A group of Australian farmers felt right at home during a visit this summer to Jason Russell’s eastern Linn County farm. In addition to seeing his typical Iowa crops of corn and soybeans, Russell walked his guests through an acre of chickpeas that he’s growing this season as an experiment.

“There’s a little disease out here. They said I should have used a seed treatment,” said Russell. “Otherwise, they said (the chickpeas) looked good.”

The seed for the chickpea experiment was planted in March when Russell took part in the...