A PADDOCK at Giffard, south of Sale, drew plenty of interest from farmers across Gippsland last month, thanks to its standing crop of faba beans looking remarkably healthy and in flower.
Faba beans have been grown for thousands of years. They’re a terrific source or protein for livestock, are extremely stable for fodder storage and are a great rotation or renovation crop.
The paddock is owned by the Anderson family. Trent Anderson told the Gippsland Times it was mostly just the faba beans in the paddock, but he also grows a mix of canola, wheat, barley and maize.
“It’s a new crop to us, growing beans here by the beach to see if we’re doing things right or wrong,” Mr Anderson said.
Mr Anderson has been growing faba beans for a couple of years, and has been cropping for over 20 years.
“I’m new to beans. Had tried to grow them several years ago and they completely failed,” he said.
Thanks to deep ripping, he’s been able to grow them and it’s now flourished. It’s a lower cost crop to grow, compared to canola, he used as an example.
Harvey Ryan works as a farm hand, and he says the faba beans are comparatively “much easier” to maintain than other crops.
“There’s only two or three passes a year for the beans. It’s a very low-input crop,” Mr Ryan said.
Asked about the economics of growing faba beans, Mr Anderson said, “like everything, it varies from year to year”.
“(This year is) looking very good. Last year was a disaster…we had drought ravaged crops to start with and then got them all destroyed by insane amounts of rain.”
But he believed the future would be very positive for this crop.
“Faba beans give us good weed control and a very good food source for livestock,” he said.
“Currently, most of the faba beans for livestock are trucked in (from) north of the state.”
Why throw a house party when you can have a ute drive instead? Who needs music when you have nitrogen fixing superstar beans?
Mr Anderson invited farmers to park their vehicles near his crops. He showed the crowd of about 10 farmers each of the five plots in the demonstration.
“The beans create free nitrogen, or cheap urea in the soil,” Mr Anderson said.
“When we harvest the beans, they’ll be used to feed sheep, and we’ll also run mobs of sheep on the stubble.”
The paddock was turned into a demonstration plot in autumn, 2023, as part of a broader Meat and Livestock Australia sub-soil amelioration demonstration, titled Unlocking Red Gum Plains Soil Capacity, with the project managed by Gippsland Agricultural Group (GAgG).
Amelioration – the process of digging down into the soil layers to allow another material in, such as chicken litter – sounds complicated but is a simple premise.
There are five treatments: on one, chicken litter, at the rate of 10 tonnes to the hectare, was broadcast across one plot, and another plot is the control.
The third plot had 10t/ha of chicken litter ameliorated to a depth of 25 to 30 centimetres.
According to the yield results from the barley crop sown in 2023, the best yield was gained from the 10t/ha broadcast chicken litter at 2.81t/ha, whereas the ameliorated chicken litter was close behind at 2.5t/ha and the control at 2.48t/ha.
Faba beans were chosen as a break crop between cereal crops for their robust nature for harvesting, in turn creating a larger harvest window.
They also cost less per hectare to grow but the only real way to gauge the results will be at harvest time.
The soil type is understandably light and sandy, considering the ocean can be heard while standing in the paddock, however Mr Anderson says at about 30cm it turns to clay.
The fourth and fifth plots are where he decided, after seeing the results of the barley crop, to deep rip the country to 45cm, using tyne spacings of 75cm.
One plot is just deep ripped and the last was spread with chicken litter at 10t/ha, then deep ripped, in order to get the ameliorant in more deeply and break up the clay layer.
“We have about six inches of topsoil,” Mr Anderson said.
“In some places it’s only four inches. We’re replicating what other people are farming on by making ours deeper.
“There’s a horrible layer of dirt there, it’s 10 per cent sodium, I suspected we had an issue on that clay layer.
“The best way to get rid of that is deep ripping, and that’s how we’ve mixed it into the soil profile.
“It’s made one hell of a difference.”
As part of the demonstration there are also paddocks at Flynn and Winnindoo undertaking the same treatments, as well as a five-treatment demonstration plot at the Gippsland Agricultural Group’s (GAgG) Gippsland Research Farm near Bairnsdale.
GAgG is a volunteer organisation that carries out relevant research trials and demonstrations to benefit the farmers in Gippsland.
“On our particular soil type, those high magnesium and high sodic layers, where we can break them up, we get a much better response,” Mr Anderson said.
“I really think we’re starting to unlock the soil’s potential.”
GAgG chief executive Trevor Caithness said Meat and Livestock Australia had provided colossal support for the region.
“This project is fascinating and almost gaining us more questions than answers at this point,” he said.
“The amelioration has definitely improved the soil structure and appears to be increasing the water holding capacity at depth, as well as the rooting depth.
“There’s a more robust root system underneath, the amelioration technique is allowing plants to become more drought tolerant with that root system.
“It will be interesting to see what happens in a few years’ time.”
Mr Caithness said deep ripping was usually completed in autumn, but a wet winter often ruined the rip lines.
“Perhaps the deep ripping should take place in early spring when there is less chance of waterlogging,” he said.
Of his farm’s carrying capacity, Mr Anderson said “we wring its neck” of the total 2185ha, there are 900ha of harvestable crop, plus 500 breeding cows and 4500 ewes, plus replacements.
“Cattle are the most profitable when it’s raining but we find the three enterprises works,” he said.
“We have stock grazing stubble six to seven months of the year.
“Everything complements the system.”
Mr Caithness highlighted how it had appeared too difficult to grow faba beans in this particular area of Gippsland, but this particular farm at Giffard had successfully pulled it off. Mr Caithness hailed faba beans as one of the best crops in the country, praising its evenness.
“Faba beans are one of the most high protein foodstuff for either human consumption or animal consumption,” Mr Caithness said.
“Being in excess of 30 per cent protein, there’s a huge market for them…they are sold into snack food markets and overseas markets.
“And there’s a huge market for them just for feeding livestock, for sheep and cattle predominantly.”
