Three sisters

After going to companion cropping talk at ORFC, have been thinking about companion cropping with maize. Andy Howard talked about the native Americans using the three sisters ( maize, beans and pumpkins). I was wondering if anyone ever tried forage maize with a pea or bean climbing up them. You would potentially get a more balanced silage and hopeful increase yield from the synergy of the companion crops. I can see lots of potential problems as well, how to establish beans/peas, would both crops mature at same time, how well would mixture ensilage.
 

York

Member
Location
D-Berlin
After going to companion cropping talk at ORFC, have been thinking about companion cropping with maize. Andy Howard talked about the native Americans using the three sisters ( maize, beans and pumpkins). I was wondering if anyone ever tried forage maize with a pea or bean climbing up them. You would potentially get a more balanced silage and hopeful increase yield from the synergy of the companion crops. I can see lots of potential problems as well, how to establish beans/peas, would both crops mature at same time, how well would mixture ensilage.
a local big seed company are releasing this year a maize / bean companion cropping. It is not tht easy as you have to have maize which is able to stand the weight of the beans, get beans which are not earlier & later mature than the maize & als the bean seed are not so large as this can add quite to seed cost. In Germany they had last year around 30 test farms, from <1ha to 30ha field size. this year they have good supply of bean seed so they do more.
the silage is balanced in energy & protein for cows.
Somewhere I have the latest presentation from the developer of the approach as he was part in Nov/Dec. of the road show. He showed some stunning numbers but was not hesitant to share also the open challenges.
York-Th.
p.s. by the way when he did his presentation, after the 1st 2 meeting he had to gear down as there where tooo many requests on the seed coming to the seed company. Even competitor seed companies ordered bean seed of them now.
 

Richard III

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
CW5 Cheshire
The MGA trialled maize and beans way back, probably in the early 1990's at a guess. From what I remember it worked ok, but there was no real farmer interest back then. I don't know if they have looked at it recently, since I gave up maize a while ago now.

Are there herbicide options available for the combination crop? Back in the 1990's Atrazine made it easy.

Simon Draper would have done the trial work and is still there, so could be of some help to you.
 

Dan Powell

Member
Location
Shropshire
a local big seed company are releasing this year a maize / bean companion cropping. It is not tht easy as you have to have maize which is able to stand the weight of the beans, get beans which are not earlier & later mature than the maize & als the bean seed are not so large as this can add quite to seed cost. In Germany they had last year around 30 test farms, from <1ha to 30ha field size. this year they have good supply of bean seed so they do more.
the silage is balanced in energy & protein for cows.
Somewhere I have the latest presentation from the developer of the approach as he was part in Nov/Dec. of the road show. He showed some stunning numbers but was not hesitant to share also the open challenges.
York-Th.
p.s. by the way when he did his presentation, after the 1st 2 meeting he had to gear down as there where tooo many requests on the seed coming to the seed company. Even competitor seed companies ordered bean seed of them now.
DSV ?
 

Dan Powell

Member
Location
Shropshire
No.
York-Th.
Oh. Any more details available? It's something I'd like to try. Are they using fava beans? I read a paper on this some time ago and they had fairly good results but the protein was only being boosted from 8% to 10% and energy was a bit lower.

Runner beans would be interesting as they would climb up the maize.
 

Dan Powell

Member
Location
Shropshire
How much better would this be than 3 cuts of grass and clover? You'd have some grazing too and 4 -5 years of it too
I agree with the sentiment, and have gone down that route but the hard facts are that maize puts finish on beef cattle faster and cattle get a shine about them which doesn't seem to happen off rye grass / clover. Plus the bedding stays drier and less straw required. My customer demands starch finished beef and maize seems to be the best option. Plus it's a C4 plant and adds diversity... grows well here.
 

O'Reilly

Member
I remember that one of the problems was that the beans branched out all over the place and clung on to the maize such that harvest was quite trying, since the crop was trying to pull its neighbouring row into the harvester at the same time. A rape knife may have helped, but it would need to be a long one.
I believe they also looked at sunflowers and some other crops. I might see if I have any old notes somewhere.
 
There is alot of wasted ground in maize rows..so if you can get something to grow without robbing to much moisture...surely worth a play? maturity i imagine is a hard one, i was thinking Lucerne but if ready to early what would you do?

Ant....
 

onodle

New Member
A farmer from SA does this he has some impressive yields and soil improvement is second to none, last year he left the beans off and found maze with a Japanese pumpkin / squash was the best way to go and had some impressive crop.

I run beans and then squash between the beans does well as a ground cover.
 
A farmer from SA does this he has some impressive yields and soil improvement is second to none, last year he left the beans off and found maze with a Japanese pumpkin / squash was the best way to go and had some impressive crop.

I run beans and then squash between the beans does well as a ground cover.
How is he Havering this? Is it as forage crop or grain maize.
 

onodle

New Member
By hand him and his 4 boys go to town and clear the lot by hand hardest working bunch I've ever seen. Its a grain maize, he regular imports strands all over the world to try and find the best breed to get working with the 3 sisters method and UK climate.
 

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