Spring bean drilling season is fast approaching and a new agronomy tool aims to help growers improve establishment and maximise margins.

The pulse crop can prove profitable when selling for a premium for the human consumption export market, but this relies on hitting specifications and getting high yields, like Andrew Askey, who is averaging over 7t/ha.

See also: Get a premium price plus extra 1t/ha wheat yield with spring beans

This means making the right decisions on agronomy, such as what seed rate to drill at and how to control the costly Bruchid beetle. To help farmers make these decisions, the PGRO launched a new tool earlier this week, developed by Andersons.  

PGRO’s Steve Belcher explained: “It is a spreadsheet-based decision support agronomy tool using data from the recently ended four-year Optibean project.

“It allows growers to either use standard John Nix values, or preferably data from their own farm, to make cost benefit calculations for the comparison of on-farm operations.

“The output includes calculations for plant populations of spring beans for either maximum or economic optimum yield, seed rate calculations, fertiliser recommendations and winter bean fungicide timing cost benefit calculator.

Valuable for those looking to meet human consumption specifications, there is a map showing bruchid beetle distribution in the UK.

The agronomy tool is available to download free from the PGRO website and updates will be forthcoming. For example, recommended winter bean sowing date and plant populations will be added in the future.

This week also saw the launch of the 2016 edition of the PGRO Pulse Agronomy Guide which comprehensively covers field bean and combining pea production as well as full reference tables of the Pulse Recommended Lists.

New to this year’s edition is an extensively revised section on weed control, including pictures of the most common weeds affecting pulses.