Central Queensland grain grower Mark Baker harvested tonnes of mungbeans earlier this year.

It was the first time he had planted the pulse in about six years and it was his biggest mungbean planting by area at 2000 hectares.

When weather forecasts indicated more rain in January and February, Mark planted mungbeans. He wanted to break up a wheat-on-wheat rotation with a summer pulse.

While mungbeans can be challenging, he says they are worth it “when the opportunity arises”. Mark says he was happy that the two varieties planted – 1300ha of Jade-AUA and 700ha of TaipanA – performed well, yielding 1.5t/ha and 90 per cent reaching processing grade.

When stars align

Mark’s planting opportunity depends on  the moisture profile, timing, nutrition and follow-up rain.

1. Moisture: “We are moisture farmers. So, if I have a foot and a half of soil moisture (450 millimetres) at the beginning of January and more rain coming, I will go for it. This season we had 300mm of in-crop rain.”
2. Timing: “I’ve learnt when not to plant. For us, mungbeans must be sown by the third week of January. We’ve never had much success in February. They like long days.” This year’s crop was planted between 5 and  9 January.
3. Nutrition: “I put starter fertiliser down with all my pulses now. They need the nitrogen and trace elements.”

Australian Mungbean Association (AMA) industry agronomist Paul McIntosh says the Baker family’s approach is spot on.

“Time of sowing is an important consideration across all mungbean growing regions, as is soil moisture levels at planting time,” he says. “It’s preferable to have more than 125mm of plant-available water, with a follow-up in-crop rain event.”

Seasonal options

Central Queensland grain grower Mark Baker planted  his biggest mungbean crop ever this year, a decision that paid off with a high-yielding crop. Photo: supplied

For Mark and his wife, Megan Baker, who farm 7600ha at Orion, mungbeans’ short growing season means they can still plant a winter crop.

“We don’t plan for them, but if conditions are right and we have good soil moisture and a promising forecast, we will plant them.  And we don’t rule out a winter planting,” Mark says.

Mark planted 5500ha of sorghum in mid-January and harvested it in late June. By then, he had already harvested his mungbean crop, Kelly-disc-chained those paddocks and planted them to chickpeas.

Mark swathed some of the mungbeans this season, which he would like to try again. “It’s roughly the same cost as using Roundup® (glyphosate) to defoliate the crop, which worked well,” he says.

“It had 60 to 70mm of rain, and I thought it would go mouldy, especially given we could not pick it up for 14 days. It would have been ready in four days, but we had to delay that because of the rain. But when we did pick it up, it was fine.”

Mark undertook this as a trial with his long-term agronomist, Roger Lindeman. AMA’s Mr McIntosh says the trial’s success could help future marketing options. “Certainly, marketing Australia’s clean and green mungbeans without any glyphosate residues is a positive way forward in the future,” he says.

A new $3.6 million project, with GRDC investment, will see strip trials planted next to grower-sown mungbeans, allowing growers and advisers to see how the crop performs in different environments.

Read also: Mungbeans not picky on nitrogen source but take more than they ‘fix’