Can anyone help me make some awesome silage out of fava beans?

Baymule said:

So how did your harvest go? Your fava bean experiment certainly sounds interesting. What about planting a few favas directly in the pasture for the sheep to graze?

Click to expand...

Hi again Baymule!

The fava bean experiment was a radical success. Thank you for asking. We did make a few mistakes, and we learned from them. Here is what we learned:

1. In our locale, for maximum harvest, all fava beans should be planted in early Oct. We planted from Oct-Dec last year and the Dec plantings did not come up due to super saturation and colder temps.

2. We mistakenly planted rows 3 ft. apart. This distance is usually only used if you are planting fava for seed harvest. Correctly spacing for forage production is one seed every 6 inches and rows every 12 inches. So this tells us next years harvest should be well over triple the size.

3. We did not have time to ferment the fava beans with the plants as planned. The good news is we simply fed the sheep either the fresh green plants and beans, or waited and fed them the dried plant and beans. The sheep loved both versions. The only thing I did not like about the dried version of feed...the sheep make a terribly loud noise as they chomp down on the dried seed and chew it up. It was really irritating...even from hundreds of feet away! And worst of all, they all eat with their mouths open, not closed...dang, ranchers have such a rough life!

4. Due to the high level of success and the incredibly low maintenance labor, we hope to plant several acres of fava beans now in the very near future [Oct. 1st].

Hope this helps!

Will you direct graze the sheep on them? It seems that might lead to bloat. I had a friend that planted peas (you know us Southerners are wild about our peas) not the green peas, but REAL peas, and he cut and baled them for his goats. The peas put nitrogen in his pasture so it was a win/win.

Baymule said:

Will you direct graze the sheep on them? It seems that might lead to bloat. I had a friend that planted peas (you know us Southerners are wild about our peas) not the green peas, but REAL peas, and he cut and baled them for his goats. The peas put nitrogen in his pasture so it was a win/win.

Click to expand...

Bay,

At first, we simply cut a few plants at a time and fed them to the flock. Next, we let them in the fava field for 1-2 hours at a time. Finally, after all the fava beans and plants were nearly dried, we let the sheep eat for half days at a time. They loved it, but, like I said, they make super loud chomping noises when they crack and chew the dried fava bean.

Please understand, AB's and Dorpers appear to have an innate ability to self monitor against bloat. I have heard other sheep can kill themselves if permitted to over graze.

We also plant a large amount of Super Sugar Snap Peas II in the spring and fall. The sheep love those too, but we mostly plant it for ourselves on 8 ft. trellis, 120 feet long.

PS Bay, top growers of fava beans recommend inoculating with Rhizobium leguminosarum viciae to obtain the nitrogen fixation to enrich the soil.

Hope this helps!

Research I've done on fava beans says it gets too hot here. But I know we can grow peas! I might plant a small pea patch for them next spring. I've thought about making cow panel squared patches for them, so I could let them in for short times, then take them back out. I grew a couple rows of purple hull peas last year in out garden and the sheep quickly wiped them out when I put them in the garden for end of season clean up.

I can't be sure, and don't remember where I read it, but I read an article that sheep and goats don't do well on silage. So you might be on the right track, letting them graze the green/dry fava beans.

Bay, yes, ya need cool weather for the fava beans to work. Anything consistently over 90F and you can lose your entire crop! But I thought Texas was relatively mild in the fall through spring season? Am I mistaken?

We plant in October, harvest March-May here. Frost does nothing to hurt them. May have a couple of hotter days in May, but most of the harvest is done by then...

We get some cold down in the low 20's for several days at a time. Every so many years, we get some snow. Not every winter is cold, but we do get some cold weather. The Fava beans probably wouldn't survive that. February is generally the coldest month. I could probably plant some in March. How long does it take for them to make beans?

Baymule said:

We get some cold down in the low 20's for several days at a time. Every so many years, we get some snow. Not every winter is cold, but we do get some cold weather. The Fava beans probably wouldn't survive that. February is generally the coldest month. I could probably plant some in March. How long does it take for them to make beans?

Click to expand...

Bay,

I am not certain, but in our locale, I thought the fall plantings require 5-7 months, whereas the spring plantings require only 3-4 months. Fava beans can take cold quite well, but as I stated before, high temps kill them very, very quickly.

I would recommend you contact your local AG University and ask about your specific area before planting anything new that you are not sure about.

I did find this article and it was very encouraging:

Broad beans, also called fava, horse bean and Windsor beans, are not true beans. They are closely related to vetch and will grow in cool weather unsuited for green snap beans. Varieties commonly grown include Broad Windsor and Long Pod. They can be planted very early in the spring in all areas of Texas. In central and southern Texas, they can be planted in the fall for spring harvest. In most areas of Texas they will not produce in the heat of summer. The commonly grown varieties require from 85 to 120 days from seeding to harvest.

Source:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/bean.html

I think this article originated from Texas A&M University. If it did, you can count on it being accurate.

I hope this helps you!

Did you have to irrigate at all? Probably not last year, but on an average year would you have to irrigate? I am going to try to grow Tagasaste for my goats, basically it is renewable browse.

https://lucernetreefarm.wordpress.com/

I should probably stick to purple hull peas. We have 2 cleared (of green briars) pastures to play with. Only thing that I know for absolute sure, is my sheep are not fond of Bermuda.

Why eat Bermuda when it grows there like a weed and it's free? Silly sheep have expensive taste.