Strong outlook for pulses across the state

Seasonal conditions, the need for a rotational break and a competitive market have all factored in to see a resurgence in pulse sowing programs this year and whether it pays off remains to be seen, but growers are quietly confident.

Bruce Watson, along with his wife Karina, sister Katrina and brother-in-law Mark Swift, Parkes Plains, Nelungaloo, has 100 hectares of faba beans in, despite some wet conditions.

Mr Watson said he is hoping his family operation can get a yield of between three and five tonne per hectare when he harvests the beans later this year.

"The faba beans were planted in late April under wet conditions," he said.

"We have black soil here and it was difficult to plant with an unexpected 12mm of rain at the time, but we got them in and they are about shin high now.

"We'll need to tick all the boxes with rain, disease management and insect pressure, but if we get a mild spring and soft flowering window they'll put on beans."

According to Mr Watson, last year's bean crop at Woodbine didn't fare so well.

"We had frost and then heat at flowering and the yield was nowhere near what we want," he said.

"It was only around that two tonne per hectare mark last year.

"But three to five tonnes is definitely here if we can get the rain and weather to go with it."

Mr Watson also has 50 hectares of lentils in which are just coming up now but his chickpea plans took a hit.

"We were looking to show 300 hectares but didn't get any chickpeas in as it was just too wet," he said.

"What made it worse was we tramline renovated where we were going to plant them because we wouldn't have been able to harvest chickpeas with the tramlines we had.

"We tried planting for three days and just couldn't get through the mud and the straw.

"So we ended up just spreading barley, which has germinated quite well.

"We'll look at that in a month and see if we're going to take it through to grain or terminate it and take it back around to summer plant of sorghum."

YellCo Ag's Peter Yelland said the Lachlan Valley did not have a lot of pulses in but what had been sown was looking good.

"You would be lucky to see much more than 1000 hectares of chickpeas in the area," he said.

"There are a few growers with faba beans in and there are always lupins.

"Blokes are also growing vetch as a manure crop. They will decide if they want to graze it or fallow it to bank some nitrogen out of it.

"The pulses which are in the ground look fantastic and have had a great start to the season.

"But overall, there wouldn't be two per cent of the area around Parkes that goes into pulses."

Mr Yelland said the reasoning behind that was mainly economics.

He said that growers were relying on cash flow around harvest time and as a lot of the pulses aren't sold then, they were more inclined to go for something which would give a return when they needed it.

At Warialda, McGregor Gourlay agronomist David Landers said pulses in the area were also enjoying a very good start to the season although the chickpeas had been a bit slow to get away.

"The earlier faba beans are doing well, but all the chickpeas around my neck of the woods are pretty slow and only just out of the ground really," he said.

"The went in late May-early June. They're up and going, it is just this time of year it's cold and slow and the temperature is continuing to drop."

Mr Landers said there had been a large increase in the amount of chickpeas sown this year.

"There's definitely more going in around our district compared to the last few years, since before the 2019 drought," he said.

"Faba beans are on par with recent years with a few people growing them each year as part of their rotation, but they're not a big massive crop.

"There are a few growers that keep some for themselves for their own sheep and sell a bit, but it's not a big crop in our district."

Down south in the Hay area, Elders agronomist Liam Whitbourne said they had been very fortunate with the weather since early May.

"My clients have some dryland vetch in the ground as well as some irrigated faba beans," he said.

"And to be honest, they're advancing very well.

"The vetch was planted in early April, and came up from soil moisture, and now we've had five inches of rain since early May.

"The faba beans went in the first week of May and they have established on the rain we've had with no need to irrigate.

"So they've come up really well and are advancing very well too."

Mr Whitrbourne said the vetch would mainly be used for a green manure crop with growers having the option to bale it for hay.

"They'll bale it if the season is favorable," he said.

"The faba beans will likely be kept on farm to stock feed."

Mr Whitbourne said his dryland vetch clients were growing it as part of their set rotations but there had been a slight decrease in faba beans sown from this year to last.

"Last year we saw pretty high heliothis grub issues later in the season that impacted growers," he said.

"For various reasons weren't quick enough to get it off."

He said the beans will be harvested anywhere around mid-December to early January.