Growing Pulse Crops

Kevin Haas is a 3rd generation farmer based on his family farm near Jamestown, North Dakota. He’s been planting pulses since the early 1990’s, and currently grows peas, lentils, edible beans, corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and oats. Haas has been a strong advocate for the pulse industry for many years, having served in leadership roles for the Northern Pulse Growers Association, the North Dakota Dr...

Codee Lee is a technical specialist for CHS. Half of his job is research of their proprietary products like fertility products, biologicals, crop protection and adjuvants. The other half of his job is communicating about that research with customers and growers in general. Lee shares the purpose of adjuvants and the advantage they provide producers especially when facing adverse environmental fact...

Kurt Braunwart is the managing owner of Progene Plant Research, a genetic research-based company bringing new innovations and old uses to current varieties in the market. The company is known for their spring and winter pea program, as well as their work in oats and triticale. Braunwart discusses his career in this industry, how he started and built Progene, how he identifies oddball traits that c...

Dr. Lars Kamphuis is an associate professor at Curtin University and the deputy director of the Center for Crop Disease Management where he focuses on crop diseases that impact Australian farmers. The center collaborates extensively with state departments and universities around the country to research diseases relevant to growers throughout Australia. Kamphuis was born and raised in The Netherlan...

Todd Scholz is vice president of research and member services for USA Pulses, which until last year was known as the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. This year Todd will retire after 26 years with the organization. He joins us today to talk about the industry’s work in getting more crop protection tools labeled for pulse crop growers. USA Pulses is a nonprofit organization that has been pushing for...

Today’s episode goes behind the scenes of pulse crop disease diagnostics with Dr. Uta McKelvy , Dr. Raissa Moura and Erin Gunnink Troth . They explain how Montana State University’s Regional Pulse Crop Diagnostic Laboratory provides post-harvest seed testing for replanting and export phytosanitary needs (including an Ascochyta-plus fungal screen and regulated nematode tests). Dr. McKelvy contrasts...

Shannah Peterson has been a part of the procurement team at Anchor Ingredients for the past six years. She also works with their sustainability and regenerative programs. On today’s episode, Peterson discusses the demand drivers for pulses for pet food markets, how trends like sustainability and regenerative farming practices impact pet food buying decisions, some important opportunities to be awa...

Dr. Chelsea Didinger is the founder of the online platform " A Legume A Day .” Didinger uses her PhD in nutrition to share her passion for the benefits of beans and legumes. She highlights not just their health advantages but also their role in sustainable agriculture through her online platform and presence. In this episode today, she discusses the global trends in pulse consumption, the nutritio...

Dr. Charles Geddes is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based out of Lethbridge, Alberta. His research program focuses primarily on herbicide resistant weeds, where he looks at the discovery of new types of herbicide resistance, characterizing those types of resistance, and then monitoring where resistance is occurring across the Canadian prairies. In this episode, he shar...

Marlene Boersch is the co-founder of Mercantile Consulting Venture based in Winnipeg, Canada. She founded the company about 22 years ago after spending over 20 years as a trader focused on Canadian pulse trading. Marlene and her team concentrate on providing market intelligence to farmers and grower associations for not only pulses, but also canola, wheat, oats and corn. Boersch shares about the c...

Dr. Clifford Hall is a professor in the dairy and food science department at South Dakota State University. He also oversees research on pulse quality and utilization of pulses in food systems. Over the years, Dr. Hall has mentored several students completing research on peas, lentils, and chickpeas. These projects range from including pulses in extruded snacks to using aquafaba as an egg replacer...

Greg Stamp is the seed sales manager at Stamp Seeds, which he runs with his two brothers, Matthew and Nathan. Stamp Seeds grows and processes retail pedigreed seed for about 60 different crops based out of Enchant, Alberta. Included in that long list of crops are some pulses like peas, chickpeas, lentils, and our subject for today’s episode, faba beans. Greg shares all things faba beans including...

Greg Bartley is the director of crop protection and crop quality at Pulse Canada. He’s an agronomist by training and a certified crop advisor who has been with Pulse Canada for over six years. Bartley discusses the Keep It Clean Program in Canada, the value and challenges associated with Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), some helpful information about desiccants and how various perceptions about chem...

Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph. D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since, focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota.  This episode is a follow up to the last episode where Michael focused on understanding disease bio...

Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph. D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since, focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota. In this episode, Wunsch provides us with a lot of helpful details about Ascochyta Blight of chickpea, in...

Dr. Sabine Banniza is a professor of pulse crop pathology and a member of the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research program is focused on pulse crop pathology with particular emphasis on problems in Saskatchewan. The overarching theme of Dr. Banniza’s research program is to study the biology of fungal and bacterial pathogens and their interaction with host p...

Kyle Okke is an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile Agronomy. Before starting Agile Agronomy three years ago, he had worked for several years as a regional agronomist in the area with Winfield United. Kyle deals with a wide variety of crops in his area including pulse crops, specifically lentils, chickpeas and field peas. He also has farmer clients th...

Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He’s been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in...

Chris Holzapfel is the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). IHARF is a producer-led not-for-profit organization based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Their mandate is to provide extension type work for agricultural research and demonstration, including a lot of work with pulse crops.  Holzapfel started in his role at IHARF in 2005 and over the years they've g...

Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. Jenks has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode, Jenks shares about the latest in kochia management including what’s working and not working, which products have built up resista...

After a tough year in 2023, agronomist Jeannie Rude and Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen were part of a project to create a video about their experiences with Real Ag Radio’s Shaun Haney. That video documented the far reaching impacts root rot can have on farmers and the local community.  Blake is a fifth generation farmer on an operation that has included lentils and chickpeas in the...

Dr. Ian Burke is a weed scientist at Washington State University. His work focuses on weed biology and ecology, and he does a lot of work with herbicides. Dr. Burke discusses his research evaluating herbicides for use in peas, lentils and chickpeas and how to manage herbicide carry over issues that can impact these crops. This is the deep dive into herbicide carry over that you might not have even...

Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behin...

Chuck Penner founded Leftfield Commodity Research in 2010. The company provides market analysis and economic research focused on the crops that are important to farmers in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US. Penner shares about the global marketplace for peas, chickpeas and lentils. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2025. “ One of the things that I've been telling Canadian fa...

Dr. Clain Jones is Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialist. In this role he covers anything that has to do with fertilizer or nutrient cycling in both agriculture as well as home/garden systems. He started at MSU as a tenure track faculty member in 2006, and has ended up doing quite a bit of work with pulse crops over the years. He joins me today to talk about fertility in p...