Faba beans are easy to grow, but a challenge to sell.
But there’s at least one exporter/processor ready to buy both zero-tannin and traditional faba beans.
Greg Stamp has been growing faba beans for several years, but they became a much more important part of the family business since they formed a partnership with Saskcan Pulse Trading.
“We really like faba beans, they’re a great crop,” says Stamp of family-owned Stamp’s Select Seeds at Enchant, northeast of Lethbridge.
“They’re tougher than peas, and they fix about 30 per cent more nitrogen per bushel than peas. We figure on over a pound of N an acre for each bushel of beans.”
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He says yields are more stable than peas, and under irrigation or in high-moisture areas, will generally yield 20 per cent more than peas.
Faba beans are sturdy plants, with strong stems and big leaves, and can reach three feet in height, with some varieties surpassing five feet. They don’t have tendrils like other pulses and so don’t lodge, and are well suited to heavy soils and areas with relatively cool summers. However, they’re a long-season crop, and need to be seeded early to mature and yield well, avoiding hot weather during flowering that can blast flowers and limit yields. As for all pulses, it’s important to clean up perennial weeds from the previous crop year.
South of the Trans-Canada Highway, growers have to watch for pea leaf weevils. Stamp recommends using an insecticide seed treatment formulated for pulses as well as the right inoculant. Chocolate spot, a fungal disease, can attack faba beans especially in warm, humid conditions. Stamp scouts for it and considers using a fungicide when he finds signs of it.
“The main thing about growing faba beans is to be sure you have seeding equipment that can handle the big seeds without bridging or cracking too many,” he says. “The seed types we have are around 500 or 650 grams per thousand seeds.”
Most machines can handle the seeds, but some can’t, he says.
“We have to just advise people with those systems that maybe faba beans aren’t for them at the moment.”
Despite the great rotational benefits of faba beans, Stamp couldn’t find good markets for the crop until partnering with Saskcan Pulse Trading, Canada’s biggest pulse exporter and processor.
Company officials work with Stamp to decide on varieties that will work for both growers and buyers, and will market the crop from producers who buy seed from him.
“We want our customers to do well with our seed,” says Stamp. “We hope that they have a good experience and make some money on any crop from seed we supply, so we’re always available to help.”
Stamp grows both tannin and zero-tannin varieties. Most food markets prefer the zero-tannin types, but some Mediterranean countries, such as Egypt, want the tannin type for its flavour. Faba beans can also be fractionated for food industry ingredients. Feed markets are less attractive, especially as the price of protein supplements has dropped because of increased soybean meal supplies from biofuel processing.
Having Saskcan Pulse Trading market Alberta faba beans has made a huge difference to Stamp and other growers.
“We were about ready to quit growing faba beans,” says Greg’s father Rick. “But then we met the Al-Katib brothers (the company’s owners) and partnered with them. That changed the whole picture for faba beans for us.”
One grower in Olds reported that faba beans were his most profitable crop.
“Net returns are generally about $40 more than for durum or other wheat and there’s a protein boost in the wheat next year,” says Stamp.
