Bean variety trials in Scotland

Summary

Five arable farmers are trialing different bean varieties to find out which are best suited to Scottish growing conditions. The trialists are keen to find an alternative break crop to oilseed rape, which is increasingly suffering from pest and disease pressures including clubroot, and to reap the benefits of including a legume in their rotation.

Beans are rarely grown in Scotland, and the main objectives of the two-year field lab are to evaluate the suitability of bean production in Scotland and discover which variety/varieties can provide a consistent and profitable option to local farming systems.  This should help increase confidence within the Scottish farming sector on this crop.

The trial is being coordinated by PGRO and the researchers are Scottish Agronomy. Seed has kindly been donated by different seed companies.

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How it works

Clubroot is causing a big problem to oilseed rape crops in Scotland, and farmers are struggling to grow OSR as a successful and profitable break crop. Growers are looking for an alternative crop which does not suffer from clubroot, and beans are a viable option. However, until now very little trialling has been carried out to understand what varieties are best suited to provide a consistent and reliable crop in Scottish regional conditions, which are different to the traditional UK bean growing region. There is concern that beans will not mature in time or yields will be insufficient to be profitable. The Scottish farming industry is therefore lacking confidence on advising what bean variety to grow.

Beans have many potential benefits as a break crop: 

• They are a nitrogen fixing grain legume and therefore no nitrogen fertiliser is applied in the growing season.
• Beans also provide residual nitrogen for the following crop, increasing overall soil health, reducing climate impact and reducing cost to farmers.
• Increasing UK bean production could provide increased opportunity for home-grown protein sources in animal feed rations, thereby lowering the amount of imported soya, further reducing climate impact in the UK. 

Trial design

Five arable farmers, including one organic farmer, are taking part in the trial. Strip trials of 3 to 4 winter bean varieties will be established each year at each farm. Each variety will be about 2 ha. As there has been very little variety trial work done in Scotland to date a control variety is not established for the region.

The varieties will be jointly selected by PGRO, Scottish Agronomy and the farmers, with the advice of the seed suppliers.

Results will be analysed using the Bean Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). Bean YEN collects data on stand establishment, soil and plant nutritional analysis, key crop development stage dates, yield and details of pest, weed and disease crop protection product use. Bean YEN is an excellent tool to baseline Scottish grown winter beans to other UK bean growing regions within the same growing season.

The group will also monitor pest and disease pressures, winter hardiness and yield.