I have never tried to grow dryland beans. To me it seems we can grow irrigated beans OK, but they just are not competitive with irrigated corn so they are rarely grown even on irrigated unless we need to rotate for disease. Irrigated beans here make somewhere between 60 and 85 depending upon the year.

Dryland beans here are just a really really bad deal from the perspective of how much residue you have left over. Blowing bean ground all winter long is not what you want to see. That residue is extremely important in our area as well just from the standpoint of reducing water loss through evaporation and increasing infiltration rates.

I believe beans are generally a 25 bushel yield in our area on dryland if they are harvested at all. I have seen a few guys try them and it was hit and miss on whether they were even harvested. I don't know if it's a timing of rains issue like others mentioned or what but it just seems to be a very sketchy crop in this area and is rarely grown.