Farmers put their faith in lentils

Farmers are putting their faith in lentils with the area planted in Victoria expanding 79 per cent.

Farmers are putting their faith in lentils with the area planted in Victoria expanding 79 per cent.

The figures in the latest Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences crop report indicates that farmers will grow 400,000 hectares of lentils, which is an exponential surge from the baseline 10-year average.

Lentils are trending at $970 a tonne at port in Victoria and last week they were as high as $1000 a tonne. In contrast, competing rotational crop canola is making $682 a tonne at port in Victoria this week compared to $707 a tonne last week.

The report stated that lentils were favoured due to the high prices, which were forecast to continue into 2024 and 2025.

Meanwhile, the trend nationally for lentil production is 1.6 million tonnes, which is more than double the 10-year average of the crop.

Rick Plant, with his lentils at Manangatang, Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Manangatang farmer Rick Plant has increased the area sown to lentils on his property by about 20 per cent this year.

He said lentils were popular because of a combination of factors.

“They are good in the rotation for weed control, they help with nitrogen reserves, and the prices are good too,” he said.

Mr Plant said he also expected lentil crops to reasonably handle the late seasonal break that was prevalent in cropping districts this year.

“We have had around 11mm to 12mm of rain this week, and we really need more to get things up and going,” he said.

Mr Plant has been growing lentils for around eight years. He also grows wheat, barley and vetch in the winter cropping program.

Rupanyup farmer Andrew Weidemann said the trend towards lentils was also evident as growers opted out of canola.

“The shape of the season and the dry start means people have walked away from canola,” he said.

“I know of people who have taken (canola) seed back,” he said.

Mr Weidemann said historically the price of lentils had been high and there were indications the prices would continue to be solid.

“Clearly, lentils are performing quite well in the drier seasons, too,” he said.

Mr Weidemann said he had increased lentil planting this year in his operation and was also growing wheat, barley, canola and beans.

Meanwhile, the crop report tipped the area of canola sown nationally to fall 9 per cent to 3.2 million hectares. The report stated Victorian growers planted 5 per cent less canola with an area of 520,000ha.

Nationally, the entire winter crop was expected to stay strong, with farmers planting 23.6 million hectares. And summer crop production was forecast at 4.6 million tonnes.