Knifing Pinto Beans (Dry Edible Beans)

Today we join Casey for a look at cutting pinto beans. Our Cat Challenger MT765B paired up with our Elmers 23 row bean knife is up for the task. The soil is nice and mellow and the conditions are favorable for doing a nice cutting job!
-
-
-
Howdy and jak se máš! (Czech for "How are you?")
We're a sugar beet farmin’ family in the Red River Valley of North Dakota! Our farm specializes in growing sugar beets, hard red spring wheat, sunflowers, corn, soybeans, and various types of dry edible beans. The legacy currently consists of my dad, my uncle, my two older brothers, and I (Beet Farmin Mitch).
I am a 6th generation family farmer recently graduating with college degrees in both Agricultural Economics and Crop and Weed Sciences. Enjoy as I showcase our operations everyday work, grow as a young farmer, be a goofball, and walk out the most important thing to me. My love for King Jesus!
My hope is that you may be entertained and spurred on to grow in your passion and knowledge for all things agriculture!
Instagram: @beetfarminmitch
Commercial Drone Pilot (Part 107)
Family friendly channel

[@dennisbrandt9389]

Appreciate seeing the process of how the pinto beans are knifed and harvested. As a trucker, I have hauled 3 loads out of Devils Lake to California. I was born and raised on a farm in NW Minnesota so was helpful to see this process as it was new to me. Thanks

[@levigarchar3115]

I know all about knife cutting beans here in southwest Colorado. I grow dryland beans in 36 inch rows and put 12 rows together in a windrow. I do it old school with a Speedy cutter on the front of a JD 4020 and pull an old Innes windrower behind doing it all in one pass. Then I use a 6200 Liliston combine to thrash. This year has been a challenge for sure. Got 6 inches of wet snow on the windrows yesterday. Hopefully we can get them out without too much damage.

[@jackbornhoftfarms3254]

The people around me in ne Colorado just swath there beans

[@darylherlick2344]

I got a loocwood outfront , 3 point lockwood 6 row , and run 6200 lilistons also .. Endless rain in 2023 for me in south westeren Ont. 2ft of rain in under 3 months .

[@miketownsend6163]

Biting into a beet just pulled from the ground complete with soil...yep you're a farmer. Love the videos and God Bless!!

[@Thomasfarmstn]

Mike, I disagree. He is too happy and too clean to be a farmer. Lol! Good channel.

[@miketownsend6163]

@@Thomasfarmstn LOL...just from the short time I have been watching his videos, I don't think he could ever be anything but happy. Such a refreshing young man and farmer. He just needs to stop eating raw onions, radishes, and dirty beets (ha ha). He has to go thru lots of "tic-tacs". But I do like watching him and his family. God will continue blessing him and the farm!!

[@Thomasfarmstn]

@@miketownsend6163 yeah I’ve only watched a few of Mitch’s videos. It is definitely a change of pace from how things are done here in TN.

[@beetfarminmitch]

Hahaha thanks guys! And hey the soil in there adds a little extra “flavor”. Just like the salt!

[@miketownsend6163]

@@beetfarminmitch "The soil adds a little extra flavor" Some salt and pepper with those raw root veggies? Nahhh, us farmers LOVE dirt. Oh Lord!

[@Michael-fd8ob]

So awesome to see how u gather ur crops. And about how the beets taste

[@tombernatz3027]

Just found guys...GREAT Video and very very informative. Thank you. I am here for the long haul.

[@russellehler6706]

NOW I see how you do the precut. Nice. 8 mph! Great drone work.

[@TerrellSpivey]

Interesting video! Never seen this process before!

[@rypkepaulusma]

Awesome footage and great explanation.

[@allaboutfarmingMN]

Great vid my guy👍🏻👍🏻 looking forwards to the main campaign for beets!! Keep that triaxle rolling in my absence 😉

[@BRPFan]

Very cool! Your bean knife is made by Elmers MFG 15 minutes from our place!

[@jessiegoss3712]

We do our work on Red River too down here in north Texas and southern Oklahoma. Probably cut and baled over 10,000 round bales this year. For me that is new. I always had asthma but now I don't have it so I now am working in the hay patch.

[@starship151]

Great drone footage, knifing beans and pre-harvest on the beets should make for some good video's. Hope it doesn't turn into a wet fall after such a dry summer, take care.

[@rmedlinnc]

That is some good lookin' soil!

[@beetfarminmitch]

It’s so satisfying to work with! The nice dark color with the moisture content makes it feel like a garden plot

[@edp9743]

Great info Mitch!

[@SuperMomma56]

Interesting! What is piece of equipment called you are using to knife the beans? Also, would pinto beans be able to be harvested in the same way we harvest our soy beans?

[@markstaudt5335]

is your puller the same width as your planter and does it matter if you have RTK great videos

[@beetfarminmitch]

Yes same width as the planter and running RTK.

[@russell9673]

You definitely don’t see farming like this down here in Oklahoma!

[@MrChrisdamien]

Wouldn’t be a bad idea to run a cable on each side of the rear cutter and around the front of your tractor. Running knives thru the ground it a lot of weight, in the overhead view you can the wings dragging behind a bit. Might save you front ripping a section off

[@onionfriend9799]

Christopher Richards do you happen to farm in west Texas by any chance?

[@coenbroosh]

What is your crop rotation with the sugar beats and does the usa have a quota system for sugar beats? Interesting video!

[@davidberg1055]

Mitch! General Mills is a customer of American Crystal, but General Mills does NOT MAKE FROSTED FLAKES! How about the sugar from your beets showing up in a bowl of Trix, or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Honey Nut Cheerios?

[@farmingforfunandprofit940]

Columbo makes a dry bean combine....very simular to a peanut combine except it uses tine teeth on multiple cylinders and no augers..bean movement is by air and belts

[@justthings6405]

To get rid of the headlands first so you don't have to run over them, spray them with Sharpen desiccant a week before the rest of the field. This way, they will be ready to harvest first and then you will have complete harvested headlands to turn without trampling over them..

[@beetfarminmitch]

Just Things, you are a smart man. We did do that on some of our fields this year. We sprayed a lap around select fields that had greener headlands and edges. We still knifed most of those spots as well though. Usually by the time we get around to spraying the headlands (even a week or two before knifing the field) they take just as long for the rest of the field to mature since they are so green.

[@verteup]

Ah yes good ol' sharpen. I'm sure that stuff does a body good.

[@justthings6405]

@@verteup Nothing to do with the body, sharpen is sprayed at full maturity, which means the interior membrane of the pod has been detached from the bean -- in other words, the pod is protecting the seed, so not exposed to the sharpen. Mother recommended, FDA approved, what more needs to be said.

[@tractorlackin]

Why is beet farming mitch, what did mitch do? What is mitch for?

[@beetfarminmitch]

My name is Mitch

[@waynefiebiger3202]

Kim new to your channel, I'm from Cooperstown n.d.. I like your videos A lot. I had to chuckle when the guy said he was knifing beans at 8mph. You must not have any rocks. I've seen bent up bean knives and re cutters. More work then

[@beetfarminmitch]

Yeah rocks usually aren’t the issue around here. Sometimes over an old yard you’ll pull a couple up but they disappear. Cooperstown! My buddy Zach Brooks ranches there. Neat area.

[@waynefiebiger3202]

@@beetfarminmitchI know Zach and his grand parents that he ranches with. Very nice people

[@beetfarminmitch]

Ya better tell him he needs to make a guest appearance on the channel next time you see him!

[@johnrabenberg6369]

How many pounds are in a bag?

[@bladewiper]

I would like to know also. this way we both get the answer.

[@jtn-minn8105]

100lbs

[@bladewiper]

@@jtn-minn8105 thanks.

[@beetfarminmitch]

100 lbs yup!

[@bensnocker3599]

Why don’t you wind row same time as knifing or curtingbthen use pickup head? We do that for edibles in west Nebraska, funny y’all run same crops as us

[@beetfarminmitch]

We do just knife and then use the pickup header in most circumstances. That’s usually the fastest and most efficient way. The windrower talked a lot longer to do, and it can shatter pods a bit more.

[@bensnocker3599]

@@beetfarminmitch cool some guys direct cut down here. Most “knife” and Windrow same pass. Do you guys use any Pickett combines

[@beetfarminmitch]

There are quite a few in the area. When I was a kid we used a Lilliston Edible Bean Combine behind a John Deere 4430.

[@coreymartin5185]

What moisture do you knife beans at?

[@beetfarminmitch]

Well usually I don’t find out what the moisture is until we harvest them and they are knifed a few days in advance. The key is more that they are knifed when they still have some life in them and won’t shatter, but late enough so they are mature. Probably 16-20% if I had to guess. Sometimes it dries fast and we get behind with the knife.

[@alanl.simmons9726]

Any family recipes you family can share?

[@kendledoll1597]

Why can you not just combine them like we do sow beans

[@beetfarminmitch]

You can do that too. The pods hang pretty low on pinto beans, so sometimes there is shatter loss with that route, and it takes longer to harvest them that way rather than a pickup header.

[@NormBaker.]

when were those pinto beans planted? Were they a second crop?

[@beetfarminmitch]

End of May. No, we have too short of seasons for second crop anything

[@NormBaker.]

​@@beetfarminmitch . I thought Pinto beans were a southern crop. I wish my family had a farm like that when growing up. I hope you value the life you have. God bless From a Pentecostal catholic.

[@pkk8017]

Hi, can you tell me the name of the knife machine or name of company which making such knife machine.

[@beetfarminmitch]

Sure thing! Elmers manufacturing.

[@elliotts7383]

pinto beans 😎😎

[@r.scotthill3082]

As coop members are you commited to sell all your beets to the coop, or can you sell some to other buyers? Do any dairymen buy beets from growers, or does the coop sell substandard beets for livestock feed? If someone was to grow enough beets for his livestock needs, could he find a custom harvester?

[@justthings6405]

Coop members sell only to the Coop.

[@cliff4695]

Dude, put your hand in your pocket when you're talking into the camera. Felt like i was dodging punches

[@massimopecile9666]

What the heck is bag for acre? 😂🤣 jesus that imperial sistem, what is 3 bag for acre in loss?

[@beetfarminmitch]

1 bag per acre = 100 pounds per acre = 112 kilograms per hectare

[@CesarandYasmin]

I just eat beans my whole life... not knowing the PROCESS :| like three pounds a year!

[@johndantice2577]

Sugar beet taste bad, no bueno.

[@beetfarminmitch]

Hey John, pure granulated sugar from both cane and beets is refined into sucrose and is indistinguishable flavor-wise. The molasses from cane and beet sugar will vary greatly though. Beet sugar molasses will have a darker flavor profile compared to cane sugar molasses. Brown sugar is pure granulated with molasses added. Typically it’s cane molasses that gets added to brown sugar. Confectioners (powdered) sugar is very finely ground sugar with a little bit of cornstarch added to it.

[@johndantice2577]

@@beetfarminmitch Hey Mitch, I stated that the sugar beet taste is no bueno. i was not referring to the refined end product. yuck

[@beetfarminmitch]

@@johndantice2577 oh I see what you were saying. Eating a beet will wake you up that’s for sure. I had a friend who boiled down a couple sugar beets to make syrup out of them… He said it was some pretty thick, sticky, and dark stuff hahaha

[@garyjohnson4657]

You shouldn't grin so much, it makes you look simple.

[@onionfriend9799]

He has a great smile and I enjoy it