A RANGE of pulse varieties were tested for their durability in low rainfall environments at the GRDC Lameroo trial site last year.
SARDI senior pulse researcher Sarah Day said there was a late start to the season.
Beans were not sown until late May and lentils and field peas were sown in early June.
"All the crops were sown with 80 kilograms a hectare of monoammonium phosphate," she said.
"We had 150 millimetres of rainfall (to mid October).
"The sites had a knockdown of glyphosate at sowing, which had been followed up with a grass spray and one fungicide spray."
We do see a large response to early sowing if they germinate early.
- SARAH DAY
Ms Day said the pick of the field pea variety would be PBA Butler.
"This has performed consistently well across the low rainfall zone and has yielded at the site, average or slightly above-average," she said.
"The other one to look out for lower rainfall growers would be the new release variety PBA Taylor.
"It is a superior line to the dual virus resistance line PBA Warton, but is higher yielding and has similar yields to PBA Butler."
Ms Day said sowing lentil crops early would expose them to frost risk as well as black spot infection.
"You want to make sure you have good disease control if you are sowing early," she said.
"Pick a mid to late flowering variety so you are avoiding flower abortion during those reproductive growth stages that will occur during the colder months.
"In 2020, at a site near Point Pass, we had 15 per cent to 28pc yield loss from early April sown field peas being exposed to one frost event.
"Definitely either consider later sowing or make sure you have got your disease control on a mid to late flowering variety if you are choosing to sow field peas early."
Ms Day said the lentil trial plot was sown into moisture.
"For low rainfall regions we certainly see a couple of standout varieties PBA Bolt and PBA Hallmark XT, which have improved tolerance to salt and boron in the soil," she said.
"PBA Hallmark XT has performed well at this site previously.
"We have another variety, which is of interest to a lot of low rainfall growers due to its erect plant type and standability, which is the PBA Highland XT variety.
"Both have the herbicide tolerance characteristics, but there certainly is a lot of interest in the PBA Highland XT variety."
Ms Day said in general, early sowing was beneficial to lentils, but "you can face issues in a high rainfall season where you might have too much biomass".
"In terms of seeding rates, the recommended plant density for lentil is 120 plants per square metre - it's about 45-55kg/ha, depending on your seed size," she said.
"You can drop your seeding rate by a quarter of the recommended density without compromising your grain yield production at the end of the year.
"Increasing your seeding rate is not always beneficial.
"There has been times where we have had a seeding rate of up to 180 plants/sqm above the recommended 120 and ... 60 plants/sqm came out on top in terms of yield."
EARLY FLOWERING KEY FOR FABA BEANS
Ms Day said faba beans were sown on May 20 at Lameroo, with a follow-up rain within five days, which helped with germination.
"For low rainfall, PBA Marne is particularly well suited, as it is a very early flowering faba bean variety, has a short flowering window and does perform well in the low rainfall zone," she said.
"(The PBA Marne faba bean) particularly responds well to early sowing.
"The other picks would be PBA Samira and PBA Bendoc.
"PBA Samira is very consistent in terms of yield across variable seasons, but also consistent in yield across different times of sowing."
Ms Day said PBA Bendoc was a herbicide-tolerant variety, which has had similar performance to PBA Marne and PBA Samira in the low rainfall zones in the past few years.
"Target density for faba beans is 24 plants per metre square for most pulses for sowing depth you would be targeting 5-8 centimetres," she said.
"If you are sowing dry you would go a little bit deeper to chase moisture, but faba bean response to time of sowing is quite interesting.
"We do see a large response to early sowing if they germinate early.
"You don't get that early response to dry sowing faba beans, but last year we managed to achieve at one site a 1.6 tonne per hectare yield advantage from sowing faba beans a month earlier on a break."
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