9 July 2024. Paul McIntosh, Pulse Australia and WeedSmart.
The much-needed rain event has occurred over a large area of Queensland and here we are in early July, the questions are raining on me about “is it too late to plant our favourite pulse crop Chickpeas?”
My answer is no, it is not too late to plant a chickpea crop and history. My extensive experience supports this claim. Add in the fact that our major export market is open for business with the 68% tariff reduction giving us buoyant commodity prices, until at least March 30th, 2025, are solid economic reasons supporting my positive yes to a planting response.
Predicting your own weather events for next few months is still going to be a challenge for any cropping endeavour, so no sense going there.
So, what are my reasons and facts for advocating that is not too late to plant chickpeas?
Firstly, the improved soil moisture levels and both central Qld and Southern Qld are generally full enough to consider this current planting opportunity.
Secondly, over the last few years, we have planted many hectares of winter cereal crops like wheat or barley for high priced marketing opportunities. So, our paddocks need a rotation or cropping sequence change for cereal crops buildup of disease implications and that indicates a profitable pulse crop like chickpeas.
My third reason is recent history of mid-winter rain events like 2016, where large areas of the Darling Downs and Central Queensland received significant amounts of July rain resulting in a record crop and record incomes for most pulse growers as well. Add to this, my own personal experiences over a few decades, where farmers have planted July chickpea crops and they yielded well over the 3.0 tonne per hectare. Very rewarding financially those crops were.
What about agronomically? True we can get diseases like Ascochyta Blight (AB) from seedling emergence time or Botrytis Grey Mould (BGM) in a warm and wet springtime, however good disease resistance strategies and timely fungicide applications can limit these foliar problems.
How about the warmer conditions in the reproduction stages for our spring and early summertime?
We need about 2200-day degrees from planting to physiological maturity in chicks, which means the hotter it is, the quicker they grow. As far as temperatures in the flowering and pod production, then most of our current varieties like Drummond and others are specifically bred for our warmer northern region. I have perused over many different research trials relating to max and min temperatures looking at pollen viability, pollen germination, the pollen tube length, the stigma receptivity and finally pod set. Utopia is basically 20 to 30 degrees C for growing the entire chickpea crop, which is very much like our winter cereals. Temperatures in the maximums of 45 to a 35 degrees C mins, can really hammer everything from biomass production to yield loss of up to 50 to 70 percent.
With my statement about dubious weather predictions in the later part of this year, I still believe chickpeas are a very useful option for this July planting occasion and to cap it off, I have not seen any Fall Armyworms in Chickpeas.
Do I add the yet here, as FAW seem to be ruling a lot of our cropping decisions and time of sowing these days.
My last thought is on my weeds subject and our chickpea crops have residual herbicide options, that can really control tough weeds like Feather Top Rhodes, Fleabane and Sowthistle plus many more over the coming months.
I suggest doing your own homework on all these parameters, for your current possible winter planting options.
That’s all folks.
Rainfed Chickpea crop in mid-September in South Queensland.