William Farrer Medal goes to Professor Richard Trethowan

However, the William Farrer Medal is not one of them.

Farrer was Australia's first incredibly important wheat breeder.

His development saw the release of the variety federation, first available to farmers in 1903, which combined attributes like best rust resistance known in that period, best yield, good agronomic type and good quality.

Federation quickly became the dominant Australian variety which resulted in a trebling of the nation's wheat harvest over a period of 20 years and remained the leading variety until at least 1925.

An award in his name is fitting for well-chosen leading Australia agriculturalists.

This past year's winner of the William Farrer Medal, Professor Richard Trethowan, is a leading researcher I admire for his enormous enthusiasm and achievements in bettering the wheat industry.

I have fortunately been associated with Professor Trethowan for many years, especially with his research and leadership of various programs at the Narrabri I.A. Watson Wheat Research Institute.

The Narrabri research centre, owned by NSW Farmers, administered via the Wheat Research Foundation, has been the centre for development and release of leading Australian wheat varieties - as well as varieties of other crops - and associated agronomic research for over 60 years.

Many famous breeders and researchers have led Sydney University's research at the centre.

Professor Trethowan is involved not just in Australian research but in collaboration with many international programs.

His colleagues note he has been a major player in the release of 45 wheat varieties.

Some of these have also been in countries other than Australia. In addition, his colleagues report more than 150 wheat cultivars have been released globally containing one or more parents from his research.

A major part of Professor Trethowan's current research is developing cost effective hybrid wheat varieties.

While their release is still a few years away, his team - involving international collaborators - has developed technology that promises cost-effective seed combining with superior-yielding hybrids.

Hybrid wheat varieties were first developed in Australia by another outstanding wheat breeder, Tamworth-based Peter Wilson, working with Cargil Seeds then SunPrime Seeds (more recently merged into Australian Grain Technologies).

Excellent hybrid varieties like mercury and meteor were released in the 1990s and grown successfully.

However, seed production costs were high and yield gains were not high enough to progress the business.

Professor Trethowan and colleagues are involved in more recently developed cereal grain hybrid technology that promises to provide hybrid seed more economically.

In addition, their world-based program is confident of achieving yield increases above conventional varieties of 20 per cent or higher.

While the University of Sydney is no longer a wheat-breeding organisation as such, it has a major research role in developing and delivering technology, such as improved disease resistance and delivering these in lines with good yield, quality and agronomic type, to breeding companies.

Professor Trethowan is also leading research seeking not just higher yield, like the hybrid program, but also better drought tolerance, greater heat tolerance as well as improved quality.

He highlights that it will be faster to introduce genes with these new attributes, like greater heat tolerance, into hybrids than conventional varieties.

And the new hybrid technology is also practical for other cereals like barley.

Professor Trethowan's leadership also covers areas such as greater disease resistant chickpeas, improved faba beans, lentils, and improved heat as well as cold tolerance of chickpeas.

Research, which he leads, also cooperates with many private and public research bodies. His role also includes training future researchers. For example, he supervises PhD students.

High quality research is a critical part of Australian farming success.

Next week: African lovegrass eradification and management.