GCTV Ep#9 Southern Pulse
Narrator: It was at Wagga Wagga in southern NSW that
the very first field pea trials in Australia took place, in 1894.
Around that time the Sunshine harvester first began to rattle its way across paddocks.
These days it’s a purpose built mini harvester that combs the Agricultural Research Institute’s
trial plots.
Pulse Breeding Australia drives the Pulse research done here.
PBA is a joint venture between State agricultural agencies, the Universities of Adelaide and
Sydney, Pulse Australia and the GRDC.
Eric Armstrong: Research Agronomist NSW DPI Wagga Wagga
Some nice varieties coming through, I reckon they’re about twice the height and bulk
of the current old varieties and I reckon they’re a goer.
Yeah.
Narrator: In a region where wheat and canola are the
main crops there’s been a resurgence of interest in pulses.
And the reason for that is continuous cereal cropping has depleted soil nitrogen levels,
forcing growers to apply more fertiliser and that’s expensive and sometimes problematic.
Luke Gaynor: Research Agronomist NSW DPI Wagga Wagga
At peak demand through post sowing, that July August September period, Urea is very hard
to come by.
Price generally fluctuates quite significantly, generally always on the up.
And also getting a reliable application and that’s one of the issues.
Farms are getting bigger so farmers have to spread large areas in a shorter period and
getting a reliable rainfall to incorporate that urea is causing a lot of issues in terms
of the efficiency of that urea.
Narrator: While pulses are grown to the north, south
and west of this region what’s discouraged southern NSW grain growers from including
a legume in their crop rotations is a lack of markets and the necessary infrastructure
and the region’s unique red brown acidic soils.
Pulses came to Australia from the northern hemisphere where they grow in predominately
alkaline soils.
But with the national pulse breeding plan producing regionally adapted varieties, growers
now have greater cropping flexibility and that means less dependence on man-made nitrogen
fertilisers.
Eric Armstrong: A huge proportion of the air we breath is
nitrogen and that’s the fundamental source of nitrogen for bagged fertiliser and we have
these clever little plants called legumes which actually do it all free of charge and
also produce a crop at the same time.
Narrator: As a legume, most pulse crops are able to
convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium, a soluble form of nitrogen available to plants.
Chickpeas for example will produce approximately 20 kilos of nitrogen per tonne of above ground
dry matter.
However as slightly more than half of the chickpea’s stored nitrogen is below ground
the resultant multiplier effect means the total estimated fixed nitrogen is approximately
40 kilos per tonne of dry matter.
Luke Gaynor: One of the biggest positives of growing a
pulse crop is that you don’t have to put any nitrogen on the pulse crop and generally
the second crop after that you don’t have to put any nitrogen on.
So you’ve got two years on that one paddock where you don’t have to top dress for nitrogen.
Eric Armstrong: Canola and wheat cannot do that only legumes
do it and so it’s a much more reliable, secure, safe form of nitrogen to have it fixed
in a legume to make it available for the next crop and subsequent crop after.
Narrator: As well as providing an alternative source
of nitrogen, pulses can be used to provide competition for weeds and deliver a cash crop.
Newer varieties have been bred to allow herbicides to be applied to control in-crop weeds without
inhibiting the pulse from reaching maximum growth.
Eric Armstrong: Particularly in field pea and lentil which
are a very quick maturing crop we’ve been focusing on developing very early varieties
so that when they mature you can actually crop-top or spray, control the weed without
damaging the development of the grain so you can take the crop through to full grain harvest
and have total weed control of the resistant weeds to me that’s having your cake and
eating it.
Narrator: 10 K’s out of Wagga Wagga the Beck family
has like many in the region over the past decade moved away from a cereal and pasture
farming system to continuous cropping.
But that’s beginning to change.
Ben Beck: Grain Grower ‘Cresley’ Wagga Wagga NSW
This is our first year that we’ve grown a wheat crop on a pea crop and it’s probably
by far our best wheat.
Narrator: And having the main road run past the property
there’s been a lot of calls from neighbours curious about the field peas.
Ben Beck: Do you fallow them out or harvest is probably
the main question.
There’s a pretty common practice at the moment to fallow the field peas out, to sow
them early and grow the biomass which we did on the other side of the road here but we
fallowed them out and probably two tonnes to the hectare of field peas we knocked out.
So you be reluctant to fallow a pea crop unless you were forced into doing it.
Narrator: This season the peas will be going to market
and Ben Beck’s recommendation to other growers is to work pulses into their rotations.
Ben Beck: They’re easy to grow and they extend our
sowing window so there’s no pressure to sow them, they’re always sown quite late.
We try and harvest them between the wheat and canola so they can fit into your rotation.
You’ve just got to have somewhere to store them and be prepared just to fiddle around
a bit, get your header set-up right to feed in right and they should be fine.
Eric Armstrong: These represent the three different types
of peas that we grow and market
Narrator: The other message these research agronomists
would like growers to hear is to treat pulse crops as seriously as they do wheat and canola.
Luke Gaynor: Treat it as a main crop don’t treat it as
the last thing you sow, the last thing you harvest.
You’ve got to do things right and you’ve got to do things well.
You might as well not grow it if you’re not going to do a good job of it.
Narrator: Pulse breeding has come a long way since 1894
especially in the last six years as a result of the industry partners’ coordinated and
cooperative approach.
And with the national breeding program giving researchers what they need to tailor regional
solutions, growers now have a more sustainable farming future.
One in which pulses will have an important role, even in the unique soils of southern
NSW.
Eric Armstrong: They grow them in northern NSW, they’re
making a success of it, they do it in Victoria and South Australia so these growers are now
becoming really serious and I think that’s pretty exciting because they’re going to
do the proper job they’re going to make it work and given new more reliable better
disease resistant higher yielding varieties with good market end-uses I think it’s really
optimistic.
ENDS
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