ATD Farming hopeful for Mungindi faba bean crops' potential

Drought gripped the ag-sector across the district and the town was left shattered after its supermarket and three other shops burnt down.

However, 2020 delivered a welcome reprieve in the form of bumper crops and 2021 is shaping up to be no different.

Nowhere is the excitement for the winter cropping season more evident than in the faba bean crops of the Greentree family on their property Quisisana on the Moree side of Mungindi.

Along with PBA Nanu and Warda faba beans, Sunmax, Suntop and Coolah wheat varieties and PBA Drummond and Hat Trick chickpea varieties will make up the remainder of the family company ATD Farming's cropping rotation, which includes 30 per cent legumes, 20pc long fallow and 50pc cereal.

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The company operates on seven properties in the area as well as some country near Walgett.

"We have about 800 hectares of faba beans in this year of the total area we are cropping, but we still have a lot of country under water," ATD Farming director Tom Greentree told The Land.

"You can never say it's too wet after four years of nothing, but as it was drying back we were planting and basically getting bogged all the time, but it's so much better than it has been the past few years.

"Last year, was probably our best year on record in mine and my father's farming careers, but this one is shaping up to be much the same.

"We've got the same sort of sub-soil moisture as last year and we're getting these regular rainfall events such as last week when we got 28mm."

In 2017 ATD Farming was able to harvest 2t/ha of chickpeas but wheat failed that year. By 2018 they were only able to harvest a cotton crop before going all of 2019 without a crop.

"In those years where were able to grow something, it would have only been 10pc of our entire operation, so not much," Mr Greentree said.

"To sum it up for those who are unsure of how much we need consecutive good years, last year was our best year on record and it has only managed to put a little bit of dirt in the bottom of the hole the drought dug for us.

"We're not near ground level yet, but last year certainly brought us back and with this year looking as good as it is we are full of hope because having back-to-back good years is pretty bloody crucial.

"I think one of the biggest things a good year can do is lift the spirits of the community because without a community like Mungindi, we'd be much the poorer."

The promising sub-soil moisture has filled Mr Greentree with confidence his operation can back up a successful winter harvest with a strong summer growing season.

"Over the past few years we have planted quite a few sorghum crops but not been able to harvest too many," he said. "The country around here is a lot flatter than say the Darling Downs or the Liverpool Plains, which means we don't often get some of the cooler airflow they get and we get long hot spells which can knock the sorghum around.

"However, we are finding the later planted cotton is going fairly well so I think we might keep sticking with that while it's working.

"In saying that, we will still plant some sorghum because of how saturated our sub-soil moisture is and you would think that if there was a year it would go well it would be this year."

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