BETTER understanding of wheat variety limits and seasonal wheat head emergence and flowering controls can assist growers in making valuable seeding decisions.
That's the message from LongReach Plant Breeders technical development manager Colin Edmondson, who will be at the Hart Field Day on Tuesday, September 21, to help break down the theory.
"Every season is different and we need clear 'gut feel' strategies on seeding time for different types of breaks so we can manage the risk on-farm to a level we are comfortable with," he said.
"While we have no idea what the speed of the season will be after establishing varieties, we can clearly identify risks we don't want to take at seeding, because they put all our eggs in one basket."
Colin will take growers through the genes that control wheat heading time, and how heading time is measured.
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"We measure actual heading time at different seeding times to check the real differences of varieties as we develop them," he said.
"These are phenology trials, and we know that temperature as well as day length are key environment controls that have a big influence on triggering heading.
"Changing seeding time will obviously change the typical environmental conditions that varieties will grow under."
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