CHICKPEAS were a regular part of Darren and Glen Keeffe’s rotation until ascochyta blight made it unprofitable. But the release of the PBA Slasher variety last year has convinced him to give them another try.
Darren moved to Moora in Western Australia six years ago from Mullewa, where the family’s been farming for generations, to take advantage of the higher, more reliable rainfall. He crops 3200 hectares of his new farm, Gracemere, and runs almost 2000 Merinos for lamb production on the land that’s not arable.
The operation at Gracemere is minimum till, with a one pass operation using knife points. Darren’s using auto-steer and has the overlap down to 3-5 per cent, but hasn’t gone fully into controlled traffic farming at this stage.
The PBA Slasher chickpea has been developed by Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA), a joint venture between the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Pulse Australia, the University of Adelaide, and state departments of agriculture.
A new desi-type variety, PBA Slasher has very good foliage resistance to ascochyta blight and has demonstrated excellent yields across a range of environments.
“The last time, we reached the stage of spraying chickpeas four and five times in a season yet were still unable to guarantee a harvest because of the ascochyta blight,” Darren said.
“It simply wasn’t worth it, so the new variety’s disease resistance is the main reason I’m willing to give chickpeas another go.
“We managed to get about three tonnes of seed, even though supplies are tight. We’ve planted 40 hectares this year and if it does well I’d like to see up to 300 hectares put into rotation each year.
“It would be good to have a legume option to fix nitrogen on the heavier country where we can’t grow lupins.”
His mix of crops and varieties depend on a lot of factors, including gross margin, disease resistance and weed burden, but Darren usually aims to have two-thirds of his cropping regime under cereals each year, with rotations of two cereals and then a legume or canola.
“Cereals have been the most profitable over recent years, but it’s definitely important to have rotations to manage weeds and disease, as well as providing nitrogen benefits,” Darren said.
“Chickpea prices have been looking up and canola prices have been dropping. Chickpeas can also be sown later in the year without a yield penalty, which is not the case with canola.
“Chickpeas are actually easier in some respects too – they germinate more easily, require fewer chemicals and they are direct harvested rather than swathed. We don’t have much wild radish at Moora, so that won’t be a problem as it can be in some areas.”
Darren believes trying new varieties is important and uses the National Variety Trials (NVT) as a key source of information, as well as local trials and his agronomist.
NVT is funded by the GRDC and generates independent information for growers about newly released crop varieties, including wheat, barley, canola and lupins. The information is available from the NVT website (www.nvtonline.com.au) to help growers make crop variety selection decisions.
“I’ve heard about the results they’ve been getting with PBA Slasher and I’ve grown chickpeas before so it’s not unfamiliar territory. However, there’s nothing like seeing how they perform on your own place to make a final decision on how well they might fit in on a large paddock scale,” Darren said.
The chickpeas were sown in early June. Darren used Simazine pre-sowing and sprayed Balance® as a pre-emergent, as per advice from the agriculture department. He’s planning a grass spray and one fungicide spray and is hoping that’s all that’s needed before harvest. In Western Australia an early fungicide application is recommended 6-8 weeks after sowing to delay the development of ascochyta blight.
“From what I’ve heard, one or possibly two sprays is all PBA Slasher will need, which is fine. Any more than that and there’s simply not enough money in it.
“It will be good to watch it through the year, see what the yield’s like and then make a decision on whether or not it suits us.”
Details about Pulse Breeding Australia, including variety brochures on PBA Slasher and other chickpeas developed by PBA, are available on the GRDC website at www.grdc.com.au/pba
The Pulse Australia website (http://www.pulseaus.com.au/) also has information about all facets of pulse production, marketing and the end use of pulses.
