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“ What we want are strong plants that flower to the floor and pod to the floor. ” Richard Wainwright probably holds the current unofficial world record for the highest spring bean yield, but reckons the crop’s potential is much higher. Tapping into pulse potential Features Spring beans Attentive agronomy and plenty of manure helped one N Yorks grower achieve the highest UK yield with his spring beans, at around 70% above the UK average. CPM visits and discovers the potential may be even greater. By Tom Allen-Stevens You’d have thought Richard Wainwright would be savouring his achievement, as he stands for photos with his crystal decanter and bottle of single malt, while cupping a handful of spring beans. The prize trophy was awarded for the highest verified bean yield from the 2016 harvest –– his silty loams over limestone near Stonegrave in N Yorks brought in a healthy 6.81t/ha crop of Fanfare. “It’s actually our lowest yield of the past three years,” he remarks. “I’d expect to get at least 7.5t/ha, and there have been times when the yield hasn’t been too far away from the magical 10t/ha.” Richard Wainwright took up the challenge, laid down by PGRO around 18 months ago, to steer his crop towards a double-digit yield (see panel on p47). He farms a total of 600ha at Birch Farm in a family partnership with brother in law Peter Armitage and father in law Ian. Whether the clay over gravel or silt over limestone soils on the edge of the N Yorks Moors are capable of such an achievement remains to be seen. But he reckons the crop has plenty of potential that for the most part remains untapped. Rescue crop “A lot of people grow spring beans as a rescue crop –– it’s regarded as a poor man’s break crop that you don’t have to spend money on, so it gets no love and attention to detail. But year-on-year, beans perform better for us than oilseed rape, and just look at how much time and resource is lavished by most growers on that crop,” he points out. Besides a keen determination to give the crop everything it needs, he has a second secret that secures a fertile tilth and a crop that’s fit to flourish –– muck. The farm has 1400 head of cattle –– predominantly continental finishers –– while 1000 store lambs are brought in each year to graze overwintered stubble turnips that rotate around the 485ha of arable and precede the beans. The soils receive rich rewards from what these beasts leave behind, reckons Richard Wainwright. “A trailer load of muck adds far more to the soil than just its nutrient value –– it’s a magical soil conditioner,” he enthuses. Up to 50t/ha can be applied, ensuring compliance with regulatory guidelines, and steered towards achieving optimum output from a seven-year rotation in which two winter wheats are followed by either winter barley 44 crop production magazine arable extra march 2017
Spring beans and OSR or spring beans. And the suggestion that a spring crop doesn’t work on clay soils is smartly dismissed. “That’s a load of rubbish. In gross margin terms, spring beans perform the same or better than winter crops and help spread the workload.” Generally a Sumo five-leg subsoiler is the first piece of kit to follow the combine after the wheat’s taken off. “What we do then depends on how much moisture there is –– we aim to make a pass with the Sumo 3m trailed Trio, with an extra front-mounted disc unit. But if it’s really dry, we can drill the stubble turnips straight in. We’ll often top dress this with 12t/ha of muck to give it a good start and help keep the moisture in,” explains Richard Wainwright. The crop’s drilled with a 4m Horsch Pronto, that does little more than scatter the seed on top. “But just like the bean crop, there’s no excuse for skimping on stubble turnips. Both are clear-up crops for weeds, so we use pre-emergence glyphosate and in-crop graminicides to ensure we don’t miss the opportunity.” The total cost of the over-wintered crop is £120/ha, including machinery, he adds. “We’re aiming for 35-40 plants/m 2 , so drill at about 40-45 seeds/m 2 . That’s way below the rate currently recommended by PGRO, but there are important reasons to drill at this rate,” he explains. Firstly, the DTS establishes at 30cm rows, and Richard Wainwright reckons a higher seed rate would result in crowding down the rows. The second, and arguably more important reason, comes down to pollination. “Beans rely heavily on pollinators to improve pod set, so you have to focus your mind on doing everything you can to encourage them into the crop. What we want are strong plants that flower to the floor and pod to the floor. That means an open canopy that brings in the light and the pollinators –– not just bees, but insects too –– so that every flower makes a pod.” The bean crop’s drilled in around mid-to-late March into a seedbed that’s “corrugated” to prevent the soil from capping. The variety is currently Fanfare, and it’ll be grown for the second year in 2017. “We’ve previously grown Fuego, but felt the need to change. Fanfare’s had 2-3 years on the PGRO list and has shown it’s a consistent ▲ Store lambs The store lambs are brought in from early Nov and usually leave the land in Feb. “Then the soil just has to dry. We’re looking to get away from ploughing and you can direct drill the crop. But we like to press the reset button twice in the rotation with the plough –– before winter barley and in front of the beans in spring.” The 6f Kuhn Vari-Master is followed with a pass of a 5.5m Simba Cultipress, and this is carefully timed. “You want to leave the soil to nap and work it when the surface is dry –– sometimes what you don’t do is more important than what you do.” The bean crop’s drilled with a 4m Sumo DTS, aiming for around mid-to-late March into a seedbed that’s relatively rough and “corrugated” to prevent the soil from capping. Sheep on fodder beet precede the bean crop. crop production magazine arable extra march 2017 45
Page 1: In this issue... Hands-free hectare
Page 4: Am I wrapped up in a bubble? There
Page 8: Disease control Decision support to
Page 11 and 12: winter and new isolates -- Blue and
Page 14 and 15: Fungicide behaviour Bringing new cr
Page 16: Tech Talk According to Jonathan Bla
Page 19 and 20: So do we really want varieties with
Page 22: Weed worries shouldn’t drive spri
Page 26 and 27: Weed control Colin Woodward was fac
Page 28 and 29: Liquid logic has a way with weeds I
Page 30 and 31: Innovation Insight Performance in m
Page 32: Spotlight on crop research “ The
Page 35 and 36: across the whole genome, making it
Page 37 and 38: Blackgrass Banbury blackgrass strat
Page 39 and 40: Precision agronomy helping farmers
Page 42: Precision agronomy The 40hp Iseki t
Page 47 and 48: Spring beans The crop’s given a p
Page 50 and 51: Conference grown, the weed control
Page 52 and 53: “ The domestic demand is predomin
Page 54: The new name for a farmer’s frien
Page 57 and 58: Insiders View Chris Guest notes Gra
Page 59 and 60: “ With sugar beet you’re not a
Page 62 and 63: Sugar beet weeds Weed control is on
Page 64: Potato weed control Herbicide treat
Page 67: Opportunity in marginal gains Over

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