UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension will host the UC Dry Bean Field Day on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 from 9:30am to 11:30am. The field day will begin along Bee Biology Road on the UC Davis campus. The agenda is pasted below, and a downloadable version is attached to the bottom of this post. DPR continuing education (1.0) is pending. CCA continuing education credits have been approved (1.0 Crop Management, 1.0 Pest Management). Thanks for your interest, and we hope to see you at the field day!

Agenda:

9:30am     Welcome and introductions: Christine Diepenbrock and Antonia Palkovic, UC Davis; Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, UC Cooperative Extension

9:35am     How can we further improve lima bean? A project funded by the USDA to improve breeding resources: Paul Gepts, UC Davis

9:50am     Walk through and discussion of lima breeding material: Antonia Palkovic and Christine Diepenbrock, UC Davis

10:00am   Field diagnostics – bean pest identification and management: Sarah Light, Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, Nick Clark, UC Cooperative Extension

10:30am   Travel to Veg Crops location (38.534222, -121.782222)

10:35am   Blackeye varietal improvement - update on new pest-resistant varieties: Bao-Lam Huynh, UC Riverside

10:55am   Results from round one of “speed breeding”, and testing nutritional alongside agronomic traits in limas: Christine Diepenbrock, UC Davis

11:00am   From farm to (robot) stomach: what are the trait profiles of California beans after harvest?: Tayah Bolt, UC Davis

11:05am   Screening for drought resilience in common and tepary beans: Matthew Gilbert, Tom Buckley, Troy Magney, Paul Gepts, Chris Wong, Antonia Palkovic, Travis Parker, UC Davis

11:20am   Evaluating productivity and quality of cowpea and interspecific common/tepary bean in Davis and Parlier (contrasting temperatures): Sassoum Lo, Jonny Berlingeri, UC Davis

11:25am   Developing low-cost phone apps/drone and rover platforms to measure agronomic traits: Earl Ranario, Heesup Yun, Vivian Vuong, UC Davis

11:30am   Discussion and evaluation

Please save the date for the annual UC Dry Bean Field Day! UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension will provide updates on dry bean research and management. 

When: Tuesday, August 15th from 9:30-11:30am

Where: UC Davis campus, specific location will be forthcoming

Who should attend: California growers, consultants and allied industry professionals 

In a future post, we will provide the agenda and information about continuing education credits. We hope you will join us at the field day!

The California Dry Bean Advisory Board (CDBAB) is requesting applied research proposals for 2023. This commodity-based research request is sponsored by the California Dry Bean Marketing Order, under the guidance of CDFA (CA Dept Food & Ag). The Board has supported applied research by university programs for many years.

Attached, please find the grant application as well as a list of the 2023 applied research priorities developed by the CDBAB. The Board is particularly interested in pest management projects to address weeds and insects. Funding is for one year. Proposals for projects extending beyond one year must be re-submitted each year.

Due to limited research funding, proposals that demonstrate cost sharing are encouraged. Although, there is some flexibility in the budget below, the total amount of funding available for 2023 is as follows:

Board: $60,000

Baby lima council: $2,500

Blackeye council: $10,480

Garbanzo council: $15,000

Large lima council: $0

Common bean council: $0

Total: $87,980

For current information on dry bean production in California as well as past reports funded by the board, see the Dry Bean webpage on the Agronomy Research and Information Center. You can search and view previously funded research reports from the online database.

Please share this call for proposals with colleagues and others who might be interested in dry bean research. Proposals are due by Friday, February 10, 2023. Progress reports for projects funded by the CDBAB in 2022 will also be due Friday, February 10, 2023. Attached is an example progress report. 

Those who submit proposals should be prepared to give a brief presentation to the Board at their first meeting of the year, which usually occurs in early March. Funding decisions are communicated shortly thereafter by Board Manager, Nathan Sano.

With questions, or to submit 2023 proposals and 2022 final reports electronically, please email Michelle Leinfelder-Miles and Nick Clark, UC ANR co-liaisons to the CDBAB.

Last week, the UC Dry Bean Field Day was held on the UC Davis campus. The field day included presentations on dry bean breeding efforts for yield, pest management, and nutritional properties. Other presentations showed how technologies, like drones, can be used to detect drought stress or other characteristics of interest to plant breeders and growers.  Thank you to all who presented and all who attended the meeting. For those who were not able to attend, the handouts are attached to this post. Good luck with the 2022 harvest season!