Ruth Young introduces the pulse panel at the 2026 GRDC Perth Update: SA grower Barry Mudge, marketing specialist Peter Wilson, Qld, InterGrain’s Dr Dan Mullan, agronomist and Moora grower Erin Cahill, and agronomist Quenten Knight.

A LOOK at figures from Western Australia’s record harvest just gone of more than 27 million tonnes would indicate that the state’s growers held little interest in growing pulses.

According to Grain Industry Association of WA figures, lupins accounted for 905,000t and other pulses 120,000t collectively, compared with canola as WA’s No. 1 break crop on 4.37Mt.

However, the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s 2026 Perth Update gave considerable time to pulses in Monday’s Legumes and Pulses session, and Tuesday’s panel which asked Is there a future for pulses in WA?

Monday’s session heard from esteemed University of WA researcher Professor Kadambot Siddique about what has limited WA pulse area, UWA PhD candidate Chloe Rout on canola-lupin intercropping, and Grower Group Alliance’s Daniel Kidd on pulse development and extension.

The panel session brought grower, agronomic, and marketing experience to the fore, and was chaired by Calingiri grower Ruth Young, who with husband John is including lentils in their rotation.

“Why is it that pulses are suddenly all the talk in WA cropping circles,” Mrs Young asked in opening the session.

“Cropping rotations have narrowed, with legume pastures on the decline, along with increasing fertiliser costs and the push for greater sustainability, pulses are very much back on the agenda.

“The timing is right: we’ve got better varieties, we’re tackling soil acidity with lime and soil amelioration, and there are growers willing to push through the agronomic, harvesting, and marketing challenges to make a pulse phase very profitable in its own right.”

Valuable inclusion

The panel included experienced lentil grower Barry Mudge from Port Germein in South Australia, and WA agronomist and grower Erin Cahill from Moora in the central Wheatbelt.

“Will profitable pulses in WA be a game-changer? I think we all know the answer to that is clearly ‘yes’,” Mr Cahill said.

“It might be a slow burn to get there, but I think hopefully with the tools we’ve got available, that’s possible.”

Mr Cahill pointed to the need for a longer-term view when looking at both systems trials in WA, and on-farm results.

Moora grower and Agvivo agronomist Erin Cahill speaking in the pulse panel session at the 2026 Perth GRDC Update.

“Historically, people have viewed pulses and profit in one or two-year chunks, which I think is a pretty poor way to analyse the profitability of pulses and what they’re bringing to our rotations.

“When we began to view the rotation in four for our sandplain soils, and eight-year blocks for our better-type soils, we noticed ones that included a pulse had much better outcomes across that cycle.”

That included more profit and less risk, and enhancing “top-end yields” in the rotation, with  lupins traditionally the most common northern pulse, as well as field peas and lately lentils.

“I’ve seen this in my client group across a broad area.

“I think the big game-changer for pulses in general has been the amount of liming and soil amelioration.”

Mr Cahill said that was promoting better crop establishment from dry sowing when compared to results of 10-15 years ago, and rhizobium survival has “improved out of sight” as soils have become less acid.

“It’s no secret that canola and cereal yields have gone through the roof, but when you actually analyse the pulse yields in the last 10 years…it’s not uncommon now to see three and four-tonne lupin crops on high-rainfall sandplain, and that’s more consistent.

“Probably, 10 or 15 years ago, it rarely happened.”

“It’s not just about the N benefits; everyone focuses on pulse with N; we’ve all pushed crops really really hard with high rates of bagged N.

“I’ve never been shy about spending money on N, but we’ve never got the same results out of bagged nitrogen as what we’ve got following a pulse.

“I think part of that is the reduction of things like root-lesion nematode.”

Mr Cahill said tight wheat-canola or barley-canola rotations in his area have seen the RLN populations build up.

“Now, unfortunately, we’re reaping the outcomes of that, so getting a good pulse in to break that up is having a big effect.”

Mr Cahill said adding pulses to rotations has also widened the planting and harvesting windows, and herbicide choices, although plantback restrictions need to be considered with regard to some chemicals.

On disease, Mr Cahill said he thought sclerotinia would be as big a problem in the north as ascochyta and botrytis grey mould.

“We already have to manage sclerotinia aggressively in canola and lupins, and…what I learned last year is that lentils will be very much the same.”

Volatile pricing unavoidable

The panel, and questions from the floor, addressed the topic of volatile pricing, an issue which has not dented Mr Cahill’s enthusiasm for them as an inclusion in the rotation.

“Lentils were highly profitable in 2024 at $925 a tonne, and they were less profitable but still very profitable in 2025 at $650,” Mr Cahill said.

SA grower Barry Mudge, Port Germein, speaking in the pulse panel session at the 2026 GRDC Perth Update.

Mr Mudge added lentils to his wheat-pasture legume rotation in the early 2000s to supplement the cereal and sheep income.

“Agronomically, it was terribly sound, but it’s very hard to make money out of it; when we have a good season, we need to kill the pig,” Mr Mudge said.

Lentils have allowed him to do that, and astute marketing has helped.

“Six hundred dollars a tonne for lentils doesn’t bother me; wheat at $300 a tonne does; my advice: you have to have storage.”

Pulse marketing veteran Peter Wilson said growers have “to learn to love volatility” as part of growing pulses, and storage can make that volatility work for the grower.

“Some of the trade aren’t happy about farmers storing grain; they’d rather they dropped everything at harvest time,” Mr Wilson said.

Equally, growers are not happy about tariffs, particularly with regard to India, but Mr Wilson said on-farm storage has been the counter to that from growers east of WA.

Case for better genetics

Coorow grower Rod Birch, Catalina Farms, and Peter Wilson, who spoke about pulse markets in the pulse panel session at the 2026 GRDC Perth Update.

On the breeding front, InterGrain chief operations officer Dan Mullan put forward the case of improved genetics.

He said while some WA growers have made pulses work in their systems, “they’re struggling…across large areas of Western Australia”.

With relatively small breeding programs compared with cereals and canola, this is hardly surprising.

“It means there is greater potential there for increased genetic gains over time if we start to invest into improving those aspects,” Dr Mullan said.

“If we’re to spread our breeding efforts too thinly, with too generalised goals, Western Australian growers will really just have to rely on adaptation of bred varieties, not the design of those varieties for WA conditions.”

InterGrain is jointly owned by GRDC and the WA Government, and its wheat and barley varieties particularly have led to significant production gains for WA growers.

“From a breeding perspective, treating WA as a primary target environment…is going to be so critical; that will enable those compounding gains, not just incremental changes.

“We’ve got to be able to come together with researchers, breeders, all the way through the industry in order to bring it all together in concert…so that any gains on the genetic side can be realised in the paddock.”

Kalangiri grower Ruth Young chaired the pulse panel session, and is pictured with Victorian grower Julia Hausler.

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