Dr Lindsay Bell1, Dr Heather Pasley2, Ms Heidi Horan2, Dr James Nuttal3, Ms Audrey Delahunty3, Dr Marisa Collins4
1CSIRO, Toowoomba, Australia, 2CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia, 3Departiment of Environment and Primary Industries, Horsham, Australia, 4La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Lindsay Bell has a PhD from the University of Western Australia and has worked for CSIRO in farming systems research for 17 years. He has led field research and systems modelling focussed on crop-livestock integration, dual-purpose crops, grain legume agronomy, and crop system performance. He applies whole-of-system approaches to his research.
Abstract:
Mungbean is summer-growing grain legume used in subtropical systems but there is interest in its potential as an opportunity crop to utilise summer rainfall events in winter-dominated cropping systems of south-eastern Australia. We used APSIM to simulate the frequency that mungbeans, when used as an opportunity crop, could be sown, their potential productivity, impacts on subsequent crops and overall system returns across eight locations spanning different production environments in south-eastern Australia’s grain belt. We found that in lower rainfall environments mungbeans would only be sown after a winter cereal crop in < 20% of years and in most of these cases yields were < 0.5 t/ha. In cooler and higher rainfall environments of southern Victoria, there were many more opportunities to sow after winter cereals, and yield potential were higher but frequently this risked timely sowing and induced significant yield penalties in subsequent wheat crops. Mungbeans could be sown more regularly after windrowing canola, due to earlier sowing window, and this system generated the highest crop returns, but these extra crops rarely yielded > 0.5 t/ha. Across all environments, mungbeans could be sown regularly (65-90% of years) after early cutting of a winter cereal hay crop or a winter fallow, and yields > 0.5 t/ha were predicted in around 50% of years. Overall, this analysis shows potential for mungbean to be grown and generate viable yields in some seasons in south-eastern Australia, but this opportunity is not widespread and irregular. The greatest opportunities lie in the higher rainfall zone or in southern NSW, if mungbean can be sown early enough to avoid impacting on subsequent crops.