A summer crop for winter
As soybean supply is running low, farmers are double-cropping varieties
FARMERS are fighting hard to bolster this year’s dwindling soybean production.
Drought conditions over the past 12-18 months have wreaked havoc with the $25 million sector — less than a third of the typical national crop has being harvested for 2019.
However, growers across the country have taken an innovative approach to boosting bean supply.
Far North Queensland farmer Maryann Salvetti has a winter soybean crop in the ground at the moment.
Her family has been farming soybeans for more than 20 years — it’s the first time a grower on the Atherton Tablelands, south west of Cairns, has trialled the winter crop.
“Most soybean are daylength sensitive … but there are some varieties we can double crop,” she said.
“On the Tablelands this is the first year we have done some trials to see if a winter crop is successful.
“But on the Burdekin, near Townsville, they do exceptionally well.
“So they plant them prior to the middle of July and harvest around November — the quality of the beans is very good and yields are very good.”
The biggest challenge Mrs Salvetti foresees wasn’t growing soybeans, but being able to harvest in the heart of their wet season.
On average, they receive more than 800mls of rainfall per year.
“I have been in North Queensland for over forty years, we have always had 100% allocation by the end of the year through our irrigation system up here, the Mareeba Dimbulah Irrigation Area.
“We have some years where the dam gets low, but by the following year it’s always full again.
“So we are very, very lucky.”
Their soils vary from richred volcanic, to heavy clay and in the southern area light sands.
“We have found soybeans grow in any soil, and they do well as long as they have the moisture and nutrients needed.”
In the meantime, food and drink producers competing for the scarce 2019 soybean crop have driven the price up, which has made soybeans more attractive for growers.
The tight supplies have also meant some processors have had to go offshore in order to keep supplying the Australian market, that’s according to Australian Oilseeds Federation CEO Nick Goddard.
“Its always unfortunate when we have to import products which we can normally supply locally, but this is an unprecedented time and it’s absolutely imperative that Australian soy food and drink manufacturers stay open for business and keep their brands on supermarket shelves.
“Inevitably, importing costs more, is more complex, has longer lead times and requires more on-site storage, but this is the short-term reality the industry is facing.”
He said Australian soybeans held a unique position on the market as they were non-GM and grown through both organic and conventional farming practices.
“This is a market position we want to protect, so there is a lot of effort throughout the supply chain to ensure we can retain this position,” he said.
The news of the shortage of soybeans in Australia comes at a time when the rest of the world is awash with the beans.
But that provides little comfort for the Australian industry.
The US is the largest global soybean producer, and the current US-China trade dispute has soybeans as one of the key products involved, leaving US farmers and traders with large stockpiles of beans.