2025 Lentil Field Day | For the love of lentils!

Holy Barbara! If you want to draw a crowd, simply add ‘lentils’ to your menu.

And I’m not talking about adding a spicy dahl to the footy club lunch board – be sure to stand downwind from that crowd – I’m referring to the agronomics and economics of South Australia’s most popular (and sometimes fussy) legume.

On Wednesday 9 September, over 180 individuals flooded Polkinghorne’s shed at Lock to hear from researchers, agronomists and marketers, as AIR EP hosted the 2025 Lentil Field Day.

With input costs and land values sky rocketing since Covid, farming systems need to be more profitable than ever. So increasing the hectares we sow to high value crops, such as lentils, makes absolute sense right?!

But is there a risk of saturating the market that is deemed so lucrative?

Are farmers compromising ground cover or other aspects of the farming system, to get more lentils in the ground from one year to the next?

With a growing interest in lentils and increasing annual plantings—expected to reach 550,000–600,000 hectares in 2025—this event provided timely advice on how farmers can navigate the challenges and opportunities of this expanding crop.

Click HERE to read the complete article, including photo gallery, speaker list, key messages, tools and resources.

Stay tuned for our upcoming newsletter article providing ‘on row sowing’ tips from YP farmer Ben Wundersitz, Anna Binna.