No Till Notes: 'Moving forward'

I feel like we’re at important cross roads with the field pea industry here in our region. We have grown the field pea industry from a grass roots movement to what it is today. Today, we have expanded to 30,000 acres of field peas in our region with the opportunity to grow much larger.

We need to continue to develop this industry that will add to the economy of our agricultural community. Field peas don’t really compete with other crops grown in our region as they mostly replace summer fallow acres in our traditional winter wheat/summer fallow or winter wheat/corn/summer fallow production models. Adding field peas in place of summer fallow acres will add to the overall economy in our agricultural sector.

To continue development of the field pea industry, we need a commitment from producers. Producers are the ones who are going to drive this industry. We will move our industry forward by committing dollars for research, marketing, and processing of the field peas we grow.

To become a stabilized commodity in our region we need to have the same commitment that other commodities already have in place. Producers have committed dollars to winter wheat, corn, edible beans and sugar beets to fund research and marketing of these commodities. In order for field peas to become an established commodity in our region, field pea producers will have to make a monetary commitment to the field pea industry as well.

Stateline Producers invited me to a conference call with the Northern Pulse Growers Association to begin the process of establishing a field pea check off. The purpose of the check off would be to establish funding for research and marketing of our field peas.

The Northern Pulse Growers Association consists of field pea, lentil and chick pea producers in North Dakota and Montana. They currently have a $1 million annual budget for primarily research of these pulse crops. The NPGA have invited the field pea producers in our region to team up with their organization to promote research of the field pea industry throughout this region.

At this point, we’re in the infant stages of exploring the possibility of establishing a commission, growers association, or council which would be in charge of check off dollars from the field peas grown in our region. It would be up to our organization to determine how check off dollars would best be spent for our producers.

We would be able to team up with the NPGA to explore research of field peas and collaborate with research teams from their growing region and share in their research results. We would also have funding available for research of field peas in our local area.

The NPGA is funded by the Montana Pulse Advisory Committee and the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council. The MPAC and NDDPLC collect a 1 percent check-off fee for the field peas grown in their region. These two organizations also send a portion of the check off fee to the U.S. Pea and Lentil Council that promotes the consumption of pulses domestically as well as internationally.

North Dakota and Montana have field pea acres of 300,000 to 500,000 acres each year. They obviously have a much larger growing region to draw funding from than we currently have in our region.

Looking at last year’s production numbers and price we would have had the potential to collect approximately $60,000 dollars through a 1 percent check-off fee on our field pea crop. Anyone involved in research of commodities will tell you that is a small amount of money for research.

We would be able to access research from a much larger organization for a relatively small investment if we were to create an organization to administer a check off fee for field peas in our region. We would also be able to begin establishing research funding here locally with a check off on our field pea crop.

I think it’s important for field pea producers in our region to begin making the commitment to the field pea industry. We have the opportunity to make field peas a stable and profitable commodity in our region. It’s going to take a commitment from the producers to move the field pea industry forward.