Seabass, faba bean questions

[hobbyfrmr]

I plan to grow a coloured flower high tannin faba bean. The variety is SSNS-1. It different than the white flower low tannin feed varieties. My primary goal is a fertility play because I am organic. I do intend to try and grow a hundred acres as a crop to sell.
I am told to plant early because it is a long season crop, and heat at flowering is detrimental.
I cannot dessicate because I am organic, so, do I let them stand for a couple of frosts and straight cut in late October, or can I swath them to advance maturity/harvest time.
If I swath them, will they just lay on the dirt, or is there enough stubble to hold them off the ground like canola, or wheat?
What can be expected as a worst possible yeild, and what is an average ?
What is better soil for faba beans? i have two extremes, beach sand and heavy black loam.
Oh yeah, marketing, what kind of market price is anticipated? Is it volatile or fairly steadying?
Any thoughts are appreciated.

[ajl]

A seed grower here swaths them in the rain. Keeps the shelling down and apparently works.

[TOM4CWB]

Hobby,

Swathing has been a very bad idea in all of our experience. The beans sink through to the ground and turn black fast... when wet at soil level. near impossible to pick up after they sink... which happens fast with rainfall or snow.

We have combined standing the fabas off 4-6 inches of snow... often dry. Seed early on clean land. Snowdrop (low tannin) are good for plow down as they have smaller seed size... and can be used for livestock feed.

[MBgrower]

Not enough stubble to hold up swath, but thats how many do it here, just pray you dont a big rain as t4 said. Fabas loves moisture, hate heat.

[MBgrower]

Not enough stubble to hold up swath, but thats how many do it here, just pray you dont a big rain as t4 said. Fabas loves moisture, hate heat.

[hobbyfrmr]

What if, a person threw half a bushel per acre of barley in with them? That would give a stubble for them to rest on. thrash and clean out easy. Its an extra step but I have some of that equipment.
I am also not opposed to let them stand until hard frosts then harvest late as Tom4 described.

[tweety]

High tannin human are extremely difficult to grow without the black spots caused by lygus bugs. And then they can't be used for feed either being high tannin.

[hobbyfrmr]

Tweety,

Good insight. So this maybe why the feed varieties seem to be discussed more frequently than the edible. .
There is some thing to think about.
In my situation, I would harvest the seed for myself to plowdown again in the future. I do note that there is a definite physical discrepancy between food and feed grades.

[seabass]

Hobby sorry for delay. Away on holidays. We straight cut because the last time we cut them they laced on the ground for 7 weeks and were full of mice. Guts and blood all over the sieves. Terrible mess had to wash the machines out.
We plant ours on heavy ground and they like and can take moisture pretty good. Heat seems to end there flowering period so is good if it comes at the end of August but not July.
We have had 50 to 90 bu depending on rain and heat. We use avadex pre emerge and then centurion if there is wildoat regrowth. Odyssey after that if broad leaves are bad. We also use fungicide if chocolate spot is bad.
We seed around 200 lbs to help with weed competition.
Marketing can definitely be a bit more difficult. We have talked to a few buyers and the price seems to be around 6 bucks depending on type and quality. We grow the low tannin variety snowbird and it got some lygus bug damage this year so won't make food grade.
As far as harvesting we spray ours with roundup quite late to even out maturity and straight cut. Very easy to thrash. I prefer them over other beans. Pods are higher off the ground so mud is less of an issue depending on fall. They will lay over the longer they are left but they do have a strong stalk so u would have to have very poor weather for them to be right on the ground.
Good luck. Will definitely be more challenging doing it the organic route.

[hobbyfrmr]

The low tannin is usually dual purpose feed and human? I thought only feed grade.
The high tannin is for human edible . If they don't make edible, they don't qualify for feed either because of the high tannin correct?
Thinking of lygus bugs, I had canola on both sides of me last year. ca. This be a potential problem?

[seabass]

Low tannin is for human consumption I believe. Could be wrong tho. The lygus thing is a year to year thing so not necessarily gonna be a problem this year. However it depends on the timing of there arrival. The later the worse the damage on the seeds.