Waiting for Winter Beans

Stubble driller: Farm manager Micheal Payne checks for seed after drilling 13ha (32 acres) of Clipper winter beans following spring wheat on     T W Slaughter & Son’s East Farm in Potters Crouch, St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Drilled at 187 kg/ha on light gravel, the field was subsequently ploughed down before last Thursday”s (Nov 17) downpour, says Mr Payne. “That’s a little bit earlier than usual.” Last year’s bean crop yielded 3.7t/ha (1.5t/acre). “They weighed in particularly heavy, so anything along those lines would be welcome again.”