THE benefits of including faba beans in crop rotations have never been better, with growers often getting their best wheat crop after beans, compared to other pulses, according to the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).
Its investment in faba bean breeding has contributed to the delivery of new and improved varieties, while a co-funded project from GRDC and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has been researching what benefits having beans in the rotation can bring to cropping systems.
The Esperance zone has been the most popular region, particularly around Scaddan where growers have stuck with faba beans for decades.
Faba beans were also popular at Dongara in the Geraldton zone, as well as in the Great Southern where growing is scattered but a renewed interest has been seen, especially in those areas with high rainfall.
DPIRD senior research scientist Mark Seymour said in medium to high-rainfall areas, faba beans have very good growth, very good nitrogen fixation, clean crops and very good disease control.
"The breeding program which GRDC has been funding for many years is really hitting its stride and we've seen a marketable improvement over the past five years," Mr Seymour said.
"What we've seen in trials in more recent years is that some varieties and lines are much better and there's a couple of exciting things on the radar when it comes to new varieties."
PBA Samira, PBA Bendoc and PBA Amberley are all varieties released within the past few years which have really changed the game for faba beans.
PBA Samira is an older variety that has been the mainstay in WA for the past five years.
It is a high-yielding bean which has a good overall level of disease resistance, including being less susceptible to chocolate spot and rust and is resistant to Ascochyta blight.
Mr Seymour said Bendoc was released last year and was the first faba bean with a high level of tolerance to some imidazolinone (IMI) herbicides when applied post-emergent.
"This not only increases the in-crop options for broadleaf weed control, but also enables the variety to be grown where some IMI herbicide residues persist from applications to the previous crop," he said.
"That's creating a lot of interest in the Albany port zone where they use IMI herbicides and they've got weeds which will be controlled by them."
PBA Amberley is a mid-season flowering faba bean which has high yield potential in higher rainfall and long growing season areas.
Mr Seymour said PBA Amberley had the best resistance to chocolate spot that had ever been seen in an Australian variety.
"Farmers probably spray their beans with fungicides too often, so it costs them too much, but with PBA Amberley they will look clean, provide confidence to growers and their advisers and growers will get better benefits for the few sprays they do," he said.
While the newer varieties of faba beans may have better disease resistance, everything starts to break down once the crop matures, so disease can still stain seeds late in the year.
As beans in the human consumption market are sold by appearance, growers should harvest as soon as possible and not leave the crop out in the paddock for wet weather to come through and stain the seed.
Mr Seymour said if growers didn't manage their harvest time to get clean seed in, it would be downgraded, they will not get the best price and in some cases, they might struggle to sell.
"If growers can do the agronomy well, have a clean crop, try to maximise the biomass and get the timing of sprays and harvest right, they will see results," he said.
"Faba bean yield can be very good in a high rainfall year, but even in a low rainfall year where they might not yield as much, they're still putting a lot into the soil.
"In some instances, you can almost see and feel the improvement in the soil after beans."
Mr Seymour said the new varieties which have been coming out in the past five years are giving more options for growers to choose from.
"We do tend to find that the best wheat crops in the districts tend to be after beans and it's a very robust system once you get into it," he said.
"For any growers who have tried them in the past and weren't happy, now is the time to have another look at them."
