In this issue..

Spring beans
The crop’s given a potassium and sulphur boost
when it starts to pod up.
with pedestal fans. To bring it down to 15%,
it may need to go through the dryer again,
and that last 1% can be hard to achieve.
Keep the crop in the dark, though, as light
during storage will also discolour it.”
The award-winning crop itself has already
left the farm. “I generally sell the crop in four
thirds –– I take a conservative estimate on
yield when selling forward, so there’s a
bonus surplus sold on the open market after
harvest. As long as the sample is pale with
no bruchid damage, traders get excited as
it’s a desirable product and you can get a
premium. I don’t have a fixed outlet and look
for the best deals on the day.”
What’s left behind is pretty impressive,
however –– a cursory inspection of the soil
that bore the winning crop, now in wheat,
reveals a friable crumby structure, and a
crop well set up for the season ahead.
“If conditions go well, it’s mint –– it’ll give
you a fantastic entry for wheat. But if the
weather turns against you it can be a
disaster. Beans can turn your last week of
harvest into a two-month struggle,” notes
Richard Wainwright.
“If you’re lucky, you get soil in such good
condition you could cultivate it with a thorn
bush. But if it’s a late harvest, it can be touch
and go –– we’ve harvested beans and
drilled the wheat on the same day.
“But I think the benefit to the following
crop is sometimes overplayed. You do get
residual N, but sometimes this doesn’t
mineralise, so don’t rely on it –– it depends
A cursory inspection of the soil reveals a friable
crumby structure, and a crop well set up for the
season ahead.
Richard Wainwright sells the crop in four thirds
and as long as the sample is pale with no
bruchid damage, it’s a desirable product that
gets a premium.
on what the weather does.”
And that’s also the pivotal factor for
prospects in 2017 and beyond, he says.
“Various weather events mean the land still
needs to dry out before we can drill this
spring, but forward prices are good so
there’s plenty of potential for good gross
margins. There are EFA rule changes
coming in for 2018, and these are annoying
as they amount to meddling by the EU. But
they don’t change the fact that beans are an
excellent break crop.
“Whether we can achieve the 10t/ha crop
–– again, much depends on the weather
and we’ll need all the ducks lined up. All we
can do is set the crop canopy up to make
the most of the sunlight, and then if we get
the right weather at flowering and through
pod set, who knows? Maybe we might
just do it.” ■
What is the world record yield for field beans?
The truth is, no one knows, according to Roger
Vickers of PGRO. “We’re not aware that a world
record has actually been set for field beans, or
fava/faba beans as they’re known globally.”
One leguminous crop that has broken the
10t/ha barrier is soybean. According to Corn and
Soybean Digest, a new world record of 11.5t/ha
was set last year by Randy Dowdy, a grower in
Georgia, USA. Poultry litter and a cover crop
preceded the Roundup Ready soybean crop,
while understanding its nutrient needs and
insect pressure were the keys that unlocked
the high yield, says Randy Dowdy.
As for field beans, the UK average bean
yield is around 4t/ha, although official national
statistics are not available for the crop. “We
think the UK grower would achieve the highest
yields in the world, but we set the target for the
PGRO Bean Yield Challenge based on what we
believe the genetic potential to be. Our own
plot trials along with anecdotal evidence from
growers suggest we’re not far off a double-digit
figure,” continues Roger Vickers.
The first grower who manages to attain the
“challenging but achievable” officially verified
yield of 10t/ha before 2020 will win PGRO’s
Bean Yield Challenge. The prize is a four-night
trip to France for four people, including an
overnight stay in Paris, while each year
there’s a prize trophy awarded for the highest
yield entered.
To qualify, growers must register their crop
with PGRO by 1 July in the relevant harvest
year. Harvest must then be independently
witnessed and verified –– the full rules of entry
are available on the PGRO website.
“So far as we know, 6.81t/ha is as close as
we have to a world record bean yield, although
we haven’t gone as far as to get this officially
recognised. However, we’re convinced there are
growers out there who know they can beat this,
and we’d dearly like them to enter their crop so
we can learn how to push the potential
returns,” notes Roger Vickers.
crop production magazine arable extra march 2017 47