Western Australia Department of Agriculture pulse researcher Mark Seymour said growers’ confidence in field peas had risen dramatically thanks to the standability of Kaspa which made for easier harvesting.

Mr Seymour said the benefits of profitability, wide suitability, sustainability, improved disease management and flexible harvesting should see growers seriously consider field pea in areas where lupins were not suitable. 

“There have been many years of trials and heartache but the production package and varieties now available to growers offer simplicity and reliability as never before,” Mr Seymour said.

“In particular, the erect growth habit of Kaspa at harvest has removed possibly the biggest obstacle to growing field peas and given growers an excellent legume option. 

“Kaspa has a substantially improved structure for harvesting compared with trailing varieties.  It not only stands better, but forms pods near the top of the plant and has a sugar pod trait that reduces pod shatter.”

Mr Seymour said it is likely fewer days were required to harvest Kaspa because it could be harvested for a longer period during the day compared with trailing varieties.

He said Kaspa could also be harvested above ground level, even when it had lodged.

“The combination of reduced lodging, good pod height and reduced pod shatter should result in lower yield losses in the paddock, a cleaner sample and less wear and tear on the harvester.”

Large scale field pea variety trials were sown at eight sites throughout the State in 2003 to evaluate yield and harvestability of Kaspa and other newer varieties using commercial machinery. 

More than 100 growers took the opportunity at various field days to make their own positive observations.

Mr Seymour said Kaspa performed extremely well and was the highest yielding variety at all sites where it was included. 

“The yield advantage of Kaspa was greatest at the southern sites at Scaddan and Borden, where it out-yielded the next best variety by 1.3 and1.1 tonnes per hectare respectively.  From these results, it is clear that Kaspa has a very high yield potential and handles poor weather at harvest extremely well,” Mr Seymour said. 

“Results of these trials along with observations and feed back from growers suggest that Kaspa will become a popular variety in WA.”

Kaspa is available exclusively through AWB Seeds and the SeedNet Partner network.

The Department of Agriculture with the support of the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Pulse Western Australia is committed to promoting the benefits of field peas in WA farming systems.

Table 1.            Yield (t/ha) of field pea varieties in large scale variety trials