Companion cropping wheat and beans

jonnieboy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
I managed to persuade the agronomist we should leave one field of wheat with the volunteer spring beans in
Wheat looked too thin all winter but has picked up now beans look good too
Spoke to PGRO on having beans 2 years on the trot and as a one off they are not too concerned
Plan is to harvest and split in cleaner
Anyway main question is will the beans provide enough N it got 40 kg in late feb
Will it need a bit more ?
Had a pre em of chronical and a splash of ambush and nothing since
Quite liking the look of this field at the moment
 

jonnieboy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
8BE815CC-107F-41CE-8984-95DD89658DF9.jpeg
Here are some pictures
4EB872DE-BB77-4BCD-B594-5A28D47AC710.jpeg
 

RushesToo

Member
Location
Fingringhoe
@jonnieboy it is a trial - It can only go three ways, more profit, the same profit or loss.

I would see what you can find out from past trials, if there are none then it is over to you. Does the land tolerate dry, wet will you get more applied N near the plants [it looks like being dry], will you avoid pests through the mixed crop - more diversity, will you get more disease less air moving through and localised disease. I don't know the answer - possibly no one does.

You have to decide how much you will risk. I would risk what you can afford and treat the crop differently and find out what pays most without risking going out of business.

BTW it looks grand.
 
The discussion of N-release from beans to wheat is interesting. Normally it's said, here and elsewhere, that beans won't share any N and the release will come with breakdown of its residue. Why would it, as it doesn't want to feed any competition?
On the other hand, I've seen data of N-sharing happening. The reason I could see would be that in a healthy soil, beans would swap N for other nutrients that are harder to come by that certain micro-organisms are better able to mine. Situations where this would cost less energy for the bean plants than mining on its own. I would not expect to see this interaction in conventional studies as the soils won't allow this exchange as one or several factors are missing.
I don't have the data readily, but I'm sure I've seen it.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
I left the w bean volunteers in some wheat until March, then sprayed them out before they became too much competition for the wheat. (there was more volunteers than normal due to the poor yield last year making for more combine header losses) That field has had 40kg less N than the wheat after oats or spuds, and looks every bit as good. I wouldnt of expected as much residual N to be left after the previous bean crop as normal, because it was half the crop of normal. (normally wheat after beans gets 20kg less N)
It was a bit of an experiment, but I see little negative effect.

My biggest concern of using beans as a companion or cover crop is that of bean stem nematode - theres a couple of farms around with a bit of a problem - its like take all for pulses, not good.
 

Simon C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex Coast
The discussion of N-release from beans to wheat is interesting. Normally it's said, here and elsewhere, that beans won't share any N and the release will come with breakdown of its residue. Why would it, as it doesn't want to feed any competition?
On the other hand, I've seen data of N-sharing happening. The reason I could see would be that in a healthy soil, beans would swap N for other nutrients that are harder to come by that certain micro-organisms are better able to mine. Situations where this would cost less energy for the bean plants than mining on its own. I would not expect to see this interaction in conventional studies as the soils won't allow this exchange as one or several factors are missing.
I don't have the data readily, but I'm sure I've seen it.

This happens in the natural environment all the time, legumes fixing N and sharing with other plants in exchange for different nutrients. I think the main facilitator of this is mycorrhizal fungi connecting all the roots together underground. Most intensively farmed arable soil has virtually no mycorrhizae, but with the right management, there can be massive levels of the fungi present, which is when nutrient sharing can take place.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
2 questions;
Are you going to cut as soon as beans are vaguely dry enough to combine? I would have thought their harvest date would be well after spring barley? And Did I read right that spring barley was a third attempt at drilling a crop in this field this year? Cos that's unlucky.
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
Regards harvesting not decided yet might just chicken out and wholecrop or or wait for it to be fit close the drum up and let it mill the beans in to the tank
Yes barley is 3rd crop had soil tests for everything in that feild all come back perfect so got me and lime man stumped it is on some evil clay tho but is improving with muck gypsum and selling the plough
 

Fuzzy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Regards harvesting not decided yet might just chicken out and wholecrop or or wait for it to be fit close the drum up and let it mill the beans in to the tank
Yes barley is 3rd crop had soil tests for everything in that feild all come back perfect so got me and lime man stumped it is on some evil clay tho but is improving with muck gypsum and selling the plough
When i cut my bean/barley crop last year (looked very similar to your pics) i started with a combine setting about half way between the 2 crops but soon realised that a normal barley setting was best. I was a bit concerned about smashing up the beans but the barley straw appeared to provide a cushion for the beans and the sample was very clean.
With regard harvest timing i waited until both crops had matured properly and were dry.
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
I'm not worried about broken beans as will be rolled and home fed if I do whole crop it I will leave some to combine as other half of feild is beans anyway
Any beans on the floor will get eaten by lambs so no waste there
 

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