KANIVA, Victoria, farmer Wallis Meyer has been growing durum wheat for 10 years and over that time its area has increased steadily to now account for two-thirds of the wheat sown on his property.
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Wallis farms with his wife Donna and sons Kendal and Fergus, cropping 1200 hectares annually. The only livestock they run are crossbred lambs brought-in for fattening on the crop stubble at harvest time.
"We started out with just a couple of paddocks of durum, and over the past decade the area sown has increased steadily," he said.
Durum has taken the place of barley for a number of growers in the area.
"In this area it's been tricky to get the combination of both yield and malting grade with the barley," he said.
"For me, it's just been easier to concentrate on growing wheat."
The neutral to slightly alkaline soils in the Kaniva area make it a prime region for growing legumes.
"This area has very good soils for producing lentils, faba beans, peas and chickpeas," he said.
"We can really grow the full suite of pulses, with the exception of lupins, which don't suit this area."
While Wallis is still harvesting at the moment and his yields have been pleasantly surprising.
"Rainfall this year has been 25 per cent to 30pc below the normal growing season rainfall," he said.
"But we've still been getting very acceptable yields with the pulses. We've averaged 3t/ha to 3.5t/ha with the faba beans and lentils have been quite good at 2.5t/ha, or just under."
Wallis says the Kaniva area was fortunate to miss out on frosts that affected areas east of the Wimmera this year.
* More in Stock Journal's December 27 edition.
