Beans are becoming an attractive summer crop option for Riverina growers, with their short-seasons offering farmers the opportunity to take advantage of late water allocations without impacting their winter crop program.
There are around a dozen Murrumbidgee irrigators trying their luck with mungbeans for the first time this year, but Murrami irrigator Chris Jackson was ahead of the curve - planting the legume crop for the first time two years ago.
"There was no one else growing them around here but I know quite a few people in southern Queensland who have been growing them for years so I got a lot of information from them and worked with my agronomist," Mr Jackson said.
"Mungbeans were about the only thing we made money out of that season, so that gave us the incentive to do it again."
This year Mr Jackson has 200 hectares of the crop in and plans to run a mostly mungbean/durum wheat rotation as he moves away from cotton production.
"The way the water job has been in recent years, they (mungbeans) probably offer more dollars per megalitre value than cotton," he said.
"They also fit in better with our contract harvesting business, it gives us more time."
Mr Jackson said mungbeans use less water than most summer crops and they budgeted on 5ML/ha.
"Then being a legume, they fix nitrogen in the soil which is handy too."
He planted variety, Jade-AU, on January 10 at 2.5 centimetres.
"We went with Jade last time and they yielded 2.5 tonnes to the hectare, so they seem to yield pretty well," Mr Jackson said.
"We put down 90 kilograms of DAP and we'll top-dress with some urea.
"We do flood irrigation, around 105ha is on siphons and the balance is on a bankless channel system."
Mr Jackson has not locked in a contract for the crop, hopeful that prices will track in an upwards direction.
Irrigation Research and Extension Committee (IREC) hosted a field day last week which included a talk on mungbeans from Pulse Australia's Paul McIntosh.
IREC chairman Robert Houghton said everyone at the field day was keen to hear about the new crop.
"We need that later option, particularly in years where an allocation doesn't come until late," he said.
"Hopefully, given its marketability and the health benefits for mungbeans, there will be a growing global market for the crop.
"Prices are currently at $1200/t for Grade 1 and $1100 for Grade 2."
Mr Houghton said new varieties such as Opal-AU were offering more disease protection and it would be interesting to compare it with the more commonly-used, Jade.
Soybeans back south after hiatus
Soybeans have returned to the Riverina after a hiatus due to drought and low water allocations.
Tocumwal grower Allan Clarke, Delbie Park, last grew the crop in 2015 and decided to put in 35 hectares this year given the prediction of a wet summer.
"We put it in after cutting a grazing wheat crop for hay," Mr Clarke said.
"It's something you can double crop with, cut hay off a paddock and get the soybeans in and harvested without compromising your winter crops too much."
Mr Clarke also has rice in this year and lucerne and oaten hay, which they grow under pivot irrigation.
The soybeans were planted on November 25 onto a flood irrigation system and will likely be sold after the April harvest, into the human consumption market, Mr Clarke hoping for around $700 a tonne.
"They'll probably use seven to eight megalitres a hectare," Mr Clarke said.
"It was a bit of a punt putting them in, but because they were talking a wet summer I was thinking we might miss a couple of irrigations because of rain and the price of water might of come back.
"There's probably not going to be much in it if it ends up being a normal summer as we're paying a fair bit for water still."
Mr Clarke said he was interested in giving mungbeans a go in the future, their even shorter season allowing for double cropping after harvest.
"At the moment I'm relying on following a hay crop to get the timing right, but mungs could be put in after a grain harvest," Mr Clarke said.
But growers will be banking on a mild flowering for the crop to achieve its potential, not the 40-plus temperatures witnessed in the last week.
"People have planted at different times between December and mid-January so they're not on the one date, therefore if there is an issue with a hot week during flowering they spread their risk," Mr Houghton said.
