Can you grow soybeans in the uk

They are an excellent source of protein and can either be picked and cooked when still green, or left to mature, then dried and stored. Soya beans can be sown indoors or outdoors, in May or June.

The easiest option is to sow outdoors once the soil has warmed up in late spring, ideally under fleece or cloches. They like a warm, sunny, sheltered spot, and fertile, free-draining soil. Sow the seeds 5cm 2in deep, 15cm 6in apart, in rows 45cm 18in apart. You can also sow indoors, in 7. Once the seedlings appear, remove from the propagator or uncover, then place in warm, bright location. Move the seedlings into larger pots when roots appear through the drainage holes. Gradually acclimatise indoor-sown plants to outdoor conditions harden off , before planting out after all risk of frost has passed.

Choose a warm, sunny site with well-drained but moist soil. Many people have claimed soya beans in Asia were historically only used after going through a fermentation process. However, a drink similar to soya milk has been used since 82 AD and there is evidence that tofu consumption dates back to AD. The beans were introduced to America in , and that was when they really took off. They were brought over by a sailor named Samuel Bowen who took some seeds with him from China.

He was the first of many soya bean growers in the USA and they even exported soy sauce to England. Soya beans took on a very important role in the United States during the s.

Farms were instructed to increase their production to meet government targets, and Henry Ford was a great pioneer of using soya beans in industry. By , the manufacture of every Ford car involved products derived from soya. There was soya bean oil was used in the paint and in the fluid for the shock absorbers, for example. Henry Ford promoted the soya bean, helping to find uses for it both in food and in industrial products.

How does this work? Well, after soya beans are harvested, they are cleaned, cracked and de-hulled. Then the soya bean oil is separated from the soya bean meal. The soya bean oil is refined for use in margarine, salad and cooking oils, plus hundreds of other non-food products.

And the foam insulation and carpet backing in your home? Not a day goes by without us touching or tasting something derived from soya beans, even though we may not know it. The elevators that take visitors to the top of the Statue of Liberty rely on a soya-based hydraulic fluid.

Soya bean meal is also used to make wood adhesives, biodegradable plastics, printing inks and textiles. Chop down or pull up plants just as they begin to flower. Nitrogen nodules left behind in the soil add fertility.

Position Full sun in very warm locations only. Frost tolerant No. In we launched our new varieties which are radically different. They now have thick, independent stems, higher pod attachment, and terminal clusters of flowers which mean that the majority of the yield is in the upper half of the canopy.

The result is a crop which is easier to grow, easier to manage, more weather robust, and easier to harvest. In our breeders revealed a new feature which they had developed through natural non-gm breeding processes. This new feature means that where 2 or 3 pods were once formed in the leaf axials, the new varieties will form much more.

This removes an important limitation on yield, and our newer varieties Vilshanka and Siverka benefit from this feature. Soya UK varieties are all bred to produce quality soya beans, whilst offering the producer the benefits of better and easier harvesting, higher yields, less disease and earliness of harvest.

In addition, our varieties can be produced in regions and in area where traditional varieties are not suitable. This allows for the potential introduction of soya into areas where current cropping choices are limited, and for the expansion of production area.

With worldwide demand for soya increasing steadily over recent years, the price of soya has increased year on year. Huge demand from China and South East Asia has led to this steady increase.

If you grow soya with us, you will be growing on a Hard IP contract. We also operate an organic contract for organic growers in the suitable areas of the UK.

This system simplifies the drilling operation by avoiding the need for the grower to inoculate the seed in the drill with separate sachets of rhizobium inoculant and will allow growers of larger areas to take seed in kg bags, ready to go into the drill.