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Excellent Management Pays Off27 May 2020

It's not every day that you harvest such an extraordinary yield. Ben and Bernard Arnoldi from the farm Klipkraal Landgoed BK in the Koster area achieved an exceptionally good harvest with Pannar Seed's PAN 148 red speckled beans. PAN 148 is a very popular cultivar and is synonymous with outstanding dry bean production in South Africa. It is known for its excellent performance and stability. The Arnoldi's cultivated PAN 148 under irrigation. They planted 20 166 hectares at a seeding rate of 172 000 seeds per hectare in 0.75m rows on 24 December 2019. A final plant population of 155 000 plants per hectare was realised.

Bernard says: “We decided to accurately measure an area of 2 ha under the pivot so that we could accurately determine the yield. The area worked out to be 2,152 ha and 11,640 kg of beans were harvested. This gives us a yield of 5,408 tons/ha. Over the total area of 20,166 ha under the pivot, 100 520 kgs of beans were harvested, giving an average yield of 4,985 tons/ha”.

The Arnoldi's cultivation practices are briefly summarised as follows:

Seed Treatment:

Bernard treated the seed with two fungicides viz. Celeste® XL (L6353) and Apron® XL (L6837) as well as Graph-Ex SA® for dry beans. The Graph-Ex SA® is comprised of two beneficial bacteria (Rhizobia) and beneficial fungus (Trichoderma) that provide a more efficient use of soil nutrients for the host plant and fix nitrogen after becoming established inside root nodules.

Weed Control:

Herbicide was sprayed only once viz. Hammer® (L5201) for the control of annual broadleaf weeds and Frontier® (L7011) for the control of annual grasses and broadleaf weeds. Weed control after planting was done with a tillage operation.

Fertiliser:

Bernard had a soil analysis done before planting "so that I don't give too much of a specific nutrient and suppress the absorption of other elements" he says. He also took leaf samples twice during the season. Bernard normally spreads chicken litter on the land, and although he did not do it before planting the beans, he says there was still a substantial residual effect from the previous application.

1. Before planting: 100 kg Ammonium sulphate per ha
2. With planting: 75 kg MAP per ha
3. Top dressing 1: 50 kg Urea
4. Top dressing 2: 50 kg Ammonium sulphate
5. Top dressing 3: 100 kg Ammonium sulphate, 12.5 kg of magnesium sulphate                                 

Foliar Feeding:

Keep in mind that many of the spray applications were done by combining the different products and that Bernard did not spray each product individually.

Foliar feeding was done with Cal-Mag + B (B3632), it contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen and micro-elements. Bernard also applied molybdenum and boron with Molypack (B3522), Manni-Plex B-Moly (B4294) and Boron Smart Trio (B4289). He applied Marinure (L3812) seaweed extract twice (It contains a wide range of trace elements and plant growth regulators known as Auxins, Gibberellins and Cytokinin’s that are conducive to root development and general plant development).

Insect and Disease Control:

For disease control, Bernard did preventative fungicide applications with Custodia® (L9342) once and Benomyl (L6909) four times, respectively (to control Sclerotinia infection). Copper sprays were used three times to prevent Bacterial Blight and Halo Blight (Copstar® (L7026) and Copercount® (L2602) were applied alternatively). It should be kept in mind that if conditions are favourable for the two diseases, they may still occur notwithstanding the application of the spray applications. If infection occurs, nothing can be done about it.

He applied Platoon® (L10649) twice with a carbamate for nematode control. Insecticides were sprayed five times and consisted of a combination of pyrethroids and organophosphates (Judo (L7785) at 150 ml/ha x 2, Methomyl (L5931) 300g/ha x 2 and Ampligo® (L8685) at 130 ml/ha) to ensure a good grade of bean. Bernard says in future he will use Ampligo as it gives good residual control.

For more information, please contact Bernard Arnoldi on 060 973 0519 or Pieter Geldenhuys on 082 929 0570.

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