Whole cropping spring beans. Anyone done it ??

[curlietailz]

Asking for a friend
Got a field of spring beans and thinking of whole cropping them to clamp into silage to feed fattening beast
Anyone done it?
Any idea when’s best stage to do it?
Any idea of potential feed value?

Or will it just become a sludgy mess of really high protein unpalatable mush ??

Thanks

 

[Al R]

Put dryish grass underneath (over 40% DM) and it will soak up the bean effluent and then put more 30% DM grass ontop to stop rats and Newcastle supporters eating it all.

This is how i’ve Done direct cut red clover and direct cut arable silage before and never had effluent as the dry grass underneath soaked it all up.

 

[Headless chicken]

I’m very interested in the outcome here. It’s something I’m keen to try myself

 

[neilo]

Asking for a friend
Got a field of spring beans and thinking of whole cropping them to clamp into silage to feed fattening beast
Anyone done it?
Any idea when’s best stage to do it?
Any idea of potential feed value?

Or will it just become a sludgy mess of really high protein unpalatable mush ??

Thanks

We used to whole crop Winter Beans at home, direct cut at the same time as WW. We would put some WW under it, then the beans, then WW on top again. That soaked up all that lovely high protein effluent/sap a treat.
Carting it a mile or so back to the pit, it would have gone black and liquor would be dribbling out of it.
We mixed it roughly with a telehandler when feeding out, then dumped into racks, but if you grabbed a handful of the beans alone and offered it to the cows, they’d mow you down for it. Palatability was never an issue.

Possibly most importantly, it consistently analysed at 17%CP, making it a far better option for us than piddling around with pea & barley mixes (which were always 13-14%CP ime).

That was for dairy cows, not finishing cattle btw.

 

[curlietailz]

Thanks for your prompt responses guys

 

[Bury the Trash]

Seems a bit wrong somehow,

how bout crimping them?

 

[Headless chicken]

We used to whole crop Winter Beans at home, direct cut at the same time as WW. We would put some WW under it, then the beans, then WW on top again. That soaked up all that lovely high protein effluent/sap a treat.
Carting it a mile or so back to the pit, it would have gone black and liquor would be dribbling out of it.
We mixed it roughly with a telehandler when feeding out, then dumped into racks, but if you grabbed a handful of the beans alone and offered it to the cows, they’d mow you down for it. Palatability was never an issue.

Possibly most importantly, it consistently analysed at 17%CP, making it a far better option for us than piddling around with pea & barley mixes (which were always 13-14%CP ime).

That was for dairy cows, not finishing cattle btw.

What’s the spray control like on beans? Am I right in thinking it’s ok ish on acidic soils?

 

[neilo]

Seems a bit wrong somehow,

how bout crimping them?

Why? The 17% I quoted was from the whole sample, which includes a huge yield of forage, not just the 1.5t/ac(?) of beans.

It’s a very cheap, high protein forage.

 

[neilo]

What’s the spray control like on beans? Am I right in thinking it’s ok ish on acidic soils?

Beans are very cheap to grow (particularly on fert of course), but prefer heavier ground (clay soils back home). Sorry, not sure on the acidity front, other than I don’t think they’re as particular as some crops.

 

[Headless chicken]

Beans are very cheap to grow (particularly on fert of course), but prefer heavier ground (clay soils back home). Sorry, not sure on the acidity front, other than I don’t think they’re as particular as some crops.

Any idea who you had it through or what variety it was? I will hopefully find some details about it

 

[neilo]

Any idea who you had it through or what variety it was? I will hopefully find some details about it

Sorry, no idea. I moved away in 2012, so a while back now....

Not sure there’s that much difference between Winter Bean varieties anyway? Seed available widely, from any seedsman.
I would never advocate such a thing with the seed police watching, but I suspect bean seed sown off a heap in a store would grow perfectly well (obviously that store would have to be on your farm, filled from your land and royalties paid to aforementioned folk).

 

[Bob the beef]

Whole cropped spring beans once into an agbag. Superb feed finishing cattle loved it . Had to be mixed with dry silage though. Never did it again though because the damage to heavy land hauling off in a wet back end nullified the job. Just went back to combining after

 

[Samcowman]

Doing it this year for the first time. They were undersown with grass which is looking good underneath it. May take them off this week all being well.

 

[jonny72]

Doing it this year for the first time. They were undersown with grass which is looking good underneath it. May take them off this week all being well.

I would be very interested in the analysis and how cows milk on wholecrop beans as a buffer to good silage

 

[Samcowman]

I would be very interested in the analysis and how cows milk on wholecrop beans as a buffer to good silage

It will be used for growing cattle probably. Will also be having red clover and grass going in the pit at the same time.