“That’s interesting because the bean nitrogen-rich residues left in-field after their harvest would have been all-but lost by the time the following spring barley crop was sown. We need more data on that, but I don’t believe the barley benefits are simply due to soil nitrogen levels. There are likely changes to the soil structure, and we know already that beans support a ‘symbiotic microbiome’ – changing the diversity of the microbes associated with plant roots to more-favourable types.”
Consistency of performance of field beans is “a bit of a nightmare” admitted Agrii agronomist Todd Jex. “A lot of the potential is lost in the very early stages. You cannot grow them tightly in rotation because of build-up of soil-borne pests and diseases and you need to consider all three aspects of soil health – physical, chemical and biological.”
When it comes to putting the crop in the ground there are four considerations: drilling date, variety, establishment system and seed rate. Todd stressed the importance of early drilling.
“As soon as wheat drilling is finished, we’ll put winter beans in, from the middle of October onwards.” Spring beans could be drilled in January, he added. “The earlier the better.”
Pulse Pioneers
Oxfordshire farmer and founder of the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) Tom Allen-Stevens called for more farmers to sign up as Pulse Pioneers, who are paid to carry out the on-farm trials in the NCS Project.
“This year we have 20 taking part but next year we are ramping that up to 40. Supported by the scientists and other experts in our partner organisations the trials are a real opportunity to find ways to grow better, more consistent crops.”
Sharing that knowledge between Pulse Pioneers, the ‘Pulse PEP’ NCS community and the wider industry, was another large part of the project and BOFIN’s role within it, he explained.
Achieving consistency is the main goal for NCS bean trials carried out by Rob Waterston, farm manager at Welford Park Estate. “The inconsistency drives me mad. I love them some years, but then others they are sparse and I think, why do we bother?”
His Pulse Pioneer trial was a 3ha block of beans from which he took leaf samples to send away for analysis. “On the back of that we tailor made a nutritional programme. We did that twice in the build up towards flowering to make sure the plant gets everything it needs to maximise the flowering potential. It was quite an expansive list of micronutrients that went on.”
He achieved a 0.2t yield uplift in that area and a wealth of benchmark data from ADAS Bean YEN, into which his crop was entered, to analyse and interpret its performance.
Paul Barnes, Estate Manager at South Ormsby Estate said that as an organic producer beans were an important part of his seven-year rotation. As a Pulse Pioneer within NCS he runs trials on his farm. In year one he was looking at applications of two products that capture atmospheric N, comparing plant health above and below the ground with those of untreated crops. This revealed higher levels of nodulation, plant growth and vigour scoring in the treated crops compared with untreated. This year he will also be assessing the following spring milling wheat crop to confirm the impact the beans had made, as part of the NCS on-farm trials.
Paul stressed how important knowledge exchange was and the value of the 20 Pulse Pioneers involved in the NCS Project sharing what their learning had been from the on-farm trials.
“Let’s get more on board – bring it on,” he said.
The conference brought together more than 100 representatives of feed companies, research institutes, farmers and others across the supply chain. But despite invitations sent to the UK’s major retailers, none were directly represented, a point noted by several delegates during discussions.
