Darren Allen: Tallying the costs and rewards of regen legumes at Ballymaloe
September On Mix Pea/bean Harvest 12
Following the challenges of the 2024 growing season, we have been making steady progress with harvest. As we speak, only the spring beans remain to be cut, which are still a few weeks from harvest following the extremely late sowing date of April 20. However, I am hopeful they will yield well, as they have looked strong all year, and reports from other farmers show that beans harvested to date are yielding quite well.
These were sown as part of ongoing Teagasc field research into legumes, comparing beans to a pea/bean combi-crop where the primary aim is to use the beans as scaffolding to hold up the peas from serious lodging. The combi-crop was also sown both conventionally and direct drilled, as detailed in my last article (June 2024).
Harvest took place on September 12, which is a massive advantage compared to waiting for spring beans to ripen. It allows time to deal with grass weeds through stale seedbeds, and still have time to sow in early October as planned, without waiting on short days to harvest.
The entire crop averaged 5.52 t/ha and should leave a decent margin and a good entry point to winter wheat. Observations on the conventional vs direct drilled were that the conventional had a higher plant establishment (90% vs 77%) and grew taller (115cm vs 102cm at the highest point).
I would definitely be interested in considering this legume alternative again next year, provided I had a secure market for the crop.
Elsewhere on the farm, I can best summarise harvest 2024 by saying that the winter cereals remaining in the ground after the winter yielded poorly as expected, while the late April sown cereals yielded better than they should. The most interesting observation was from my ‘conventional’ vs ‘regenerative’ malting barley trial, which I outlined in my last article.
Granted I had two different malting barley varieties (RGT Planet and LG Mermaid – yielding 100 and 105 respectively on the 2024 DAFM RL), but my results are giving me food for thought on what I will do next year.
The regenerative approach on the LG Mermaid, where I replaced chemicals N, P & K with 7,400 gals/ha pig slurry, delivered a cost saving of €110/ha following analysis based on the cost of the slurry spreading, slurry nutrient lab results and current fertiliser prices.
The establishment technique saving vs conventional was about €200-220/ha; however, the most important aspect was that the LG Mermaid yielded over 8t/ha of excellent quality malting barley (65 KPH, 1.5% screenings, 8.5% protein) as the market requires, while the RGT Planet yielded 1t/ha less with lower quality from conventional methods.
Other differences, like our homemade foliar feed, may have helped, but it is worth saying that visually the LG Mermaid looked healthier from start to finish, both on the ground and from drone images captured during the year. So, I will continue trialling next year.
Other work on the farm lately includes pulling straw out of the Straw Implementation Measure for baling in the new BAP scheme, sowing a sizable area of cover crops later than wanted but with good emergence, and carrying out necessary drainage and subsoiling work.
Finally, on grain price, I fail to see how we are still expected to compete with world market grain. I would like to see more support from the EU to even up the playing field.
If that involves tariffs on imported grain, which have used products which have been removed from use in the EU for several years, or a better understanding and more support at home to purchase low-carbon Irish grain, all are essential to ensure we have a sustainable tillage farming future going forward.
