Harvesting

Winter beans are either combined direct with or without desiccation, or can be combined from the windrow, although the latter is rarely done now, due to the difficulty of setting a swath up on most stubbles for efficient combining. In wet weather the crop dries better as a standing crop.

Desiccation

Where possible crops should be direct combined without desiccation in order to reduce costs and the inevitable losses due to sprayer wheelings, losses can be up to 2.1%, even with 24 metre high clearance sprayers. Desiccation will not advance seed maturity and is slow to act on green stems. If however the crop is weed infested or has some small late set pods desiccation will aid combining. Timing is vital to maximise yield potential and seed quality. Spray when 90% of the pods are dry and black and most seed is dry (GS 39)

Timing

Winter Beans have the advantage of extending combine usage, as they are usually ready to harvest 7 to 10 days after wheat, early August into September. The large seed is very much slower to dry, compared to small-grained cereals. Because of the crops indeterminate growth habit, uneven ripening often occurs with the lower pods being over dry and the upper ones remaining immature at higher moisture content.

Combining is done with moistures in the range 14 to 20%, when all the pods are dry and black and the seed hard, ideally with less than 10% of the stems remaining green. At low moisture contents shattering can occur. In dry conditions harvesting is best done early in the morning and late evening to avoid damage.

Combine drum speed should be as low as possible (300 to 500 rpm) coupled with wide concave clearance, to eliminate splitting and cracking of the crop. Sieve settings must be wide with maximum fan speed.

Drying and Storage

In the UK beans are normally sold based on a maximum 15% moisture content and a maximum 2% of impurities, with deductions above these levels. Most crops will need drying. There are important differences due to the physical characteristics compared to cereals. Field Beans being large seeded with a thick seed coat are slow to dry in a bulk-drying situation. Uneven drying can often occur due to the low resistance to airflow, particularly with on floor drying systems. The ideal system being ventilated bin-drying systems. With all systems it is preferable to preclean as impurities slow down drying. For long term storage beans must be dried to a maximum of 14% and cooled to 10 degrees C.

Continuous Flow Driers are also used, but are not ideal, because of the distance the moisture has to travel from the centre of the seed; there is a danger of the centre of the seed remaining at high moisture content. This can result in moulds, which are toxic to livestock developing in the cracks and a pasty condition to the meal, which becomes rancid during storage. For seed crops cracking reduces germination. Cracking also reduces premiums over feed for all quality outlets.