TYPICALLY a northern NSW and Queensland-grown crop, the area of soybeans planted in the Riverina and into Victoria has increased to more than 5000 hectares this season.
The positive price outlook for the beans, combined with good sub-soil moisture and available irrigation water contributed to the rapid rise in interest.
With severe weather patterns in the north reducing the crop forecast for 2010-11, a smaller crop than normal is expected overall, and most will come from southern NSW and northern Victoria.
Executive officer of Soy Australia, Denis M’Gee, said the increased area in the south was good news for the industry as it helped offset a considerable decrease in production in the north due to flooding and low temperatures.
With only a small amount of soybeans grown in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area due to the lack of water in the past 10 years, Mr M’Gee said this year’s southern-based crop was about four times the area of last year.
Grown mostly for the edible market rather than the crushing market, the quality of the soybeans harvested so far – harvest started in early April in the south – were good, and yields were sitting between three and four tonnes.
Mr M’Gee said conditions had been almost perfect for soybean production in the south and northern Victoria this year, with good moisture available at sowing and timely rain during the growing phase, allowing producers to save some of their allocated irrigation water.
In the latest grains report from NSW Department of Primary Industries, 11,480ha of soybeans have been planted across the State, compared with the 2009-10 area of 14,572ha.
From this figure, an expected 24,430t will be harvested –a decrease of almost 10,000t on last year – from an estimated average yield of 2.13t/ha.
Yields have been reduced on the North Coast due to late planting, while the irrigated crop in the Riverina was seeing yields of up to 4.4t/ha.
