Snapshot

Owners: Matt and Sharon Starick and daughters Rebekah, Leah and Hannah
Location: Mannum, South Australia
Area: 1500 hectares
Average annual rainfall: 300 millimetres
Soil types: sandy loam, sand and limestone
Soil pH: 8.5
Crops: wheat, barley, canola, pulses
Piggery: 220 sows.

Growing a new crop is never easy, but a bit of peer support gave Mannum grower Matt Starick the confidence to take the plunge.

Matt says his wife Sharon and daughter Rebekah had both advocated trying lentils, but it was talking to other local growers in the Mannum Pulse Check group that got him over the line.

“We had been growing peas for 15 or 20 years and, while we can use them as piggery feed, they were expensive to grow and not the most cost-effective source of protein for the pigs.”

The Staricks wanted a pulse to fix nitrogen but with a better gross margin than peas. They typically sow about one-quarter of their cropping area to canola and peas.

Matt had heard a lot of positives about lentils but was concerned that the experience in other regions might not be relevant on his patch.

Local knowledge

“The local knowledge we got from talking with other growers in the Pulse Check group was invaluable. Everyone was more than willing to share what worked and what didn’t,” he says.

“It meant we were going in with our eyes open.”

GRDC’s Pulse Check program, coordinated by the Birchip Cropping Group, supported discussion groups across South Australia and Victoria between 2017 and 2021 to help expand lentil and chickpea production areas. Where groups did not have easy access to existing pulse agronomy trials, investment from either GRDC or the SA Grain Industry Trust (SAGIT) enabled local grower groups to set up demonstration trials.

Agronomist and group facilitator Tony Craddock of Pinion Advisory says the program ran during some pretty lean years. “It wasn’t a great time to grow pulses, but we were able to visit the trials run by Murray Plains Farmers Inc with SAGIT support.”

Despite the challenging seasons, the program was well supported by experienced pulse growers, agronomists, pulse marketers and potential new growers.

Successful trial

In 2020, the Staricks sowed 25 hectares of PBA HighlandXT imidazolinone-tolerant lentils adjacent to their usual PBA Wharton pea crop. It was a dry start to the year with no real break and there was a point where Matt was looking at both pulses and wondering if they would ever get out of the ground.

“Once they were up, I’d look at the lentil crop and think, there is nothing there, it’s such a small crop. Tony and Rebekah both assured me it would be fine and they were right. We were lucky to receive 20 millimetres of rain in early November and the lentils were able to use that.”

The Staricks were more than happy with the results and expect to sow about 120ha of lentils in 2022.

“The lentils were no more difficult to grow than the peas, but we needed to be more rigorous with the quality for the human consumption market. That meant we needed to be proactive in applying insecticide and fungicide to manage the grubs and the disease. I think the PBA HighlandXT is an easier lentil to grow than what was available five or 10 years ago, and more suited to our region.”

He says that they won’t grow pulses on some paddocks due to the risk of wind erosion and they typically target paddocks with a heavy load of cereal stubble to minimise erosion risk.

“The only thing I would do differently is spray for post-emergent weeds sooner. The lentils are not as competitive as the peas.”

More information: Matt Starick, 0407 726 980, kongoliafarms@bigpond.com; Tony Craddock, 0417 809 317, tcraddock@pinionadvisory.com