California Ag Network

Tag: garbanzo beans

  • UC Estimates Costs And Returns For Growing Garbanzo Beans

    Sacramento, Calif., (March 15, 2018) – The UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Agricultural Issues Center has released two new studies on the estimated costs and returns of producing garbanzo beans, also known as chick peas, in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.

    Garbanzo beans mature in June and are harvested in July.

    “Although acreage is relatively small, garbanzos are an important crop because California growers produce the large, cream-colored seed that’s used for the canning industry, often used for garnishes for salads,” said Rachael Long, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor serving Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties.

    The studies estimate the cost of producing garbanzo beans on 200 acres as part of a row crop rotation, using subsurface drip irrigation. A three-row bed tillage implement shallowly chisels, tills and reshapes the beds, avoiding disturbance of the buried drip tape left in place. Planting of seed treated for fungal and seedling diseases, Ascochyta rabiei, Rhizoctonia and Pythium, into residual soil moisture occurs in December. Seeding rates for the garbanzo beans are 85 pounds per acre.

    Input and reviews were provided by UC ANR Cooperative Extension farm advisors and other agricultural associates. Assumptions used to identify current costs for the garbanzo bean crop, material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead. A ranging analysis table shows profits over a range of prices and yields. Other tables show the monthly cash costs, the costs and returns per acre, hourly equipment costs, and the whole farm annual equipment, investment and business overhead costs.

    “The importance of these studies right now is that they are currently being used to help secure USDA crop insurance for garbanzo production, expected in 2020,” Long said.

    The new studies are titled “Sample Costs to Produce Garbanzo Beans (Chick Peas), in the Sacramento and Northern San Joaquin Valleys – 2018” and “Sample Costs to Produce Garbanzo Beans (Chick Peas), in the Southern San Joaquin Valley – 2018.”

    Both studies can be downloaded from the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu. Sample cost of production studies for many other commodities are also available at the website.

    For additional information or an explanation of the calculations used in the studies, contact the Agricultural Issues Center at (530) 752-4651 or the local UCCE Farm Advisors; Sarah Light, selight@ucanr.edu, Rachael Long, rflong@ucanr.edu, Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, mmleinfeldermiles@ucanr.edu, or Nicholas E. Clark, neclark@ucanr.edu.

  • Cultivating Students & Garbanzo Beans at Reedley College

    Now is the time of year Central Valley growers are planting field crops like garbanzo beans.  Professor at Reedley college Tim Smith wanted to teach this first-hand to his plant science students at the community college.

    Reedley College professor Tim Smith instructs students on preparing planting equipment.

    Students filed out of the classroom and into the on-campus farm to really learn how it is done, and participate in the process.  Students learned the value of mechanized agriculture and learned how to operate planting equipment, and troubleshoot when something is wrong, like when seeds or fertilizer gets clogged up in the tubes.

    Smith teaches many of the agricultural courses at Reedley College.  He has taught over 200 students this fall, and about a third of them are progressing towards getting a PCA license and plan on working in California’s agricultural industry. “In this particular lab exercise, we really wanted to bring home the value of legumes in the industry and their relationship with rhizobium nitrogen-fixing bacteria,” Smith shared.

    This field has been planted in forage oats for the past 20 years, but will soon be covered in garbanzo bean plants.

     

    This legume crop with either be harvested with a combine later or be used as a green manure crop.  The important part is that it was a great hands-on learning experience for the Ag students at Reedley college.