Key message

• High-value pulses such as chickpeas, faba beans and lentils can add value to Western Australian farming systems.

Local demonstration trials are helping growers in Western Australia to realise the full potential of high-value pulses in their cropping systems.

While Western Australia produces the lion’s share of Australia’s lupins, its share of the high-value pulses – chickpeas, faba beans and lentils – is low.

In a bid to expand the area of lentils, chickpeas and faba beans grown in the west, GRDC invested in demonstration trials to raise awareness of these crops and help growers evaluate opportunities to improve agronomy and yields.

Led by the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) with GRDC investment, the work was conducted with local grower groups – Mingenew Irwin Group, South East Premium Wheat Growers Association, Liebe Group and Stirlings to Coast Farmers – from 2019 to 2021.

Small-plot trials targeted the factors limiting the potential of each species and demonstrated best-bet packages for newly released varieties.

Opportunities

Faba beans have been the surprise, with keen interest in southern WA. The recently released PBA Amberley provides a superior disease resistance package that will help combat the chocolate spot observed in many trials and grower paddocks in 2020.

PBA Amberley is the preferred variety for high disease-risk areas, with the imidazolinone-tolerant PBA Bendoc only recommended where growers are locked into using post-emergent imidazolinone herbicides in-crop.

The recently released chickpea CBA Captain is ideal for the central and northern agricultural regions as it is taller than existing desi varieties, improving harvestability. For all chickpea varieties, including CBA Captain, planning to manage Ascochyta blight remains vital.

DPIRD’s experiments highlighted the importance of early intervention with seed dressing and an early fungicide spray at six to eight weeks to help set up the crop for a good year. They also demonstrated the value of robust rhizobia inoculation techniques and effective weed control. New herbicide options, such as Palmero® TX and Reflex®, which provide good weed control options, were promoted to growers at major field days.

Faba beans have been the surprise package, with keen interest throughout southern WA.

While chickpeas can be a useful break crop, uptake has been slow in the targeted port zones of Geraldton and Kwinana. Much of this is related to the difficulty of sourcing seed and poor market access in these areas, as well as recent seasonal conditions and market outlooks. Lingering doubts about managing Ascochyta blight have also played a role.

The bulk of WA’s lentils are grown in the Esperance port zone, and are typically sown in late April. However, a time-of-sowing experiment at Grass Patch in 2020 found that the first week of June produced maximum yields of 2.7 tonnes per hectare, compared to 1.5t/ha when sown on 28 April.

This unexpected result is being investigated further as part of the new GRDC-Grower Group Alliance project ‘Closing the Economic Yield Gap for Grain Legumes in Western Australia’, which aims to further enhance the opportunities for WA growers.

More information: Mark Seymour, 0428 925 002, mark.seymour@dpird.wa.gov.au

Longer-season lupin potential

Recent research has highlighted the potential for longer-season lupins to help growers capitalise on early sowing opportunities. Although the work was mainly focused on canola, the researchers considered that lupins might be a less-risky option, as the larger seed size would be more robust than canola if the surface soil dried out before emergence.

The trials showed that longer-season lupins were able to capitalise on early sowing (March to April) by producing more crop biomass; however, these varieties are older releases and are not able to deliver the yields expected from newer varieties. There were no increases in biomass in sowing early to mid-season varieties earlier than May.

More information: Jackie Bucat, 08 9368 3481, jackie.bucat@agric.wa.gov.au