By Byron Lannoye

I started seeding field peas a few years after the original innovators that started with this beneficial crop. I believe the year was 1996 when I listened to a very energetic Clif Issendorf speak at the Lake Region Roundup in Devils Lake and was converted to a “pea guy”. Field Peas were a great rotational crop for me and they also had amazing soil health benefits. The first year that I planted yellow field peas (which I bought from Clif Issendorf) we didn’t have a local market to sell them into and I wasn’t sure who or where I would be able to sell my production to. I believed so strongly in this crop right out of the gate that I was sure a market would present itself in our region. My local market showed up as I had hoped it would and Lake Region Grain offered us $6.00 a bushel for our first pea crop and the farm made good money per acre at that price. If I remember correctly there was approximately 30,000 acres of field peas planted that year in ND, so the state was just getting it “feet wet” with pulse crops. I guess this is the point where you could say “and the rest is history”, but it isn’t quite that easy. Soon I was elected to serve at the county level and report to our county and our North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Association board (NDDPLA). It didn’t take long after the stint of being a county representative that I found myself on the NDDPLA board as a board member. During this period we worked on getting crop insurance for pulse crops, we worked on the LDP program and we brought peas and lentils into the “normal” crop fold. Once again it didn’t take long and I found myself elected as President of the NDDPLA board. Our field pea and lentil acreages had consistently increased after my initial first planting and the NDDPLA board felt it was time we make a move from our contracted consulting firm that was handling our affairs on a part time basis to handling everything ourselves. We rented office space on Burnt Boat Dr. and we hired office staff and an executive director to handle our affairs on a full time basis. This was the beginning of the “big acreages” of pulse crops in ND and when I finally went off the NDDPLA board in 2006 we had grown to an acreage of 600,000 acres of peas and 156,000 acres of lentils. During this same time period Montana had also been growing and they had 237,000 acres of peas and 139,000 acres of lentils. North Dakota and Montana together had grown to 1,132,000 acres of pulse crops in 10 years! The NDDPLA started working with MT growers more closely around 2005 or 2006 and asking them to join our Association. Eventually that came to fruition and the two states had a shared Association which replaced the NDDPLA with the current Northern Pulse Growers Association (NPGA).

Everything I have talked about so far was made possible by very dedicated board members that sacrificed personal time and money to build our industry. The process was simple – the NDDPLA board members had a dream and we followed through with it. We were also very lucky to have hired Shannon Berndt and Eric Bartsch as our first NDDPLA employees. Eric and Shannon were (and still are) both very dedicated to the pulse industry and they also are responsible for the success that we have enjoyed through the years. Last but not least the pioneer pulse processors that took a chance and also had a dream to make the industry thrive are a part of this success story. My processor friends Dave Polries, Greg Johnson, Joe Bloms, Les and Dianne Paulson, Jerome and Les Knudson, Kevin Haas and Justin and Marvin Flaten all took a chance on this fledgling industry back in the beginning and without their help we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the success that we have enjoyed throughout the years. We are the Northern Pulse Growers Association and I couldn’t be prouder of the Association and the people that built it! We have one other board that deserves recognition as well, the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council. This is the group that handles the checkoff money and decides where and how the checkoff should be spent. This board was along with us every step of the way and I am equally as proud of the Council as I am of the Association. It has been at times a challenging trip to get to where we are today, but the perseverance has paid off for all of us.

In conclusion, if you ever get a chance to serve on the Association or the Council I highly recommend that you do. It is a life changing experience and you will learn all about the entire process and what goes into making a successful commodity organization run.

The Regions History of Pulses

by Blaine G. Schatz, Agronomist/Director at Carrington Research Extension Center

In 1993 I was asked to participate in a planning meeting for a pulse grower organization that resulted in the formation of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Association, now known as the Northern Pulse Growers Association. I was asked to join the planning session by the late Kent McKay who at the time was an Extension Area Agronomist based at the North Central Research Extension Center and working with the founding members. Kent and I had already developed a working relationship through similar graduate school programs and agronomy project collaborations.  I served on the Associations’ board as an associate director representing research from its inception until 2007. During late 1980’s and early 1990’s, we were conducting a fair amount of pulse crop research at the Carrington Research Extension Center. When I became the CREC research agronomist in 1985 the farm economy was facing some fairly challenging times. At the time I recognized the importance that North Dakota’s crop diversity was having on our state’s farmers as they were not as dependent upon the markets for just two or three crops like so many of their counterparts in other states across the Great Plains. Although the state had a good diversity of crops to choose from at the time, it seemed that we were missing opportunities with other crops that I recognized as being important in the Pacific Northwest and the Prairie Provinces. This other group of crops were the cool-season pulses of field pea, lentil, chickpea and faba bean. Interest in lupin was derived from other areas! The early pulse research trials were mostly comprised of variety trials, where we scrabbled to source seed of multiple cultivars from whomever had seed they were willing to share. Most of the time these varieties did represent the better genetics from the PNW or Canada as I primarily sourced seed from either Dr. Fred Muehlbauer of the USDA-ARS at WSU or Dr. Al Slinkard at the CDC at the University of Saskatchewan. Likely the best information we derived from these trials was the opportunity to gather basic crop growth and development data and define the yield and quality potential we could expect from these crops when grown in central/east-central North Dakota. Around this time, we received a research report by Dr. C.A. (Con) Campbell from Swift Current, Saskatchewan where he reported upon the wide differences in efficiency of N fixation among a broad group of legumes. This report stimulated our interest in repeating some of those trials at Carrington, especially since faba bean and field pea were shown to be among the most efficient legumes for N-fixation. In 1990 we had initiated crop rotation studies where we evaluated 18 different grain and forage legumes for their impact on subsequent spring wheat crops. The focus of the research was to grow the legumes as ‘green fallow’ substitute for traditional fallow. These same studies evaluated each legume when grown to harvest maturity as either a grain or forage crop. The data we collected included crop water use, crop biomass and impacts on soil nitrogen fertility. From this work it became apparent that field pea, lentil, chickpea, faba bean and select other legumes were a good fit for a continuous crop rotation. This research began to help us understand that pulse crops in rotation not only provided an opportunity for annual cash crop production, but the utilization of rotations that reduced overall nitrogen requirements, limited plant disease, used water more efficiently and often improved subsequent crop yield.

The research conducted in support of the cool-season legumes during the early 1990’s continued to be focused on variety evaluation with the trials expanding as more varieties were available for evaluation. By this time, these trials were established at most of the Research Extension Centers with leadership coming from the respective research (i.e. Ag Experiment Station) agronomist at each site. As acres began to expand, crop management, weed control, and fertility studies were initiated by these same agronomists along with some of the area Extension agronomists. Examples of these trials include the field pea seeding rate and planting date studies where standard protocols were developed and agronomists at 3 to 4 of the Research Centers each conducted the study over multiple years. In a short period of time growers had many site years of data to help refine basic cultural production practices.

During the early to mid-point of time since the NPGA came to be a grower organization, there were a limited number of NDSU researchers who conducted studies in support of the cool-season pulses. In these earlier years it was typically the research agronomist who tackled the pulse crop production challenge regardless of subject matter. Variety evaluation, crop fertility, weed control, disease management, cultural practice and other issues were the responsibility of the agronomist. However, times have changed and the change has been positive for the pulse industry. As we look at the research capacity that now exists across NDSU, we see an expanded team of scientists including those with specific subject matter specialties. There are multiple plant pathologists working on the complex challenges we face with pulse crop diseases located at Research Extension Center’s and the Main Station. Weed control measures are not only being conducted by the agronomists, but by weed scientists who have more advanced skillsets to address these problems. NDSU now has a pulse breeding project working to expand the variety options for field pea, lentil and chickpea producers. Pulse crop quality and end-use opportunities are investigated by a food scientist at the Main Station. Animal scientists have stepped up to evaluate alternative markets for pulse crops or to define value-added opportunities for co-products and lower grade production.

As an NDSU researcher it has been exciting to observe the growth of the cool-season pulse industry over the past 25 years. To drive around the state and more frequently observe a field pea or lentil field is a gratifying sight knowing that the farmer is realizing the positives of having that crop as part of their farming operation. Also satisfying is seeing the growth and development of businesses that support these crops, especially the numerous processing and marketing enterprises. These are great examples of how crop diversification provides expanded economic opportunities in the state and region.