Looking at herbicide issues, disease pressures and crop nutrients, this researcher is helping to give growers the tools to increase production to meet anticipated new demand.

Alberta faba bean growers will remember the record 100,000-acre crop in 2015. Since then, acreage has generally hovered between 30,000 acres (the figure for 2017) and 50,000 acres.

Despite this lower pace of plantings, faba beans could be the sleeping giant of the province’s pulse sector. As new fractionation plants come on stream, they’ll be looking for pulses, and faba beans will be high on the list.

“These fractionation plants opening across the Prairies will have an impact on faba bean production because this bean fractions very well,” said Robyne Bowness Davidson, Pulse Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

In 2016, she began two projects – funded initially by the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, and later by Alberta Pulse Growers – to examine and improve the faba bean grower’s agronomic toolkit. Both projects wrap-up next spring.

Studying herbicide residue, chocolate spot and crop nutrients 

More and more growers are applying weed control earlier in the season – either before planting or before emergence. Two years of work by Bowness Davidson has shown that faba bean crops can be critically sensitive to mistimed herbicide application and herbicide residue.

“At two of our four locations, we saw significant impact where pre-seed herbicides were sprayed too close to faba bean emergence,” she said. “This impact included lack of emergence, curling, yellowing and stunting. In one location, we also saw two wheat herbicides sprayed in 2016 that had a negative impact on the 2017 faba bean crop.”

Chocolate spot, a faba bean disease seen worldwide, is another agronomic issue on Bowness Davidson’s radar. Although not yet a significant problem in Alberta, she feels that day is coming.

“Chocolate spot has the potential to be a very devastating disease,” said Bowness Davidson. “In 2018, we’re looking at six different fungicides in varying degrees of registration. If chocolate spot shows up in the future, we’ll have tools in the toolbox that work.”

The third area Bowness Davidson has studied relates to nutrients. Despite having one growing season of project fieldwork remaining, she’s seen enough to urge caution in this area. With micro-nutrients like boron or macro-nutrients like potassium and sulphur, Bowness Davidson advises that supplemental applications only help if the soil is deficient to begin with.

“Two years of research showed no response with the micros in any of our locations,” she said. “But, the micros weren’t limited there in the first place, and most farms don’t struggle with micro-nutrient deficiencies. Research into macro-nutrients (Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur) has shown some response in a couple of locations where initial levels were marginal.”

Bowness Davidson is confident her research in the areas of herbicide use, chocolate spot and crop nutrition in faba beans will help farmers be ready to increase production when demand growth occurs.

“It’s an area we’re still working on, and have a bit to learn,” she said. “Sometime in the next three to five years, I think faba beans will rebound. When they go up again, we’ll definitely have some answers.”