Friday, November 22, 2013

Tare Awards - 2013

Each year at our Annual Meeting we give out awards to the Growers who bring us the cleanest beans at harvest.  Historically there has been a category for Pintos and one for Great Northerns.  This year, of course, we added the Field Pea category.  Below are the winners for 2013!  If you were not present at the meeting to claim your award, please stop by the Gering Office to pick it up!
Pintos
1st Place – Michael Becker   0.78%
2nd Place – Nathan Davis     1.50%
3rd Place – Mickey Ryan       1.80%


Great Northerns
1st Place – LRK Farms                     1.68%
2nd Place – Rodney Schwartzkopf   1.75%
3rd Place – Howell Farms                 1.82%
 
Yellow Peas
1st Place – Carl Thomas        0.10%
2nd Place – Laux Seed Farm 1.00%
3rd Place – Four Lazy H Inc.  1.23%

 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Annual Meeting 2013

Below are some photos from our Annual Member Meeting.  We had an excellent dinner - Thank You Gering Civic Center! - and a delicious bean brownie dessert - Thank You Jamie Meisner & The Mixing Bowl!

We handed out awards, elected new Board Members - Bill Benzel & John Maser were re-elected, Allan Kreman (pictured below) was elected to his first term - and had a great presentation by our Board President, Jerry Mackie and our General Manager, John Lightcap.

I know it was hard for those of you finishing up harvest to make it, but we appreciate all of the growers who attended this event! Especially the pea growers that travelled from over 300 miles away!





Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!
- From all of us at Stateline!


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Fall Bean Briefs - US Dry Bean Council

Click Here to download the newest edition of the US Dry Bean Council's "Bean Briefs."  This is compilation of summaries of articles that discuss the health benefits of beans in regards to cancer, diabetes, cholesterol, etc...  Take a look!
 
http://www.usdrybeans.com/2013/10/bean-briefs-fall-2013/

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Crop Reports - Bean Growing States

Below are the links to the state crop reports for this past week.  They were unavailable for a while due to the gov't shutdown.  Most regions are finishing up, it is just much later than it would have been this year if the weather would have cooperated.  For the next few days we are slated to have dry warm weather and hopefully that will allow most growers to finish harvest!  The problem now is that they have 3 crops ready to harvest and it isn't easy to switch between them very quickly...
 
- Dry Bean Harvest Progress -
 
Nebraska - 94% Complete
North Dakota - 88% Complete
Idaho - 95% Complete
Wyoming - 76% Complete
 
 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Film Crew

 

We had a film crew on site at both our Gering & Bridgeport locations this week to get footage for our new website - www.StatelineProducers.com - which will be operational around the first of the year. This footage will show the beans journey from the field until they go out the door in a bag...

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Harvesting - Great Northern Variety Trial


Thank you to all who helped with our Great Northern variety trial this year!  Harvesting went smoothly with the help of Corey & Craig Henkel of Henkel Farms, Dr. Carlos Urrea, Becky Randall from Panhandle Coop (provided weigh wagon) and our agronomist, Dave Dietrich.  Final yield results will be available later this fall!




Monday, October 14, 2013

Save the Date - Annual Member Meeting


Attention all Stateline Members!
 
Our Annual Member Meeting will be held Tuesday, November 19th at the Gering Civic Center
Dinner at 6pm with meeting to follow
 
More details and your formal invitation will be coming soon...

Last Year's Annual Member Meeting at the Gering Civic Center

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bean Harvest Continues...

 Bean harvest continues in Western Nebraska & Eastern Wyoming...




Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Picking Peas - Cover of NE Farmer

Yellow Field Peas made the front page of the Nebraska Farmer this month!  This is Blake Johnson, one of our members from Holdrege, NE who brought us our first load of peas this harvest.  Sorry, but the image below is a little blurry so the article is hard to read.  If you have the issue, read about Stateline's venture on page 56... 


Friday, October 4, 2013

Winter Arrives Early

The video below was taken outside the Gering Office today...  Not really a fantastic day to harvest beans!  ..Though it is very much needed moisture.
 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Pecan Praline Cheesecake - Beans in Cheesecake?

This recipe is exceptional.  Who would have thought that you can put beans in cheesecake?  I am going to try using another type of bean in the recipe, but I haven't yet.
 
Pecan Praline Cheesecake
 
Pump up the protein and the flavor with this southern treat. This cake can be wrapped and frozen before adding the maple syrup glaze and pecans. Thaw in a refrigerator, overnight.
Makes 12 servings
 
Ingredients:
 
1 c graham cracker crumbs
3 T sugar
2 T butter, melted
3 - 8 oz. packages low-fat cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c cooked blackeyed peas, drained & rinsed, or one 15 oz. can
2 T all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c chopped pecans
Maple syrup & pecan halves for garnish
 
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine crumbs, sugar & melted butter, press into the bottom of a 9” spring form pan.
3. Bake 5-6 minutes until lightly toasted.  Set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese, blackeyes & flour, blend at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended.
5. Gradually add brown sugar, blend until smooth.  Add egg yolks, beating well after each addition.
6.  In another large bowl, whip egg whites until stiff & glossy, but not dry.  Fold egg whites & nuts into cream cheese misture.  Pour into prepared crust.
7.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the edges are golden brown & the center is almost set.
8.  With a knife, loosen the cake from the rim of the pan.  Cool on a wire rack, cover and chill.  Remove pan rim.
9.  Brush with maple syrup & garnish with pecan halves.
 
Available Online at http://www.usdrybeans.com/2010/08/pecan-praline-cheesecake/
 
 
 

Friday, August 30, 2013

Great Northern Variety Trial Tour


This is the first year since I have worked at Stateline that we have facilitated a Great Northern variety trial.  There are some new varieties on the market and we wanted to see how they stacked up against the varieties that have been widely used for a while.  Varieties included are Coyne, Ivory, Marquis, Beryl-R, Aries & 3138.  At our tour on August 29th, all varieties were starting to turn.  Ivory was the earliest in the trial and 3138 appeared to be the longest in maturity.  We will provide the yield data once the trial has been harvested and the data analyzed.  Thank you all who came to the field tour and to the Bayard American Legion for a DELICIOUS lunch!  We hope to do another Great Northern trial next season.  We also want to thank Craig & Corey Henkel - Henkel Farms for their patience & hard work in putting a variety trial in their field!





Dr. Carlos Urrea from the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research & Extension Center also tested his new lines in the same field alongside our trial.  He plans to release one of them soon and the yield potential, disease resistance, plant structure and maturity in his lines all look to be something that will work extremely well in our area.  We greatly appreciate his cooperation with us on our variety trials. 



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

UNL - NDBGA Bean Field Tour


The Nebraska Dry Bean Growers Association and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research & Extension Center put together a great program for the field tours this year.  We saw updates on a variety of projects including Measuring Field Loss in Direct Harvest, Disease Management, Deficit Irrigation Strategies, Insect Resistance, Breeding Programs, Fertility, & Effects of Water Allocations on Net Returns/Acre for various crops.  Thank you for keeping us all up to date on the newest research taking place and for putting our check-off dollars to such good use!





Friday, August 23, 2013

Great Northern & Pinto Variety Trial Tours


 
 
     
 
Stateline Dry Bean Variety Trial Tours

Join Us Thursday, August 29th!

Henkel Farms - 10:00 am - Great Northern Trial
Varieties include – Coyne, Beryl-R, Marquis, Ivory,
Aries (5106) & 3138
Directions: From Highway 26 East of Minatare, Turn South on CR 36, in 1/2 Mile turn
East into driveway and plot is on the South side of driveway.
 

12:00 Noon - Lunch at Bayard American Legion
  
Flats Farms - 3:00 pm - Pinto Trial
Varieties Include – Lariat, Galeena, LaPaz, Sinaloa, Monterrey,
Santa Cruz, Medicine Hat, Windbreaker, ND307, Montrose & Poncho

Directions: From our new Receiving Station in Mirage Flats (Hwy 87 & 440th Rd),
Travel East 3 miles to 420th Lane, Turn North and travel to 470th Road, Turn East and
plot is in 1/2 Mile on South side.
 
 

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Images of Pea Harvest

Pea Harvest has been going for almost a month now and we are still going strong.  The challenges of drought weren't the only ones we received from Mother Nature in our first year of pea harvest.  A plague of hail storms, wind and torrential downpours have swept through certain areas of the growing region in the past few weeks, causing stress for everyone involved.  But the crop continues to roll across the scales at our Hemingford, Mirage Flats and Bridgeport locations.  Below are some images from grower field visits and the first truck we received at the Mirage Flats station this year. 
 





Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Pea Fields

Dave and I visited a few fields near Alliance & Hay Springs this week and saw what rain can do!  The growers up in the Northern Panhandle have been blessed with precipitation this year.  The peas are tall and are loaded with pods.  Harvest will start in the next 10 days to two weeks in that area and should be a good one.  The field in the photos is irrigated (didn't need much with what nature provided) and some plants were still flowering.  Hopefully the 95+ degree days will stay at a minimum to allow these fields to mature at a normal rate.
 


Thursday, July 4, 2013