NOT OPTIMISTIC ABOUT BEANS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 10

NOT OPTIMISTIC ABOUT BEANS

"Right now the prospects for soya beans do not look too good,” , Dr C. T. Dougherty, i lecturer in plant 1 science, told farmers , attending a combined farm improvement , club field day at lan- 1 coin Cbllege last week. 1 Dr Dougherty ' rather heavily discounted the pros-1 pects for the crop, perticularly in Canterbury. beans under the sponsorship 1 of Fleteher Indushrtea. who ‘ are interested primarily in production of oil from- the beans to supply ths New Zea-1 land market and secondly in i protein meet. i

Dr Dougherty Mid that they still did not know enough about the beans and did not know if they could be grown well- in New Zealand. People, for instance, did not know the best time to plant them. So far, he Mid, they had derived little encouragement frtiim their work for growing soya beans as a commercial C liven in th» United States, he arid; the average yield was only 23 bushels. The highest yield recorded there wro M bushels and good yields: ware pt the order of 4tf to»W busliels, btit ■■ people did to get under good conditions. Dr Doherty Mid that like most temperate climate crops the soya bean was a relatively inefficient plant In

several ways and there was a physiological limit to its performance.

Under local conditions, he suggested, a problem was the cool night temperatures. It would be a case of searching for varieties that would grow better under these sort of conditions or of breeding for this purpose, and he did not think that any plant breeding was likely to be done on this plant in New Zealand in the next five years.

Dr Dougherty said It was quite likely that Fletchers would concentrate their bean growing in the North Island. There, he said, crops had already been harvested—in the Napier-Gisborne area they were threshed about the end of March—and yields in some plots had been up to 55 bushels to the acre. The

vention in the piggery by Mr P. Davenport, veterinary officer, Department of Agriculture, Hamilton; and boar performance testing by Dr A. Quartermain, Ruakura agricultural research centre.

beans had also grown to 4ft or sft tall. In this part of the world it seemed that the bulk of the crop would be harvested this month and a need for here was a variety that would mature in April. For the Japanese market. Dr Dougherty said, good seed was required which had been threshed and dried carefully and he was doubtful whether the required quality of seed could be obtained here. If it could not and the beans were exported a low price would be obtained. Another difficulty as far the Japanese market was concerned was that they would probably be interested In lots of 20,000 tons—no-one wanted only 1000 tons.

In this part of the world it seemed that the bulk of the crop would be harvested this month and a need for here was a variety that would mature in April. For the Japanese market. Dr Dougherty said, good seed was required which had been threshed and dried carefully and he was doubtful whether the required quality of seed could be obtained here. If it could not and the beans were exported a low price would be obtained. Another difficulty as far the Japanese market was concerned was that they would probably be interested in lots of 20,000 tons—no-one wanted only 1000 tons.

Dr Dougherty said that there might be a place for the beans where they were sown late—say in December or January—after another cash crop. In the United States, for instance, the efficient farmer might grow them after winter wheat and in this case he could stand to take a somewhat lower return.