Key Points
- As part of a project investigating NZ grown grain legumes for animal feeds, several field trials evaluated the performance of faba bean cultivars.
- Three trials in 2004/05 established that faba beans grew well in various parts of NZ and were suitable for use in monogastric feeds.
- In the 2005/06 season, two North Island trials produced yields averaging 3.3 and 6.3 t/ha.
- New Zealanddoes not have a breeding programme for faba beans so the interest in grain legumes meant that we needed to import cultivars from Europe. We obtained 6 cultivars from 3 different breeders in time for sowing in spring 2006. They were higher yielding, high tannin cultivars as well as lower yielding, low tannin cultivars.
- These 6 cultivars were then sown with NZ faba bean seed (which is no longer an identified cultivar) during spring 2006 at up to seven sites throughout NZ.
- Fuego was the top yielding cultivar, averaging 5.7 t/ha, with Melodie, Taxi, Crisbo and Limbo also yielding well. The NZ faba was the lowest yielding overall, its best performance was at Chatton, showing that it is better adapted to the southern climate.