The harvesting of soya beans in Ireland last week represents a significant landmark in crop development. Plant breeders have long been trying to extend the latitude footprint of a range of important global crops. We have seen this with maize over the past few decades and now we see soya beans grown further from the equator in both hemispheres.

Soya beans have been grown for the past few years in parts of Britain and the crop’s area is expanding. And following its successful harvest in Ireland it seems likely that we will see further interest here.

It is well known that soya needs heat and that was considered as our main limitation. However, when David Shortall of Quinns of Baltinglass came back from working in Canada, he had already witnessed the ongoing northerly movement of the crop in that country. So thanks to all in Quinns for giving it a go here.

When I visited the crop last July, I questioned the ability of the crop to run to full maturity. David assured me that it would because the variety had been proven for this part of the world. He got his advice on variety choice from Soya-UK and grew the variety Siverka, which is a 0000 maturity class – the earliest available.

The crop did ripen and it was harvested last week. However, it is still a while away from being a commercial reality. The crop yielded 0.65 t/ac at 17% moisture, 36% protein and 20 % oil. This yield level would be significantly below average for the crop, as was the case with field beans. Soya UK indicated that yields there were back about 0.3 t/ac due to the drought. So it is possible that we might see soya yields at or above 1.0 t/ac in a favourable year.

Leaving aside the limitations that will apply to its subsequent use, these soya beans are Irish grown and they are non-GM. But the economics require that soya beans be added to the list of crops that qualify for protein aid.

Lessons from the crop

Harvesting was always going to be a challenge. The pods hang down on the plant and some of these were just touching the ground. This is a huge challenge for any combine. Specialised flex headers are used in big producing areas to help the blade hug the ground to get under the pods.

Plant breeders have bred some varieties which carry the lowest whorl of pods higher up on the plant. My guess is that there was at least 10 to 15% of the beans left in the field post harvest. Most were still in the pods hanging on the plant stubble. Seedbeds need to be absolutely level along the length and width of the combine blade. A smaller combine was brought in to harvest the crop, knowing that blade height would be an issue.

So a level seedbed is essential but so is a firm seedbed. Much of the soya in the world is now planted using no-till and this helps to prevent the cutter-bar from bulldozing soil. So I can add that a tight seedbed would best suit harvesting.

These were the main lessons as the crop did produce more yield than could be harvested.

But dryness and drought stress was also a big issue. The crop was variable across the field and some lighter soil patches were badly affected. Plants that suffered failed to set pods higher up.

Some of these were little more than 20cm high and were a real challenge to harvest.

More experience needed

Many would suggest that the hot year suited the crop. It did in terms of earliness of maturity (it had been sprayed off with diquat) but the crop did suffer from the dryness. Perhaps a normal year would give more yield potential but we need to assess the challenges of harvesting in such a year.

While the crop is not yet farm ready, having one crop harvested opens the door. Now industry needs to ask if it wants Irish grown non-GM soya beans and send that signal to the market. This crop has made big strides in outlining the challenges, providing the experience and in proving that soya can come to maturity in our climate.