This week’s confirmation of a forward contract price for spring beans from Dairygold will come as very welcome news for tillage farmers.
In essence, this development represents the last piece of a tillage-related jigsaw that puts the seal on beans being a more than viable crop option in 2023.
Many farmers marked the start of this year by walking some very disappointing crops of barley.
Adding to this sense of disquiet was the realisation that opportunities to get winter wheat into the ground before Christmas had not materialised on the back of the atrocious autumn weather.
The need for a viable spring-cropping option to manifest itself had become very obvious. So, here comes the good news – spring beans meet this requirement perfectly.
Spring beans are a ‘no brainer’
Let me put it like this. For farmers with the right land, not to grow spring beans in 2023 would be akin to missing a penalty kick and the goalkeeper absent without leave. It really is that clear cut.
According to Teagasc, the protein subsidy for beans this year will probably work out at around €500/ha. Average crop yields, going back over the past five years, have come in at 5.1t/ha.
Meanwhile, Dairygold is offering a minimum contract price for beans in 2023 of €285/t. So, as they say in the US – do the math! In truth, it’s all a bit of a ‘no brainer’.
The last few weeks have seen Teagasc tillage specialists pushing spring beans heavily on the back of the enhanced protein payment for 2023 alone.
The one niggling worry concerned the sale of the crop after harvest.
Mixed farmers have the option of feeding beans to their own stock. But specialist tillage farmers will have no alternative but to sell their crops on the open market – but at what price?
This week’s news from Dairygold has served to take this concern away. And, who knows? Other buyers may come forward over the coming weeks to further strengthen the demand for beans across the country.
Beans tick every box from a cropping point point of view. They represent the perfect break crop within all possible rotations. And, being a legume, the need to supply artificial nitrogen to growing crops is, more or less, zero.
Tillage farmers have been looking for a positive story to allow them kick-start the new year. It would seem that their wishes have been granted.