CENTRAL Queensland chickpea growers can take advantage of a new, high-yielding, early-flowering variety bred specifically for them in winter 2012 - as long as Ian and Gail Buss are able to harvest the crop of Pistol planted on their Golden Triangle property.
The couple are the only growers multiplying the new variety and while the crop is looking spectacular, they are nervous that the rain which ruined winter crops last year might repeat.
Should they successfully harvest the crop, they will wholesale the Pulse Breeding Australia desi chickpea variety through their company, Galleon Grains.
The 2010 winter season was disastrous for the couple, who farm the 4200-hectare Baamba Plains, Orion.
They planted seven tonnes of seed into 80ha for a return of 180t last year, however after 420mm of rain in September the seed they harvested was badly sprouted and came back with terrible germination and vigour test results.
The couple also had a downgraded wheat crop and lost nearly all their commercial chickpeas in 2010.
With germination rates on the final Pistol seed generally between 35-42 per cent, the couple were so worried about how it would fare they planted this year's crop at an extraordinary rate of 180kg/ha into 520ha.
Just to be on the safe side they have saved five bags of last year's seed, in case they are unable to harvest this year's crop.
Pistol has been bred specifically for Central Queensland growers so while it is high yielding, it is highly susceptible to aschochyta blight.
"As long as we can keep our country up here aschochyta free then we will get the benefit of the higher yields as opposed to the aschochyta-resistant types," Mrs Buss said.
The Buss' crop was planted on about 45mm of rain and a full subsoil moisture profile in the first week of June but has only received about 15mm of in-crop rainfall.
Mr Buss said their crop of dryland Pistol, which they will start harvesting during October, was on track to yield between 1.8-2t/ha.
He was amazed with how well it responded, given the low germination and vigour results.
"We've got a good population of between 250,000-300,000 plants per hectare. Pistol is an extremely vigorous plant," he said.
"Most chickpeas germinate and then they have a time when they do nothing. They just sit there. But Pistol comes out of the ground and it just keeps on growing. It doesn't stop."
Mrs Buss said the seed would be available to growers about March 2012.
"It will be graded (at Baamba Plains) and then from here it will be wholesaled to the resellers," she said.
She said rain at this stage of the crop would be disastrous.
"We've got to beat the rain - we don't want anything now," she said.
"It would be catastrophic if we saw a repeat of last year where we saw rain in October."
