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'Forage cultivation fits in with a low cost strategy'
Corné Zijlmans has a dairy farm with 120 dairy cows and accompanying young stock in Sprang-Capelle (NB). He has more than 80 hectares of clay soil. He grows sugar beet on 4 hectares, the rest is largely grassland. He grows 10 hectares of maize and 5 hectares Tundra winter field beans.
The operational management is aimed at low feed costs. The cows produce on average 8.600 kg of milk (4,50% fat and 3,40% protein) and do this on as much feed from their own land as possible. A concentrate substitute from our own cultivation fits in with this.
In November 2017, the dairy farmer sowed Tundra winter field beans for the first time. "The start was not easy," he recalls. "We immediately suffered frost damage in the first year. Because the crop grows well, the yield was not too bad in the end. My conclusion was: there must be more to get out of this."
High yield
That conclusion turned out to be correct. In the second year he achieved a yield of 7 tons per hectare. The livestock farmer considers the control of weeds to be the biggest bottleneck. "You have less spraying agents in field beans than in grass. And the crop lasts longer than silage maize, so the weeds also have more time to seed themselves."
Last winter he sowed full fields, instead of rows at 50 centimeters. "With a higher planting density, the crop closes faster, which helps with weed control. The disadvantage is that you can sow less deeply, which in turn creates a risk of frost damage in winter."
25 cents per kilo of dry matter
He feeds the ground beans in a mixed ration. "The beans contain a lot of protein and also a reasonable amount of starch. That fits well in the grass-fed ration." The home-grown concentrates replace 1 on 1 a flour mixture of soya and turnip. This has no effect on milk production, but it does on feed costs. "If I include all costs, I arrive at 25 cents per kilo of dry matter. Soya turnip costs 30 cents." As a bonus, he also has free straw for the calf boxes and the calving shed. "It's not as beautiful as wheat straw, but the lying comfort is just as good and the moisture absorption and permeability are even better."
The dairy farmer will choose again next year Tundra winter field beans† "I would prefer to sow 10 hectares, but unfortunately the conditions for derogation do not allow that."
Want to know more about field beans?
Read all about cultivation and feeding in us online file.
