity group leadership and NDSU researchers. Northern Pulse Growers Executive Director Shannon Berndt talks about strengthening partnerships with the Canadian groups.

• ➡️ July 27, 2026: USA Pulses board member Eric Jorgenson offers insight into crop conditions and policy priorities for the dry bean sector.

2026 NDSU Row Crop Tour

Northarvest Bean Growers Association invites farmer members to the NDSU 2026 Row Crop Tour on Thursday, August 20, 2026 at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center.

The NDSU Dry Bean Breeding Program, white mold in dry beans, and weed management in dry beans will be covered. You can view more information in the flyer below, or on the NDSU website.

April - June 2026 UMN-AFREC Communications Update

Every three months, University of Minnesota (UMN) Extension creates a short summary handout of AFREC (Agricultural Fertilizer Research & Education Council) and UMN nutrient management communications activities. The latest quarterly UMN-AFREC communications update is now available! You can download the PDF by clicking on the link below.

Please note that project proposals for RCPP are being accepted through August 24, 2026, on the RCPP portal. For more information about RCPP, see below and visit the RCPP website. 

Below are excerpts from a June 23, 2026 press release from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Please click the link below to view the full press release, which includes additional information, such as how NRCS ranks proposals.

USDA is investing up to $310 Million through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program to boost farm operations and conserve natural resources.

(WASHINGTON, June 23, 2026) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is putting Farmers First by investing up to $310 million to expand producer conservation activities across the nation through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is accepting RCPP project proposals now through August 24, 2026, to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners boost their operations and conserve natural resources. 

“This significant investment through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program will further enable us to leverage our partnerships as force multipliers in supporting America’s farmers,” said NRCS Chief Colton L. Buckley. “We’re looking forward to seeing the results on the ground while we also work to keep working lands in working hands.” 

About the Program 

There are two separate funding opportunities:  

• RCPP Classic: Projects are implemented using NRCS contracts and easements with producers, landowners and communities in collaboration with project partners.  
• RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFA): The lead partner works directly with agricultural producers to support the development of innovative conservation approaches that would not otherwise be available under RCPP Classic.  

Details about RCPP Classic and RCPP AFAs are available on Grants.gov. Project proposals for RCPP are being accepted through August 24, 2026, on the RCPP portal. For more information about RCPP, visit the RCPP website. 

New Course by the Northern Crops Institute on Opportunities for Dry Bean Ingredients

The new Northern Crops Institute (NCI) course - Production Opportunities with Pulse & Dry Bean Ingredients - is just around the corner! It is taking place will on August 31 - September 3, 2026.

For more information, click here or on the image below.

NCI Program Manager Krista Jansen shares why she is looking forward to the course: “This hands-on course offers a unique opportunity to explore the full value chain of pulse and dry bean ingredients. From milling and functionality to product development and market applications through expert-led sessions and live demonstrations. Participants will leave with practical insights, real-world experience, and new ideas for creating innovative, high-value food products in rapidly growing plant-based markets.”