Practice Abstract 26 - Benefits of crop rotation management with peas and beans

Short title (native language): 
Benefits of crop rotation management with peas and beans

Short summary for practitioners (native language): 
Where crops have been grown in short rotations, most growers have recognised the need to diversify, yet it takes time to change and gain confidence in new systems.
Catch and cover cropping have become a significant part of arable rotations and although wholeheartedly adopted by some, others are working out how best to benefit from them.
Regardless of approach to crop establishment, equipment and soil cover, extending crop rotations has well-proven benefits:
Extending rotations can: create a diverse mosaic of crops in the landscape, biodiversity at the crop scale, and benefits to native fauna; create more diverse soils, which may reduce the impact of soil-borne pests and diseases; minimise the establishment and growth of weeds and reduce the need for herbicides; improve soil structure (in combination with conservation/ restoration tillage techniques), organic matter content, water retention and plant nutrition; reduce the need for fertiliser inputs when in combination with nitrogen fixing crops.

As the impact of more limited chemical inputs increases in many crops, the adoption of integrated management techniques is more important and this starts with a wide rotation, accepting that crop alternatives can be limited and compromise often necessary.
Including of pulses in rotations, delivers numerous benefits: enhanced soil health and fertility, increased environmental diversity both above and below ground, yield boosts to following crops, higher levels of N to following crops from nitrogen fixation, alternative weed control options, ability to spread workload, breaking disease cycles.
In contemplating the rotation, peas and beans should be considered as the same crop.