Where are the faba beans, and how are they doing?

[freewheat]

When I tried to get seed this spring, everyone was sold out. I have been staying close to home this summer, so have not seen a single faba bean field. So how many of you guys have some in, and how do they look this year? They are supposed to do so well in wet soils, I would think they may be phenomenal. Until now that the tap shut off at an inopportune time.

Just curious.

[TOM4CWB]

WA grain solutions is marketing most in east central Alberta.

It is odd that Stats Can and Ag Can ignore this crop.

We have seed if you need some... Snowbird seems to be the popular variety for WA Grain. SaskCan also does them.

I would guess at 20,000ac in Alberta?

They are looking good and early fabas are finished flowering... will be Sept 1 harvest is heat keeps up.

[freewheat]

Wow, they would never be that early in a million years out here. Did they fill well? The trouble here, is that often growing conditions are too good,( rain, rain rain), and so vegetative growth is intense, and plants have trouble maturing. The last field of fabas out here were not harvested. They grew 8 feet tall, and lodged, and just did not mature. This is my only concern about faba bean. 100 day maturity in any crop, means 130 days around these parts with our lack of heat and consistent rain.

As far as seed, I am such a small farmer, I am not sure how we would get the 300 bushel of seed from your place to mine...

[charliep]

Just curious when you grew fababeans. My understanding is the new varieties are a lot better. My memory of fababeans is what describe but that is a long time ago.

[freewheat]

2011 Charlie. It is not just faba I am talking about. All crops stay vegetative longer with low temps. and consistently moist soil.

An example is yellow mustard. I went to a mustard meeting in Saskatoon in 2008. My mustard was up to my neck, not done blooming. At the meeting the field tour mustard was like a dwarf plant, about mid thigh, done blooming and spindly. I asked what they thought it would yield. They said 20 plus, I started to laugh, amazed such an itty bitty crop could do 20. Mustard was 50 cents a pound, and I was sure my crop which was twice as tall and thick, would go 40. They agreed with me, and had never seen yellow mustard nearly 6 feet tall. Mine went guess what? 20!

A whole lot of material grown, does not translate into yield, unfortunately... And again, mine seeded the same date, was still blooming strong, while theirs had shut down. Must be nice...

[charliep]

I am also interested in fababean type. High tannin for human food markets or more general purpose low tannin. The general market for pulses is human consumption but declining soybean meal prices don't bode well for domestic feed markets.

[TOM4CWB]

Dear Charlie,

Snowbird fabas are a low tannin variety that the human consumption market finds acceptable.

10 percent lagus damage acceptable... more than that a colour sorter to remove damage.

Our experience with snowbird over 10 years of production... is that more often than not... if seeded in the first week of May... they are ready to reglone by the first week of Sept.

Drought and snowbird fabas are a bad combo. Have had harvest in august on dry hot years. Those with heat and moisture will likely do better with soy. July heat cooks Fabas... and Snowbird are quite determinant so when flowering ends they fill and are then mature.

We are just done flowering at edmonton... now pods will finish development on the tops of the plants. Bottom pods are about the size of your small finger at this point as they podded about 2 weeks ago.

[charliep]

Thanks Tom,

Live in my ivory tower/don't get on the road enough with farmers/crop tours with guys like Mark to keep up with what is happening agronomically with new varieties/crops.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

Snowbird fabas have been around for 15 years or more. Joe StDenis brought them over from europe.

Took a very long time to get customers in Middleeast to accept low tannin small fabas. They are used to large tannin type... WA Grain has done big work to develop the market over the past 2 years.

[ajl]

Lots here in S Central AB. Contact Stamp seeds at Enchant. Have seen snowbird, snowdrop (new variety) and FB9-4 which has tannin for export markets. Snowbird is a zero tannin and primarily is used as a soy meal substitute for Chinese pigs.

[seabass]

I farm east of u freewheat and our snowbird variety was suffering a bit from the excess rain but now due to heat and drier conditions they look great. Flowering full bore and about waste high. We got ours from a seed grower in melfort. Will seehow they yield and how the marketing goes before we grow anymore.

[Francksaskfarmer]

I have 1 quarter of florent seeded a bit late for fabas on May 16th. They look very good so far. They don't mind being under water for a while but there's a limit too. Definitely better than peas for moisture stresst. This is my third year growing them. Got 56bpa the last 2 years, could have been better last year but the dryer August was no help. Marketing is limited to a few buyers but feed mills love them for their high protein. They stand great but they are the last thing to be combined.