Legumes

Peas and beans

Field beans and grain peas have a long history throughout Europe and spread over centuries to the most diverse regions of the European continent. Due to the increase in agricultural intensity, the decline in animal husbandry and the use of nitrogen fertilisers, the importance of field beans and grain peas declined in the past decades until the areas under cultivation increased again a few years ago. The focus on the cultivation of domestic protein sources for feeding and human nutrition, as well as political programmes and the recognition of the many advantages that domestic grain legumes bring to crop rotation, are promoting the cultivation of pulses overall again.

Expanding crop rotations with spring crops in general and especially with field beans and peas can effectively reduce the crop management problems of cereal-focused crop rotations. These more stable crop rotations can better counter extreme weather events and the increasing development of herbicide resistant weeds.

But successful cultivation can only succeed on a suitable location. It is not uncommon, however, for grain legumes to end up on poorer soils, where they then disappoint in terms of yield.

Due to its increased water requirement, the field bean needs deep, humus rich and cohesive loam, clay or loess soils that have a good water retention capacity. A sowing depth of 6-10 cm helps the plant to get the water it needs and ensures growth even in dry phases, to which the field bean can react sensitively. Highly elevated temperatures during flowering and pod filling are also detrimental to growth and yield formation.

The grain pea is better adapted to lighter and shallow soils and is laid at a depth of 4-6 cm. In contrast to the field bean, the grain pea requires less water, which in turn makes it susceptible to heavy rainfall. However, long periods of drought and severe heat events also have a detrimental effect on the vegetative and generative phases of the pea. For peas an even seed bed is recommended, as grain peas are harvested relatively low above the ground – also rolling after sowing can be reasonable when working on stony soils.

Due to the self-incompatibility of legumes it is recommended to cultivate field beans only every 4-5 years and grain peas every 7-9 years. There should also be sufficient time between the big grain legume crops and other legumes such as clover so that disease pressure is kept low and does not build up further. Intercropping with legumes (also in mixtures) before grain pea or field bean is also not advisable.

For the growth of the tap root of the field bean, as well as for the fibrous root system of the grain pea, good soil structure and no structural damage should be present to ensure optimal soil aeration. In addition to sufficient oxygen supply to the soil, a pH value between 6.2 and 7 is important for both crops so that the nodule bacteria can work unhindered. The symbiosis between the legumes and the nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria are an important reason for cultivating this group of plants. In addition to the correct pH value, a soil that is equally low in nitrogen is important for the establishment of the rhizobia, which is created by a nitrogen-consuming previous crop such as cereals or maize. For the bacteria to develop optimally, no mineral nitrogen should be fertilised to the grain pea and field bean. Through the natural binding of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, the plants supply themselves and leave a considerable amount of the essential nutrients for the following crop. The supply of potassium, phosphorus and micronutrients should be fertilised depending on location and removal.

An important parameter for successful economic legume cultivation is the price achieved when marketing the crop or the feed value within the farm when using the crop to feed own livestock. Therefore, the further use of the harvested goods should be planned in advance. In addition to selling to the traders, inter-farm trade with other lifestock farms can be interesting for pure cash crop farmers, as GMO-free feeding is becoming increasingly important.

The increasing importance of peas and field beans for protein production will lead to rising demand in the coming years. The growing importance of grain legumes in a desired healthier and increasingly vegetarian diet will also boost grain legume cultivation and increase the demand for high-quality commodity.

SAATEN-UNION has been offering high-yielding varieties for several decades and continues to develop field beans and grain peas with high yield potential and yield stability. Further breeding objectives are lower lodging risk during vegetation and before harvest as well as resistance to all common and emerging diseases. In addition, more and more emphasis is being placed on rapid youth development and rapid shading of the soil to suppress emerging weeds as quickly and persistently as possible and to minimise competition for light, water and nutrients.

In addition to grain yield, intensive breeding has also significantly increased protein content, which makes the modern varieties more interesting for feeding and human consumption of locally produced and GMO-free protein.

Currently, the variety ASTRONAUTE dominates the grain pea market, which is characterised by a very high yield potential, excellent straw stability and uniform maturity. The variety ORCHESTRA offers, in addition to a stable grain yield, a significantly higher protein content, which makes grain pea cultivation very effective for the further value chain. Varieties such as SYMBIOS and OSTINATO are also characterised by their very high grain and protein yields and high stability, which makes them excellent for threshing.

Field bean is cultivated on a smaller acreage in Europe compared to pea but is currently being implemented in more and more crop rotations. In addition to the agronomic advantages, modern and high-yielding varieties such as STELLA, TRUMPET, LYNX, PROTINA or GENIUS make the cultivation of the field bean economically very interesting and an alternative to other, cost-intensive crops. With the development of varieties with low vicin and convicin contents like TIFFANY, VICTUS, ALLISON, SYNERGY or FUTURA field beans with a new quality level are entering the market. Especially new varieties like CALLAS combine high grain yield and high protein content with very low vicin content – a milestone in low-vicin-breeding.

In addition, varieties especially suitable for organic cultivation, such as the field bean BIRGIT, were also provided by the breeders.

Grain pea and field bean are traditional spring crops, but they are supplemented by frost-tolerant varieties. Winter field beans such as AUGUSTA or winter grain peas such as FEROE or CASINI can survive cold spells of up to -15°C and use the winter moisture in spring, which in turn makes them very interesting for cultivation in regions with pronounced pre-summer drought.

Due to the further reduction in the use of plant protection products, resistance breeding to fungal diseases and insect resistance, such as to the bean beetle, will be an additional challenge for plant breeders in the coming years.

Soybean

Soybeans are important for human consumption and animal feed due to their high protein content. Demand, especially for non-GM soy from Europe, is steadily increasing. Although the soybean is easy to grow it is mainly imported from the USA, Brazil and Argentina. Thanks to intensive breeding, however, it can also be cultivated in many places in Europe.
Originally, soybean is a short-day plant; it needs a shorter day length to enter the generative phase. Harvesting was therefore only possible very late under our climatic conditions. Breeding has significantly reduced the short-day character and today's soybean varieties are thus harvested as early as September, depending on the ripening group and climatic region.
The soybean prefers quickly warming up, well-structured soils. The water requirement is relatively low - except for the period between pod formation in July and grain filling in August. Depending on the variety, the climate requirements are similar to those of a grain maize of maturity class (220) 240 to 300. This high heat requirement of the soybean plant limits cultivation in cooler regions. In the meantime, however, cultivation in the North German Plain is safely possible with early-maturing varieties. Further north, too, such as in Denmark, Sweden and the Baltic States, initial cultivation successes have been reported.
Theoretically, all crops are suitable as preceding crops, including sugar beet or grain maize that have been cleared late. Soybean is only considered self-compatible if there is no risk of sclerotinia. Sclerotinia host plants are, for example, rape, sunflower, tobacco and also cruciferous weeds. If sclerotinia occurs, a 3-year cultivation break should be kept and, if possible, tolerant varieties should be cultivated, as chemical CONTROL is not permitted. All other possible diseases have no yield relevance under German climatic conditions.
Soybean has a high preceding crop value: on the one hand, the soil structure is significantly improved by the formation of a deep taproot as well as intensive lateral roots, and on the other hand, crop rotation diseases are interrupted. Although nitrogen is collected from the air by the nodule bacteria, the subsequent crops of soybeans do not benefit as much as those of field beans and peas due to the higher protein content of soybeans. However, about 20-30 kg N can be saved when fertilising the following crop.

Marketing should be clarified before sowing.

SAATEN-UNION provides varieties from the maturity ranges 000 to 0/1 for the farmers in Europe, all varieties are not genetically modified and have an excellent resistance level. The focus in variety selection is on yield, protein content, safe maturity and stability. The success of the SAATEN-UNION varieties is visible in their steadily growing market shares on the European soybean market.