POWELL, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming dry bean growers and processors will be assessed a fee that will be used to research, market and promote the crop.
This year’s legislative session approved a bill that imposes the fee and creates a Dry Bean Commission.
Bean growers in northwest and southeast Wyoming had requested the bill.
Growers and handlers of dry edible beans will pay an assessment to the Dry Bean Commission, with the assessment rate set by the commission beginning July 1, 2017.
The assessment is not mandatory; growers and handlers may ask for a refund, the Powell Tribune reports.
“That was a very important part of that and that is probably what got it passed,” Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, said. “Bean growers are excited.”
Growers will be charged an assessment of .34 percent of the value of beans grown in Wyoming, as well as those raised in another state, but whose first handler is in Wyoming. A .17 percent assessment will be charged to handlers.
The assessment would raise an estimated $153,600 in each of the next three years starting in 2016, according to figures from the Wyoming Crop Improvement Association. The producer assessment would be $102,400, and the handler’s share $51,200 annually, according to the initial report.
The Wyoming Department of Agriculture will use a portion of the assessments collected to administer the program.
The governor will appoint a six-member board, which would include the department’s director as an ex officio member without a vote.
There would be four Wyoming growers, with at least one of them residing in Laramie, Platte or Goshen counties, as well as two bean handlers with dry bean processing facilities in Wyoming. They would serve staggered terms established by the legislation.
Wyoming is eighth in the nation in dry bean production; two-thirds is grown for food and the other third, primarily in the Big Horn Basin, is raised for seed.
Othello pinto beans have been the longtime standard crop planted in Wyoming but a shorter-season bean with a higher yield may be developed under the new program, Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, said.
In addition, the goal is to develop a bean that stands up, allowing it to be harvested by combine without having to cut them into windrows. That would save time and money for farmers.
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Information from: Powell (Wyo.) Tribune, https://www.powelltribune.com
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