Winter beans and weeds

Highashgrange

Member
Arable Farmer
Thinking of growing beans but looking around this years there’s a lot of very weedy bean crops. Having never grown them before is there limited weed control available? Potentially thinking of 130ha of them so wanting to know we can do it right.
 

phr49

Member
Location
Ely
What soil type are you on ?
Grown some Spring beans this year weed levels been pretty low pre em worked well conditions were good when applied .
On some moderately heavy soil which is normally not too bad for weed population .
 

Zippy768

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wilts
What soil type are you on ?
Grown some Spring beans this year weed levels been pretty low pre em worked well conditions were good when applied .
On some moderately heavy soil which is normally not too bad for weed population .
When do you think you will cut them?
 

phr49

Member
Location
Ely
Beans @ £217 & profitable shouldn’t be in the same sentence...
Agree alot of dependence on a good yielding crop ....!! Low inputs and good following wheat crop hopefully compensate ....will let you know how yield turns out ...keeping everything crossed they have looked ok all year .....
Osr and S beet....... Up and down too !:unsure:
 

Bogweevil

Member
Thinking of growing beans but looking around this years there’s a lot of very weedy bean crops. Having never grown them before is there limited weed control available? Potentially thinking of 130ha of them so wanting to know we can do it right.

 

Richard98

Member
Very limited on weed control, not a crop for bad blackgrass fields. We switched from winter to spring beans about 10 years ago partly due to poor weed control though spring aren't much better. There is pendimethalin, imazamox and clomazone pre emergence, its expensive but works well in a year with good soil moisture. Post emergence very little. We find as the beans die off and let light in you'll get a flush of weeds which can make harvesting steady, though roundup pre harvest sorts it.
Beans are a crop you've got to grow cheap to make any money - don't bother with insecticides for bruchid beetle as you'll likely get damage whether you spray or not. In a bad year we've had under 1t/acre from spring beans but other years they do a lot better. We grow them as they're easy and low risk albeit for low reward with a good entry for first wheat. There aren't any other better break crops that we can see!
 

Highashgrange

Member
Arable Farmer
Not filling me full of confidence guys and with the price of the seed I think we might not bother. Might buy a load of feed beans though …….
 

DRC

Member
We are growing a few winter beans this year as I don’t want to be combining springs in Nov.
We used to find springs were ready just as soon as winters . Used to get them in September . I always remember that I was combining beans on 9/11.
Do t grow them now as too inconsistent and the loss of cheap herbicide.
you are better off with 2 yr legume fallow at £211 acre
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
If the land hasn't grown beans before there is potential for a good crop, and no N requirement is looking like a big benefit this year. Drill them deep and leave the pre em as long as you dare.
Agree with you there, with fert nearing £400/t and I'm guessing shortages occurring down the line in other inputs then Beans will be a safe bet.
Grew them for the first time here, they got cooked by a hard frost and east wind but didnt do too badly.
Putting 150 ac in of Tundra
 

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