Beans

Field Beans

Field beans are used for inclusion in animal feed or export for human consumption or for pigeon feed, for which suitable winter and spring varieties are available. They provide a useful break to reduce cereal pests and diseases and an opportunity to control grass weeds in an arable rotation. Improved spring varieties in particular are earlier maturing, less prone to indeterminate growth, and give higher and more reliable yield. In wet years and on heavy soils, beans perform better than peas. Beans also suffer less from pigeon damage, they are easier to combine, and growing costs can sometimes be lower. Beans, however, are harvested later than peas, and time of harvest is dependent on seasonal weather in the August/September period.

Beans are classified as winter and spring beans. These are further classified by pale or black hilum colour or tic. Winter beans are generally large-seeded with a thousand seed weight normally above 530 grammes. Spring varieties are generally smaller seeded than this. Tic varieties have small, rounded seeds, which may be suitable for the pigeon trade.

SPRING VARIETIES

The UK spring bean acreage is completely dominated by one variety FUEGO. It is short, stiff and early and importantly produces a bean which meets the requirement of the export market.

PYRAMID is newly recommended and out yields Fuego by 3%. It has slightly stiffer straw and a pale hilum like Fuego means that it should suit the export market.

WINTER VARIETIES

WIZARD is the market leading winter sown variety. It has relatively short stiff straw and a pale hilum makes it suitable for export.

SULTAN is 3% behind Wizard for yield but is earlier maturing and slightly stiffer in the straw. Sultan has a smaller seed size but should suit the export requirements.