“AGT is proud to be bringing this technology to growers in Australia,” said AGT head of science and business development, Dr Tristan Coram.
“We are especially happy that Australian barley growers will be the first in the world to take advantage of the benefits of CoAXium barley with Titan AX.”
In May, AGT announced a partnership with Albaugh LLC and Sipcam Australia to launch the CoAXium Barley Production System, involving Aggressor herbicide and tolerant barley varieties.
The system offers growers a new tool for control of tough annual grass weeds, including brome grass, barley grass, wild oats, susceptible ryegrass, and ALS (Group 2) resistant weeds.
Dr Coram said the system provides more crop rotation freedom due to lack of soil residue, offering an alternative to Clearfield technology. Importantly, Aggressor herbicide applied according to the label will not result in residues in barley grain, therefore no market access issues have been identified.
He said AGT testing of this technology, discovered over a decade ago, has demonstrated excellent crop safety and performance across a range of environments.
To support this new technology, a new website has been launched: www.coaxium.com.au which includes details of the CoAXium barley stewardship guidelines that all users of this technology will need to be aware of.
Titan AX is agronomically similar to the popular variety ‘Compass’ according to AGT barley breeder, Paul Telfer.
“It’s a plant type that particularly lends itself to low-medium or ‘Mallee style’ environments where early vigour and longer straw is preferred, and where lodging is less of an issue.
“However, our data suggests that Titan AX performs consistently well across a range of growing conditions and therefore should be a suitable option for all growers that see value in tolerance to Aggressor herbicide,” Mr Telfer said.
Titan AX will be initially released as a barley/feed grade variety, however AGT expect to nominate Titan AX as a malt quality candidate with Barley Australia in 2023.
Titan AX is now available through AGT Affiliates and local retailers for the 2023 season.
