Research

The Colorado Dry Bean Committee promotes Colorado beans and our growers and dealers through supporting research on bean agriculture, nutrition, and more!

2023 Research & Promotion

Some of the projects were are funding in 2023 include:

  • A pinto bean variety trial in the Yuma, Colorado area, conducted by the CSU Crops Testing Program
  • Weed control in dry beans
  • Marketing opportunity research, for example to help connect bean growers and processors with buyers
  • We hosted the 2023 Bean Summit!
  • Check our Events page for more information about other upcoming events.

2022 Research

In 2022, we funded several projects, including:

  • Nutrition and outreach: Dr. Henry Thompson and his team conducted research on the impacts of beans on gut health, incorporating bean flours into products like bread, and investigation into optimized cooking methods for an ideal nutritional profile.
  • Bean variety trials: Sally Jones-Diamond led these trials to evaluate bean varieties. Trials occurred in several locations in Eastern Colorado, working with several farmers. Find video updates from the field, variety trial results, and the recording for a webinar about the black-eyed pea findings.
  • Bean breeding: Dr. Carlos Urrea conducted yield trials, disease screening, and molecular fingerprinting of various pinto lines.
Dr. Mark Brick and Dr. Carlos Urrea examining pinto bean breeding lines at CSU’s Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center (ARDEC) in summer 2021.

2021 Research

In 2021, we funded 3 main research projects:

  1. How beans can help prevent cancer, Dr. Henry Thompson, director of CSU’s Cancer Prevention Laboratory
  2. Bean breeding project to review the remaining pinto bean lines from Dr. Brick’s breeding work, Dr. Maria Munoz- Amatriain, in collaboration with Dr. Carlos Urrea, University of Nebraska’s Panhandle Research and Education Center
  3. Pinto bean variety trial in Yuma to determine which varieties perform best in Colorado, Sally Jones-Diamond

Colorado Dry Bean Variety Performance Trials

To see the video updates about the 2022 variety trials, click here.

For a walkthrough of dry bean fields in 2021, watch this video starring Ryan Erickson of Farmer Bean & Seed:

Bean Variety Trial Results

Find more results at Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Science’s page on dry beans.