The good news is that northern New South Wales (NSW) and southern Queensland have their first, specifically adapted faba bean variety, with improved rust resistance, seed size and appearance to increase its market appeal.

The better news is that there are even more promising varieties in the pipeline, with chocolate spot resistance topping up varietal packages that already include rust and frost resistance, seed quality and the earlier flowering that helps increase yield.

They¹re the grower dividends from the NSW Agriculture faba bean breeding program, based at the Australian Cotton Research Institute at Narrabri and supported by Grains Research & Development Corporation investments of some $340,000 a year until 2007.

The new variety, to be launched by NSW Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Ian MacDonald at Corie Piper¹s Wee Waa property, Auburn, next week, has a combination of yield, seed size and disease resistance "significantly better than the varieties currently available to growers in the northern region," according to breeder Ian Rose.

"It is a likely replacement for all the current commercial faba bean varieties notably Fiord and Barkool in areas from the Macquarie Valley of NSW north to southern Queensland," Dr Rose said.

"And best management faba bean packages developed for Fiord and Barkool can be applied directly to the new variety, with no changes to seedbed preparation, herbicide use, planting date, plant population, row spacing, fertiliser requirements, water use and insect management.

"Farmers won¹t need to adjust current agronomic management practices, other than re-setting seeding rates to allow for improved seed size."

Dr Rose says that, while the new faba bean is a step forward from current varieties, it will be replaced in a few years by varieties with even better adaptation.

The longer term will see continued improvement in yield, seed quality and disease resistance, with the early flowering characteristic a key factor in increasing yield.

"Faba beans mature very quickly in the northern region, as soon as temperatures started to warm up," Dr Rose says.

"We couldn¹t do anything about that, but we could increase the period of pod fill by getting the plants to start flowering 10 to 15 days earlier.

"The new variety is moderately resistant to rust more than the susceptible varieties Fiord, Barkool and Fiesta and this resistance will provide adequate control of rust in most situations.

"In the most severe epidemics its level of resistance will reduce but not eliminate the need to spray for rust. In ordinary seasons, fungicide applications will only be required to control chocolate spot, as outlined in the current best practice disease management strategies."

Mr Rose said Graintrust would be responsible for commercialisation of the new faba bean variety. Pulse Australia would have a new Best Management Practice brochure available at the variety launch.