VARIETY choice is one of the factors crucial to growers making the most of their paddock potential.
With this in mind, the Southern Australian Durum Growers Association expanded their South East crop walk this year to include a sticky-beak at other crops and the potential in new varieties.
The event was held on Wednesday last week and covered trials at Bordertown, Wolseley and Kaniva, Vic.
SARDI new variety agronomy researcher Amanda Pearce walked growers through crops of interest in the New Variety Trials at Kaniva.
She said Spartacus was a new barley from Intergrain.
“It’s a Clearfield variety, seen as a replacement for Scope,” she said.
“At the moment it’s feed quality, but some people are still using it to to get good grass control. It’s going through malting accreditation, but it will be 2018 at the earliest before it’s granted.”
Compass was another barley that was only likely to receive malting accreditation in 2018 at the earliest.
“There is a lot of people growing Compass barley, but it has fallen down a bit this season, particularly with earlier sowing,” she said.
Ms Pearce said Westminster barley was a malt barley variety that should have a good fit in the SE.
“It’s very relevant to SE growers, because it stands up well in this area,” she said.
Westminster is a high yielding, mid- to late-maturing variety with improved shattering tolerance compared to the variety Gairdner.
It also has excellent foliar disease resistance, coupled with good resistance to black point, but it is susceptible to spot form of net blotch.
Ms Pearce said Rosalind barley was another variety that could have a good fit in SE rotations.
“Rosalind is a new line and its parents are Commander and Hindmarsh,” she said.
“It’s feed quality and has been evaluated in trials since 2014. There’s been issues with smut in some trials but it’s looking good here in Kaniva. It has useful resistance to net form net blotch, leaf scald and powdery mildew.”
Rosalind also has useful resistance to cereal cyst nematode and leaf rust, but it has some susceptibility to spot form net blotch.
Looking at wheat, Ms Pearce said Sceptre was showing a yield increase compared to Mace – the most widely grown wheat in SA. It also offered improved rust resistance compared to Mace. Beckom was a wheat that was not widely grown, but could have a good fit in the SE.
“It’s a mid season, Australian Hard quality wheat,” Ms Pearce said.
“It has good rust resistance, along with boron and acidic soil tolerance.
“It’s seen as a good replacement for Derrimut.”
Kaniva grower Alwyn Dyer was very happy with the variety, particularly as there was no need to spray for rust.
