Spring beans or spring oats

phr49

Member
Location
Ely
Tried some Lynx this year on some Skirty Fen went in well did bit over 2.5 t acre was lucky as season suited them ...will have some more this year .....Some holes from beetle only feed ...
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
Fwiw I’ve dropped Spring Oats for Winter Beans !!
Much better break, better following wheat

I’ve sold some on a Wheat Futures based contract, fixed a few loads at £250+ last week

Not sure what Winters you had on order but Tundras are fine drilled up to end of March, that would’ve been my fallback
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Fwiw I’ve dropped Spring Oats for Winter Beans !!
Much better break, better following wheat

I’ve sold some on a Wheat Futures based contract, fixed a few loads at £250+ last week

Not sure what Winters you had on order but Tundras are fine drilled up to end of March, that would’ve been my fallback
We have both in rotation generally.
7.5t/ha of spring oats at £195 is a nice margin.
I think in this situation I will just put the oats in rather than springs beans as I have no seed and don’t plan on growing them long term. Oats in the shed and fert bought at 56p/kg, also got all our base fungicide bough before price hikes and all oats need is a couple half rate tens.
Back into winter beans next year hopefully but in our DD situation aim to drill them end of September/beginning of October so hopefully new seed will be available unlike this year.
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
We have both in rotation generally.
7.5t/ha of spring oats at £195 is a nice margin.
I think in this situation I will just put the oats in rather than springs beans as I have no seed and don’t plan on growing them long term. Oats in the shed and fert bought at 56p/kg, also got all our base fungicide bough before price hikes and all oats need is a couple half rate tens.
Back into winter beans next year hopefully but in our DD situation aim to drill them end of September/beginning of October so hopefully new seed will be available unlike this year.
TBF the other reason I dropped them was storage is tight for me next year and it meant one less crop to store making my floor stores work better for the tonnage available
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
TBF the other reason I dropped them was storage is tight for me next year and it meant one less crop to store making my floor stores work better for the tonnage available
That’s fair, they are bulky. We don’t have that problem. New oat mill we are involved with should open up some good opportunities for uk oat growers and change the market dynamics in our favour so don’t write them off completely!
 

BenAdamsAgri

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
early bird survey suggests pulses are actually down 5% this year, id imagine because so much good wheat in the ground. Agronomically spring beans are a pain and seems you can grow good oats so id go for them,
 

Tractor Boy

Member
Location
Suffolk
Yeh got enough although I may split the area half and half. I ideally want a break crop which oats are.
Don’t you find with no til you really need proper non cereal breaks? Aren’t Oats really only a take all break which I don’t think is much of a problem no til, but I do find you actually need non white straw crops to get the best first wheat yields.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Don’t you find with no til you really need proper non cereal breaks? Aren’t Oats really only a take all break which I don’t think is much of a problem no til, but I do find you actually need non white straw crops to get the best first wheat yields.
We grow rape and beans too. On heavy land we can grow long runs of cereals though and they are always more reliable than beans, osr and make the other crap like linseed or peas look completely pointless (I’ve tried)
 

alomy75

Member
You are very lucky. I would still go beans, spread harvest and the must wonderful tilth to drill into and no worries about slugs.
Less worries about slugs…from my dd wheat into bean stubble today
9B98D445-FBF8-454C-A505-25EBB50B5A1B.jpeg
 

Tractor Boy

Member
Location
Suffolk
We grow rape and beans too. On heavy land we can grow long runs of cereals though and they are always more reliable than beans, osr and make the other crap like linseed or peas look completely pointless (I’ve tried)
I keep messing about with peas and linseed to get the soil structure and really good first wheats but agree as stand alone crops they aren’t great. Last two years I’ve managed to do 2t/ha linseed but had some really poor yields in previous years. Peas last year were around 4t/ha but like linseed I’ve had some very poor yields.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I keep messing about with peas and linseed to get the soil structure and really good first wheats but agree as stand alone crops they aren’t great. Last two years I’ve managed to do 2t/ha linseed but had some really poor yields in previous years. Peas last year were around 4t/ha but like linseed I’ve had some very poor yields.
Yes they are hit and miss. I prefer peas and linseed in cover crops.
We grew winter linseed this year which was hideous.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Yes they are hit and miss. I prefer peas and linseed in cover crops.
We grew winter linseed this year which was hideous.

Winter Linseed was grown for 2021 harvest by several around here in South Lincs. Yields seem t have ranged between 0.5 and 0.7 t/acre. And then there was the harvesting issue when it set fire to many modern Lexions. So Claas dealer had a walker machine loaned doing the rounds. What did yours yield. Many having another go as we see it as a potentially useful additional break crop but jury very much out yet.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Winter Linseed was grown for 2021 harvest by several around here in South Lincs. Yields seem t have ranged between 0.5 and 0.7 t/acre. And then there was the harvesting issue when it set fire to many modern Lexions. So Claas dealer had a walker machine loaned doing the rounds. What did yours yield. Many having another go as we see it as a potentially useful additional break crop but jury very much out yet.
It did about .6/acre. It set our combine on fire so a neighbour ended up doing it with a straw walker. Blackgrass control was poor. Won’t be growing it again I would rather do stewardship however a mix of osr, oats and beans are enough for our break crops.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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