Tweed canefarmer Mark North explains the benefits of the bedformer he and a group os growers had constructed for planting soybeans on raised beds.

Raised beds are emerging as an important platform for successfully including soybeans as a rotational crop on North Coast canefarms.

Tweed canefarmer Mark North outlined the benefits of a bed-former implement to about 60 farmers at a North Coast soybean field day held last month at NSW DPI’s Grafton research station.

'We used to lose four crops out of five to wet weather but since introducing the raised beds about four years ago we haven’t lost a crop,' Mr North said.

'Even in the recent flood rains the beans were up and dry - not sitting in hot water and dying as they once used to.'

Mr North said the bedformer, which he and a group of local canefarmers had constructed, produced a small bed 100 to 125 millimetres high in spacings to match the cane harvester’s controlled traffic system.

NSW DPI research agronomist Natalie Moore said the introduction of soybeans as a rotational crop benefited soil fertility and structure for the following canecrop, which could easily be planted into the soybean stubble without cultivation.

'Yields in the follow-up canecrop have been shown to increase by about 10 per cent after a soybean rotation,' she said.

'With more and more cane-farmers using this raised bed system for reliable soybean production, NSW DPI is looking at the specific agronomic advice needed, such as the best plant density on the narrow beds."

Ms Moore said growers who attended the field day also heard about potential new soybean varieties emerging for the North Coast from the National Soybean Improvement Program.

Ms Moore and NSW DPI soybean researchers at Narrabri have been particularly successful in the release of varieties that expand exciting new market opportunities and are well suited to the climate of the North Coast.

The two most recent releases, Surf and Cowrie, are the first clear-hilum soybean varieties suited for use in the higher-value tofu-soy milk market specifically released for the North Coast.

While the oilseed crushing market will accept all hilum colours, markets for soybeans for human consumption demand clear or light hilum types.

The North Coast varieties released so far by NSW DPI have included Nautilus in 1989, Dunein 1990, Manta in 1991, Trochusin 1994, Poseidon and Zeus in 1999, Cowrie in 2002 and Surf in 2004.

The adoption of these varieties by soybean growers on the North Coast has been very high.

Their success has come from improved suitability to the coastal environment, including acid soils; higher tolerance to wet weather damage to grain and improved yield, protein levels, seed size and other agronomic traits.

Contact: Natalie Moore, Grafton, (02) 6640 1600.

- PHIL BEVAN

This story appears in Agriculture Today.