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Hazelton, Kansas | Drew,
The group 7 beans were just for curiosity. They got very big and bushy, but were very late to set pods and mature. IIRC, they yielded in the 20s, while my standard beans (4.8) yielded in the low 40s on similar ground. I only planted 7 acres of them, and it was not a replicated variety plot.
If you're after soybean hay, the group 7s might be the ticket. They probably produced 50% more above ground biomass than the 4.8s (and the 4.8s I grew then were a fairly tall, bushy bean). But it was in the form of hay, not grain.
I have since listened to one of my neighbors (aka "Dirtpoor), and transitioned to shorter season beans with less height. So far, they have yielded better and harvested earlier, which lets us bank a little more water for the subsequent wheat crop.
You might check old reports from the KSU Hesston field. Mark Classen looked at "forage" beans as a cover crop there. I'm gonna guess it was in the 1990-2000 time frame.
FWIW
MDS
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risky dryland beans
