2024 McCains Pea Production

Peas were planted for McCain Foods on the 3rd of October as part of our Carbon Positive trial. This was a week after the target planting date due to wet soil conditions at the end of September.

Planting

• Conventional treatment: ploughed, disced x 2, power-harrowed, peas drilled, rolled
• Hybrid treatment: peas direct drilled, rolled
• Regenerative treatment: not planted in peas

Winter cover crops in both the Conventional and Hybrid treatments were sprayed out early, and the soil stayed wet. The Conventional treatment was encouraged to dry by cultivating to ‘open up’ the soil. The Hybrid, which was not cultivated, remained very wet, making the soil more vulnerable to compaction at planting. The soil was wet enough to leave defined drill lines, and in some places open slots.

We decided not to plant the Regen treatment in early peas. We wanted to avoid driving on wet soil with heavy machinery, minimising compaction, and retained the soil in a ‘restorative phase’ for longer, ahead of planting beans in late December.

Crop Monitoring

The impact of planting into wet soil in the Hybrid treatment was seen almost immediately. Establishment was slower, and the plant population significantly lower than the Conventional treatment.

We saw similar trends in canopy cover percentage, with the Hybrid treatment lower than the Conventional one. The Regenerative cover crop was mulched on the 1st of October to stop the radish component of the cover crop mix from flowering. The residue was later disced in to mix soil with the residue and speed up breakdown. That was not been sufficient to kill the oats in the multispecies cover crop, and the regrowth required ongoing management.

Both the Conventional and Hybrid treatments had one post-emergence herbicide application (Bruno + Quantum). No pre-emergence herbicide was applied due to lack of forecast rain early in the season.

The dry weather through November brought forward our harvesting date. A fungicide application was recommended, but we were too close to the 14 day pre-harvest interval so none was applied. Disease pressure was low so we had few issues.

The dry spring meant the irrigator has been consistently running. Between planting on the 3rd of September and harvest on the 27th November we received 46.7mm of rainfall. The irrigator made six passes and applied approximately 96mm of irrigation.

Harvest took place on the 26th of November, read more in our harvest article!