Australia: Frost, dry chop chunk from lentils, fabas

A series of frosts and ongoing dry weather over much of South Australia and Victoria may have wiped as much as 500,000 tonnes from the Australian lentil crop.

Yield potential for many southern faba bean crops has also been hit by frost.

The lack of a finishing rain for chickpeas is pulling the northern pulse’s yield potential back from above average to average in some cases, and harvest is under way.

Trade sources report production and quality concerns have tempered grower interest in forward selling, and prices are little changed from last month.

All prices are in Australian dollars unless stated otherwise.

Australia’s chickpea harvest has started at the few North Queensland properties where they are grown.

In Central Queensland, some growers have made a start, and loads are starting to filter into receival sites.

At Gindie, south of Emerald, grower Gordon Staal has made a start on his earliest chickpea crops, which are likely to be downgraded due to rain on ripening pods.

They were sown on shallower soils, and around two weeks earlier than the bulk of the region’s crops, which were planted in late April and early May.

“We’ve made a start; early crops are weather-damaged, but the mid to late-season ones will be the better ones,” Mr Staal said.

This year, Mr Staal planted no wheat and around 1800ha of Kyabra chickpeas, and is expecting yields of 1.7t/ha on the early weather-damaged crops, and 2.5t/ha on his later-sown crops.

With 5000t of on-farm storage, Mr Staal will concentrate on getting the crop off and marketing it later, particularly if bulk-handling or packing sites are only taking in the top CHKP1 grade.

He said variable soil and different run-off rates make for a harvesting challenge “like two crops in one” where early-maturing pods are brittle, and later ones are tough.

Trade sources report some truck drivers are already booked to deliver chickpeas from Gindie and other CQ regions south of Emerald direct to port in Brisbane, where at least 500,000t is booked to load by late February, the expected cut-off to catch the tariff-free window in India.

The market is currently trading at $1060/t delivered Brisbane for new crop, or $1020/t to either bulk accumulation or container packing sites on the Darling Downs.

In southern Qld, independent agronomist Paul McIntosh said yield outlooks are variable, based largely on whether crops got good winter rain.

“That flat Downs country that had some moisture might be looking at 2t/ha, but on lighter soil, it might be less than 1t/ha,” Mr McIntosh said.

At Walgett, Outlook Ag agronomist Greg Rummery said the yield outlook without a finishing rain looks like 1.5-2t/ha.

“The chickpea harvest will start in early November, and we’ve love a rain as soon as possible ahead of that,” Mr Rummery said.

“We dodged frost last week that’s knocked the odd flower off, and we’ve got two 31-degree days coming.

“A fall of rain now would be nice.”

Chickpea prices are down around $40/t from the recent highs seen last month.

Trade sources say growers are unlikely to make further sales ahead of either a decent finishing rain, or a solid start to harvest due to minor concerns about yield, and major concerns about getting downgraded by rain at harvest.

Crops in central and northern NSW and southern Qld are generally looking at above-average yields for fabas, most of which are still flowering.

In parts of southern NSW and Vic, and much of SA, yield potential has been hit hard by frost, and many crops will now struggle to make average yields.

Because of their much greater biomass than lentils, anything less than a 20mm-plus rain would do little rebuild yields following losses of flowers and setting pods.

“Beans are really going to struggle in the current environment,” Pinion Advisory commodity risk manager Chris Heinjus said.

ABARES in early September revised up its forecast for new-crop lentils to 1.7 million tonnes (Mt), up around 100,000t from the previous estimate released in June.

Trade sources are now saying 1-1.2Mt seems more likely after successive frosts and ongoing dry conditions hit crops last week, and the weekend brought little to no rain.

However, some frost-hit lentil crops are already showing signs of new growth based on some light and patchy falls in recent days, and subsoil moisture.

Mr Heinjus said some lentil crops were being cut for hay due to poor yield prospects and quality concerns about what frost may have done to setting pods.

“Everything’s a bit challenging in South Australia, and that’s probably the understatement of the year,” Mr Heinjus said.

“A number of lentil crops haven’t even achieved canopy closure.”

Depending on topography and soil moisture, some of those crops exposed crops have dropped all their flowers, with spring frost coming on top of a year to date of decile zero to two rain for many growers.

“There’s no way you can quantify the loss occurred, but in my mind, it’s not insignificant.”

“It doesn’t matter what postcode you go into, there’s frost risk; we’re still within the window…for the next four to six weeks.”

Agronomists across southern NSW, Vic and SA are working with clients, and taking part in workshops, to help growers make assessments after what to do with their crops.

Options are to carry through to grain, cut for hay, or green or brown manure the crops to provide some groundcover ahead of summer.

Current-crop lentil prices have risen around $30/t delivered Wimmera packer to $800/t, and around $10/t more for new-crop in the December-January slot.

“Our frost has woken up the overseas market,” ETG pulse trader Todd Krahe said.

“We could have lost a third of the crop through frost and dry conditions.”

Mr Krahe said the precarious nature of the growing season has limited forward selling from the state.

“Growers have been very cautious this year; I’d say 90 percent of our (new-crop volume) is from the big commercial guys.

“Family farmers have been very cautious.”

That said, SA and Vic will still have plenty of lentils to load on to early shipments, with the Lower Eyre Peninsula in SA and Vic Wimmera faring the best in terms of yield outlook.

Mr Heinjus said the container trade may come alive to deal with a crop that is smaller than expected, and may require grading to remove off-spec lentils.

“We might not have the volume in the bulk market to do as much as we’d hoped; the question is: Do we do containers?

Frontier Farming research agronomist Jason Brand said the extent of frost damage is mixed, even within paddocks.

“Anything in flower got hit on sandy rises, and is trying to reflower,” Dr Brand said.

“Even 10mm of rain on some of these sands would get things going.”

“Areas where it’s dry, it’s next-level dry.”

Dr Brand said later crops in the southern Mallee and into the Wimmera may escape downgrading because small and frost-hit lentils might “get blown out back” of the header.

“In the north, where seed was developing, there might be more problems.”

Harvest in the northern Mallee is expected to start late next month, ahead of the Wimmera in November.

“The Wimmera could get away with it, but the frost will certainly thin the crop out.”

Dr Brand said some growers who are looking at cutting lentils at 2t/ha or less of hay might decide to carry through for grain, even if yields are only 500-750kg/ha.

“If you can nab that half or three-quarters of a tonne, you might break even on the crop.”

“It’s going to be absolute devastation for some, and a half-decent crop for others.

“We just can’t nab a rain; if we could, it would help a lot.”

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Tags: dry weather, yield, frosts, lentil, faba bean, pulse, Australia, harvest, Production, chickpeas, crop