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The little bean that "could"By Jennifer M. Latzke
The guar bean, sometimes called the "cluster bean," is a tiny summer annual legume that has nearly unlimited potential uses. But, for one West Texas grower, guar has a greater potential for improving his community and his neighbors' farms. Klint Forbes is a dryland farmer in the Brownfield, Texas, area and he and his business partner, Wade Cowan, are working to spread the popularity of guar from New Mexico to Oklahoma. They are partners in West Texas Guar, Inc., a corporation created to distribute seed, purchase guar beans, and process and market the beans. They formed the business to promote guar as an alternative to continuous cotton rotations, and to help their neighbors find a more profitable crop suitable to the West Texas climate. Suitable to dry conditions Forbes himself farms about 2,000 dryland acres near Brownfield and is familiar with the challenges of agriculture in West Texas. Several years ago he was looking for an alternative crop to growing cotton, and found guar. "We have some dryland acres that have been in cotton non-stop for 30 years," Forbes said. As a desert legume with a long taproot, guar takes less than 30 inches of rain per year and grows well in sandy soils--the typical conditions of dryland in West Texas. Guar is a nitrogen producer, adding up to 300 pounds per acre per year, according to Forbes. "It's a low input crop," he said. "You can grow it in no-till or other conservation tillages." Forbes said that guar can be planted with typical equipment, but that guar does best in sandier soils and planted right after a rain. However, guar is limited in the area suitable for its production in the United States. "You can grow it in Oklahoma, south to Wichita Falls, and across the Panhandle of Texas southwest to New Mexico," Forbes said. Guar has been grown in Kansas and it can be grown as far south as Corpus Christi, Texas. Because of its limited production area, scientists really haven't spent much time researching and breeding new varieties. There is no Roundup Ready variety of guar, and the few guar varieties in production must be grown from certified seed to protect their viability. West Texas Guar is the only guar seed grower and supplier in Texas certified through the Texas Foundation Seed Service. "All of our seed is controlled today," Forbes said. "Our farmers buy the seed and, if they don't plant it, then we buy it back from them. We are 100 percent contracted. We advise farmers that they should plant back because after three years the guar will revert back to its parental lines and its yield will go down." He said that it's so important to him and his partner that they sell the guar seed at a discount so that quality seed is kept in the fields and growing for their neighbor farmers. Forbes explained guar works best in a five-year rotation with wheat, sorghum, cotton, sunflowers, and sesame. But, he cautions growers, when they ask, sometimes guar may not fit their particular agronomic needs or economic goals. "You really have to look at the area where you want to plant the crop," he said. "Sometimes it's better to plant peanuts or black-eyed peas or soybeans in the area because they will yield more." Also, because guar is not a program crop, it qualifies for no government payments, and only a little hail insurance is available. Forbes tells growers that if they are looking for an alternative crop and can handle the risks of growing guar, then it may fit their farm. Otherwise, they may want to first look at other alternative crops for risk management purposes. "You should plant guar to produce a crop," Forbes said. Harvesting and processing Guar seed, or its bean, is about the size of a sorghum seed. The endosperm of the guar bean contains galactomannan gum, and it's this endosperm that is the ultimate goal of processors like West Texas Guar. Harvest for guar begins in the fall, using combines with modified flex headers or air reels. As part of its contract with growers, West Texas Guar offers crop consulting and can arrange harvesting. There are several contracted receiving locations for West Texas Guar, such as contractors in Knox City, and Fargo, Texas. West Texas Guar arranges for trucking of the guar beans from those locations to its processing facility in Brownfield. Processing includes dehulling the whole beans and splitting them to reach the white endosperm. "We are looking for the white without black specks," Forbes said. "Black beans are a lower grade." For now, the contract buys guar beans according to moisture content and by bushel weight. "Ideally, we'd like 13.5 percent moisture or less and a bushel weight of more than 60 pounds," he added. However, in the future, Forbes and Cowan plan to use a spectrometer so that they can accurately compensate their growers for growing higher quality white guar beans. "We wouldn't deduct, but rather set a base price and then pay more for color and bushel weight," Forbes said. "White, with 2 percent black specks is the highest grade," Forbes said. "We sell our guar gum on its color and thickness characteristics." The hulls and protein are sold for livestock feed, and the starch is removed and polished and sold to one of the five major guar gum processors in the United States. "The feed value is usually about 38 percent protein, with 78 percent digestibility," Forbes said. "It's better than cottonseed meal and about like soybean meal." The hulls themselves have 28 percent protein and offer more fiber for cattle and poultry.
Unlimited uses Guar powder, the ultimate refined product, is extremely useful in many applications. The powder acts as a thickening agent, and can hold up to 100 times its own weight in water. The United States imports most of its food grade guar gum from India and Pakistan. The country uses 180 million pounds of guar gum each year, and Texas production accounts for 3.5 to 5 million pounds of that. Texas farmers grow about 2 percent of the world's guar. "Most of the production is in India and Pakistan," Forbes said. "What we offer to companies is the ability to hedge their guar because the cost of large scale production of guar here is too high for us to compete on the global market. Instead, we offer a marketing solution. We don't compete with India and Pakistan, instead we complement their production." Food grade guar gum can be added to dairy products, such as ice cream and cheeses, for thickening and is used in cold meat processing. It's also useful as a fiber supplement. Once partially hydrolyzed, guar gum is soluble in water and soft foods, allowing for extra fiber to be added to a food without affecting its taste or texture. "Look at the labels on your food," Forbes said. "There are more than 10,000 food products that use guar gum." Perhaps the most "Texan" of all uses of guar gum is in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas formations. Brownfield sits on the Permian Basin, long renowned for its oil and gas industry. Hydraulic fracturing is a means for increasing oil production from previously "dry" wells. To begin, guar gum is mixed with water and pumped into a dry oil well at the bore hole. This increases the pressure on the surrounding formation of rock, fracturing it. These cracks sometimes contain small pockets of oil or natural gas, which then flows back to the main bore hole, where it can be pumped out. To remove the guar gum after its done it's job, the workers simply pump a dissolution agent into the well, which dissolves the gum powder. "It's interesting that we can promote agriculture and reclaim the old oil wells at the same time," Forbes said. Forbes is adamant that while guar still has many challenges to overcome it has a future for West Texas agriculture. He and his partner promote the crop through various trade shows and alternative crop seminars. They plant variety test plots and are in contact with researchers about finding an over-the-top herbicide that can be labeled for use on guar. They even do some additional product testing to find new uses for the tiny bean. "Today, we grow some of the highest quality guar in the world," Forbes said. "We are always looking for new producers and enlarging our market share of the world guar business." Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807 or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. 11/3/08 Date: 10/29/08 Advertisement
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