Early Sowing in a Tough Season: What 2025 Taught Us About Lentil and Faba Bean | Early sowing under the toughest conditions
Every season teaches us something, but the 2025 season delivered lessons few growers will forget. Across South Australia’s low rainfall environments, delayed opening rains, prolonged dry conditions and significant wind erosion created an extreme test for pulse crops. Through trials at Lameroo, Waikerie and Appila, MSF in collaboration with Trengrove Consulting, investigated whether early sowing could improve productivity and where the risks begin to outweigh the rewards.
Why investigate early sowing?
Interest in early sowing continues to grow as producers look to maximise growing season length, improve flowering timing, and better utilise stored soil moisture. Previous research has demonstrated benefits, particularly for faba bean, but less is known about performance across a range of lower rainfall environments.
A season that tested every assumption
All three trial sites experienced exceptionally dry starts to the 2025 season. Supplementary irrigation was required to establish early sowing treatments, but meaningful follow-up rainfall did not arrive for an extended period. Lameroo and Waikerie also experienced severe wind erosion, placing additional pressure on crop establishment and survival.
What the trials revealed
The clearest result came from Lameroo where early-sown faba bean produced a 29% grain yield advantage over district practice sowing. Lentil responded very differently. At Lameroo, early sowing reduced lentil grain yield by around 30%, while at Appila the early sowing timing yielded 71% less than the second sowing date. These contrasting responses reinforce that crop choice is a critical part of any early sowing strategy.
What does this mean for growers?
The strongest message from the project is that successful early sowing is about much more than sowing date. Crop choice, stored soil moisture, seasonal outlook and plant survival all influence final outcomes. Rather than asking whether early sowing works, growers should ask under what conditions it is most likely to succeed.
Looking ahead to 2026 and Future Seasons
The project will continue through 2026 to further refine recommendations for low rainfall environments. Growers are encouraged to match sowing decisions to available soil moisture, consider crop choice carefully and use small-scale strip trials to test new approaches under local conditions.
🔍 Find out more about Early Sown Pulses for Low Rainfall SA
