Counting the many benefits of bean crops

AS the evenings are drawing in, decisions are imminent on cropping plans for 2019. The first decision to take is whether to put any crop in the ground at all.

The statistics are telling us that plenty of people have been getting out of cropping in recent years; we’ve raised this issue on these pages before.

Given some of the yields recorded this year, you might fear that this trend could continue into 2019.

However, given the increase in price for our produce, the huge increase in demand for it and perhaps a shift in sentiment for some of the alternative land uses, it might be expected that the area of land under cropping might at least stabilise for the year going forward. Time will tell.

The next decision is what crops to put into the ground. Again recent events might suggest the need for a huge change in cropping programmes.

Any spring barley or spring bean grower could be forgiven for promising not to go near those crops again.

However, before deciding on ditching beans as a crop option, don’t look at the returns for this year; don’t even look at the extra payments the crop gives.

Instead,look at the yield from the wheat that followed last year’s bean crops, the widening of the planting and harvesting window, the change in chemistry to attack problem weeds, the improvement in soil structure and soil fertility.

In short, the advantages of beans are many; don’t discard them lightly.

Similarly, many spring barley crops were an embarrassment this year.

In truth, the worst crops were on light land that hadn’t been ‘improved’ with rotation/ animal manures etc.

Crops scattered onto land previously damaged with late potato or vegetable harvesting were also particularly disap- pointing. However, it was the worst performance of the crop in living memory.

And while there is absolutely no guarantee that the same thing won’t happen next year, spring barley has been too faithful a servant for decades for us to abandon it the first time it fails us.

There is a more fundamental reason as to why particular crops shouldn’t be abandoned: rotations boost soil fertility and they spread workload.

They also spread risk across a farm. Good years allow most crops to perform well, but in difficult years, generally some crops suffer more than others.

We have no idea how the 2019 season and harvest will turn out. By spreading our cropping programmes, we can minimise the risk to our businesses.

Winter cereals performed well this year in general. This mightn’t be the case next year.

Next year might be a year for spring crops. So keep as many irons the fire as possible.

Once a decision has been taken to sow, itchiness to get going starts soon after. The harvest was early, straw was removed early, hedges have been trimmed, stubbles cultivated and it’s still September.

There is also the niggly feeling that the weather can’t hold up for ever, and opportunities to sow might suddenly disappear.

It is likely there is a huge build-up of nitrogen in the soil from the hot season and poor nutrient offtake (courtesy of low yields of straw and grain). Soil temperatures are still high. If you throw in early sowing into this mix, it is likely that crops will emerge very quickly, and look a real picture very soon.

Pests

Crops could turn very thick and lush as we approach the winter, again looking a picture. It’s a veritable haven for pest and disease development and spread.

The last few years have been particularly disease-free seasons. This may or may not be the case next year.

We can’t depend on fungicides to control disease like we used to.

Despite the hyperbole, we don’t have a huge range of cultural control options to control disease either.

However, there are a num- ber of techniques that can be used to address the risk at this time of year, somewhat. Lower fertility sites are less prone to advanced development; sow them first.

There are variety differences in speed of development. Check them out and plan accordingly. Sowing rate and sowing depth all have a role to play in slowing down development.

Early sowing wheat into warm fertile soils is exactly the opposite of good cultural disease control; it’s a recipe for disease proliferation.

On the other hand, seed left in the bag over the winter is not going to pay many bills either.

WE CANNOT DEPEND ON FUNGICIDES TO CONTROL DISEASES LIKE WE USED TO