Key points

• After repairing wheel track damage resulting from a wet harvest, growers in northern NSW typically plant a cover crop to protect from soil erosion and limit summer weeds
• Growers in northern NSW have been experimenting with replacing the cover crop with an opportunistic cash crop of chickpeas
• Sown in late January, these chickpeas need to be started well and grown fast to reach harvest in April

Summer chickpeas could provide the perfect opportunity for cash and cover.

After a wet harvest, northern growers often need to repair damaged ground – and this also means planting a cover crop to prevent erosion and weed proliferation.

Faced with this necessity, growers in the Narrabri region of New South Wales identified an opportunity: what if that cover crop could be harvested for profit?

Drew Penberthy, who is a grower and Outlook Ag agronomist, says the idea arose after a grower tour to India. “We already knew how well chickpeas could handle the heat and drier weather in Australia, but after seeing how they grew the crop outside traditional growing windows in India, we thought they might suit a different role here as a potential cash crop to plant as a cover for our soils,” he says.

Opportunity

Wet harvests are a recurring challenge in the northern region and can lead to severe wheel track damage. “Sometimes we have wheel tracks that are 500 millimetres deep, and the ground needs to be worked, leaving it bare and at risk of erosion and weeds.”

Mr Penberthy acknowledges it is a speculative option and will not be appropriate every year. “Why not give it a go? Everyone has chickpeas in the silo – let’s plant those in January and see if we can get them through to harvest by April,” he says.

The first PBA Seamer crops were sown in late January 2020 at four sites between Narrabri and Bellata. Under ideal conditions they performed well with good gross margins, proving that the concept had legs. Mr Penberthy says they could potentially be as good as mungbeans.

With the way our seasons are changing and the higher temperatures, we need to look outside the box and take every opportunity to try something new.

“We tried it again in 2021, but obviously it was a pretty wet summer. The crops were fabulous, with an estimated yield of four tonnes per hectare, but then we had 200mm of rain at harvest over three weeks. Some were flooded and the rest were stripped just to tidy them up.

“We chose not to plant any in 2022 as the season was too wet to get on the ground in time and the forecast cool season made us nervous about disease and having enough time to mature the crop before winter.”

Short-season crop

“We have to grow chickpeas fast. Ideally, we want to sow after a wet harvest and then get plenty of warm weather. We sow in late January after the worst of the summer heat and push them along with starter fertiliser. We are using sowing rates of 100 kilograms/ha to fill the space quickly and quicken maturity.”

The herbicides that can be used in chickpeas also mean that the crop is a good fit for managing some of the more difficult-to-control summer grass weeds.

“Our biggest concern is a cool wet season that would encourage disease, particular Botrytis grey mould. Ideally, they should be sown away from any paddocks where chickpeas are going to be planted in the winter to minimise inoculum.”

Mr Penberthy says that the varieties PBA Seamer and CBA Captain seem to be a bit more determinate and quicker to flower.

“With the way our seasons are changing and the higher temperatures, we need to look outside the box and take every opportunity to try something new.”

More information: Drew Penberthy, 0427 255 752, drew@penagcon.com.au