Spring beans will always make sense within any tillage rotation, and this should genuinely be the case in 2025.
Beans make a perfect entry crop for winter wheat, and their nitrogen (N) fixing potential ticks every agronomic, economic and environmental perspective when it comes to growing crops on a sustainable basis.
With all tillage farmers having had ample opportunity to get winter cereals planted out at their leisure some weeks ago, this leaves the ‘ground clear’ to plant out beans established as soon as weather conditions improve in the new year.
But there is an equally significant benefit to the inclusion of spring beans in a tillage rotation – the Protein Aid Scheme.
The tail end of last week saw the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) starting to pay out the €10 million allocated to the measure.  Â
The coming days will see the funding paid out to the 1,600 tillage farmers, deemed eligible for the scheme in 2024. This works out at an average payment of around €6,000 per farm business.
Let’s be very clear – this is real money. What’s more, is it is coming at a time when tillage farmers shave lots of annual bill spot pay off.
Spring beans
Cash flow is key within every business. Where farming is concerned, benchmarking figures show that the prompt payment of bills is a very important way of reducing input costs.
Merchant credit is one of the lost debilitating drag factors for those businesses caught in its web.
Prior to the protein pay out, DAFM had been making payments under three auspices of the 2024 Tillage Incentive Scheme Â
Looking ahead, the coming days will see DAFM commence payments linked to the 2024 Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).
It will be interesting to see how these stack up, relative to 2023, given the very high market prices for baled straw at the present time.
Nevertheless, the commitment made by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has to be noted.
Cash flow is everything for all businesses, and tillage farmers are no different in this regard.
Yes the 2023/2024 growing season threw up many challenges. Final yields were moderate and grain prices have been very challenging.
However, the real commitment to tillage does add to something quite substantial, especially when much needed monies are flowing into farmers’ bank accounts.
The equally good news to end the year on, is the fact that tillage farmers have enjoyed an almost perfect autumn planting season, and newly drilled crops are looking tremendously well at the present time.