Lupins replace vital soil nitrogen on Gowers family farm at Carwarp in Victorian Mallee

A DECISION to plant lupins for the first time in a decade has paid off for a Mallee farming family.

Clay Gowers in his family's lupin crop near Carwarp

A DECISION to plant lupins for the first time in a decade has paid off for a Mallee farming family.

The crop of mandelup lupins, grown by the Gowers family at Carwarp, is already 60cm tall thanks to excellent opening rain.

Peter Gowers, who farms with his wife Norma, their children and his brother Trevor and his wife Judy, said they had decided to plant ­lupins to get more natural ­nitrogen into their soil.

“We were starting to hit the wall with cereal on cereal, and we felt we weren’t getting the yields we were before,” Mr Gowers said. “Buying artificial nitrogen is more and more unaffordable, so we have looked at different legumes, which gives us natural nitrogen for the next year’s crop.”

The family planted lupins more than 10 years ago but back then struggled to make money out of the crop, but Mr Gowers said they didn’t have much agronomic help like they do now.

This autumn’s rainfall created perfect conditions for the lupins to germinate and the crop is thriving.

“We had a lot of autumn rainfall, so we planted them early into lots of moisture,” he said. “We had 100mm in one rain in March and that set up the autumn really well.

“The lupins are looking really good, they are flowering and have some pods already.”

The Gowers have 400ha of ­lupins, 1000ha of vetch and the rest of their 7000ha crop is made up of canola, wheat and barley.

Mr Gowers said they were not too concerned about the impact of the predicted El Nino. “If its dries off in spring we are probably going to be able to grow a fairly good crop, but we will need some spring rain,” he said.