Two new spring bean varieties are tipped to take a 50% market share by 2015 after consolidating their places at the top of the PGRO Recommended List.

In their second year of provisional recommendation, Vertigo and Fanfare from LS Plant Breeding (LSPB) show a big step up in yield.

Andy Bury, pulse trading manager at Frontier Agriculture, says the varieties look very positive and in addition to the step change in yield they have good quality aspects for the export market.

The highest price premiums are gained from beans destined for human consumption in North African countries such as Egypt, with prices £50/t above feed wheat.

“The key factors they are looking for in Egypt are size and colour and samples of both Fanfare and Vertigo sent over have received very positive feedback,” says Mr Bury.

“With both yield and quality, the arrival of these varieties is good news from a grower point of view,” he adds.

Pulse trader Maviga’s Faba bean exporter Dave Harrison agrees and sees the varieties being very popular in the UK during the coming seasons.

He has had both varieties independently tested in Cairo and they passed with flying colours, and both have thousand seed weights close to that of the export benchmark Fuego.

“We have every confidence that they will sell well for export purposes and will take some of the market share from varieties Fury and Fuego,” he adds.

Strong prospects

With traders confident that the two new varieties have a strong end market, growers will be keen to purchase seed for 2014.

Last season, spring bean seed sales jumped from 6,000t to about 9,000t as growers struggled to establish their autumn-sown beans or other winter crops.

Although the seed market is expected to fall back nearer to the “normal” 6,000t mark, there is likely to be increased interest in the spring crop.

Spring beans can provide benefits for blackgrass control, an attractive gross margin and a nutritional boost for following wheat crops from the crop’s nitrogen-fixing characteristic.

Growers who harvested the crop in 2013 may choose to stick with it for next spring.

There are also reports of large areas of winter wheat being sprayed off with glyphosate due to poor autumn blackgrass control, which could also boost interest in the crop.

Seed availability

Fanfare and Vertigo came through the national trials system together, but Fanfare is the only variety that will be available in commercial quantities for 2014.

LSPB managing director Theo Labuda says Fanfare was launched for the trade last year and 150t of pre-basic seed was planted for multiplication.

A supply of 1,500-2,000t should be available – enough for one-third of the area.

“We didn’t have the seed to multiply Vertigo this year, but the 190t for multiplication this year has already sold out and will be ready for 2015,” he adds.

Fanfare has a yield of 105% of control, 7% above the leading variety Fuego, is early maturing and has good standing ability characteristics.

However, it does have a lowly score of four for the spring bean’s key disease, downy mildew.

Despite that, PGRO variety expert Stephen Belcher doesn’t see it being a huge issue, with current market leader Fuego only scoring one higher at five.

“It could be an initial concern for those interested in the variety, but where growers are using a fungicide programme to keep their spring bean crop clean, it shouldn’t pose a problem,” he says.

At Warter Priory Farms in East Yorkshire, arable manager Mark Richardson grew some Fanfare spring beans on a site that wasn’t favourable for his vining peas in 2013.

Wanting to maintain a pulse break in the field’s rotation, he established the crop in late February, growing them for seed for merchant Ebbage Seeds.

“It’s one of the worst fields we have, on steep ground with thin and stony soil, so not ideal bean growing land, but the crop still managed a remarkable 5.5t/ha,” says Mr Richardson.

Conditions weren’t in the crop’s favour, with unsettled weather in March and April, but with a herbicide programme and two fungicides, Mr Richardson managed to keep the crop clean of weed and disease.

He was also pleased with its ease of combining later in the season, which can sometimes be a problem with pulse crops.

“It stayed upright and there weren’t many low pods left behind on the stubble, so we would definitely grow the variety again if the situation arose,” he adds.

Although Vertigo won’t be available in commercial quantities this spring, it has a yield 4% above Fanfare and spring bean growers will have one eye on its arrival in 2015.

Lincolnshire grower Robert Nichols grew 13ha of Vertigo last year on his medium to heavy fen soils for seed multiplication and was pleased with the variety’s performance.

Vertigo outyielded the farm’s winter beans, although he points out that they were established in more favourable spring conditions.

“They yielded 6.3t/ha across two of the four fields and only slightly less on the heaviest ground, showing good vigour, and were easy to combine,” says Mr Nichols.

Mr Bury says while many growers home-save their bean seed, those looking to increase output will be scrambling for Fanfare and Vertigo seed in the next two seasons.

“I see Fanfare as a stepping stone to Vertigo the following year and the stronger of the two coming through to take the biggest share, with Fury and Fuego losing out,” he adds.

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