Why Faba Beans?

Farmers in the Parkland areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta really need another crop to add to their rotation. With higher moisture levels creating challenges over the last several years and fusarium now gaining a strong foothold in the area, we need another crop that will fit our growing conditions. Faba beans have been tried on and off for a couple of decades by farmers and researchers looking for a crop that will work here.  But we also need to make sure that there is a good market for them.

 

The problem with a lot of new crops is that they start as a small niche market and as soon as they show some promise, everyone gets into them, we flood the market and kill the price.

 

Goudy Ag Products Ltd. works as the marketing agent for faba beans for farmers members of Proactive Producers Ltd.

 

We have a built a great, mutually beneficial relationship with Olysky Hog Barns.  We have had the opportunity to supply most of their barns with zero tannin feed faba beans.  This allows them to ensure a good, consistent supply and our growers to confidently grow a contracted number of fabas and know that they will receive a good price and move all of what they grow.

 

We are also supplying a large partner in the food grade export market.

 

These beans have been yielding well and commanding a good price because of their high protein content.

 

Advantages of Feed Fabas:

 

-they thrive in wet conditions and they stand up very well

-they are very frost tolerant in both the spring and the fall

-they yield very well and command a decent price as they are very high in protein

-they do not require any N as they fix their own and they leave lots of N for the next year

-they are desirable for feed so they cannot get down-graded out of the market

-they are a later crop, but they stay standing through harvest and are a treat to combine

-we are a primary supplier for some large, stable buyers.

 

Zero-tannin faba beans are far less risky to grow than tannin varieties.  It is very easy to get rejected on spec for the food grade market, so any varieties that contain tannin (which creates a bitter taste that people in Asia and the middle east like, but animals don't), cannot be sold into the feed market like the zero tannin varieties can.