Pulses: putting life into the farming system

Summary

An insight from growers who are making pulses work.

Pulses are valuable break crops in all Australian cropping systems, and their role has increased in importance over the past 50 years as cropping programs intensify. Farming systems in southern NSW are unique, having evolved on acidic soils under a ley-farming system involving pastures, livestock and cereals. Recently, they have moved to more intense cropping, focusing on sequences of cereals, oilseeds and pulses.

Contents include:

• Pulses in the farming system
  • opportunities for weed management
  • pulse inoculation
  • nitrogen fixation
  • assessing nodulation
• Case studies
  • Drew farming
  • Graham farming
  • Eckermann farming
  • Scholz farming
  • Schirmer farming