Leading field crop breeder Australian Grain Technologies (AGT) has launched a resource to help farmers and agronomists make even more informed choices when it comes to what varieties to grow.
The first of its kind, the publication brings together many years of data collection by AGT’s team across Australia.
Covering major cereal crops wheat, barley and durum, and important grain legume lupin, the publication provides ratings, descriptions, and relative rankings between varieties on traits not usually provided by other industry parties.
Traits include plant height, coleoptile length, sprouting tolerance, and physical grain quality characteristics, amongst others.
AGT chief executive Haydn Kuchel says he is excited the AGT team is able to help fill this knowledge gap.
“Information on variety yield and resistance to major diseases is readily available, and the GRDC through the NVT system does a great job at collecting and disseminating that data,” Haydn says.
“However, typically there hasn’t been much information published on other traits that growers constantly ask us about, such as lodging tolerance,” he adds.
“Many of these traits have to be collected opportunistically, because they only happen under certain circumstances. When one of our team sees something happening in a trial, they score it.
“We’ve been collecting data for many years to use for our internal decision making, and we thought that the wider industry would benefit from the same information.
“Our in-house bioinformatics team has analysed close to 200,000 datapoints to provide, what we believe is the most comprehensive and robust dataset ever produced on these particular traits.”
Along with the standalone booklet, the new agronomic ratings will be found on AGT variety fact sheets alongside disease ratings and yield data, aiming to provide growers with a full picture of what to expect from a variety.
The publication was officially launched at AGT’s biennial National Conference in late July, and is live on the AGT website now.
Updated hard copies including new variety releases will be available from AGT staff throughout the coming spring field day season.
