He said the key came when advances in disease management meant he was confident enough to plant the beans early.

"The best results have definitely been when the beans have been planted early – and now we are happy enough to do that," Mr McInnes said.

"Previously, the disease pressures on the early-sown beans, with things like ascochyta and chocolate spot were just too great, so we put them in later, which we have found really limits the yields."

Mr McInnes, who farms with wife Julie, son Brad and brother Peter, said the soil type on his property, near the banks of the Hopkins River, made it particularly suited to pulses.

"We are in a unique little part of the Western District here - we have a lot of hilly, sandy loam, it is quite a lot lighter than other parts of the region."

He also said, with an average annual rainfall of 525mm, it did not constitute a real high rainfall zone.

"With the lighter ground, come spring, we often find there are moisture constraints," Mr McInnes said.

"There definitely is a long, cold winter, but it is nowhere near as wet as areas to the west towards Hamilton."

Mr McInnes said the farm had been producing lupins for some time, but said he hoped faba beans presented a better opportunity.

"I think beans could yield quite a bit better than the lupins and they also are better at fixing nitrogen."

He said lupins would continue to have a fit, as there were certain paddocks not suited to beans.

"We have found the beans just aren’t suited to our red ground, so we will stick with lupins there."

Over the years, he said lupins yielded up to 2.8 tonnes to the hectare, with an average around 2t/ha, while he was confident the beans would yield over 3t/ha.

Currently, prices are similar, with both being driven by stockfeed demand, but occasionally human consumption demand can push faba beans above lupin prices.