Some of the most valuable information in the recently released NSW Department of Primary Industries Winter Crop Variety Sowing Guide booklet is not just new variety details, but how they have performed in independent variety trials.
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Mainly new varieties have several years of trial data that supports their release and testifies that breeders are consistently developing varieties that yield higher compared to past generation ones.
Often new releases, in the many winter crops, also have other attributes such as improved quality and disease resistance.
While farming decisions are already made for varieties to be sown, or already are sown, for 2024, most sowings next year will be of varieties detailed in the publication. Certainly more new releases will occur for 2025 sowing, but first year of release is commonly more for seed increase for future years.
Barley has three new releases for 2024 and beyond. Neo CL, an IMI-herbicide tolerant variety, from limited testing averages around 15 percent higher than high yielding variety LaTrobe. Neo CL is mid-maturing, suited to medium high rainfall areas, has medium plant height, good tolerance to lodging, good grain retention, tolerance to head loss and has been accepted into the Grains Australia malt accreditation program.
Newton is the first release of a winter habit barley since Urambie and is suitable for grazing and grain and is likely to suit many dual purpose farms. Its growth pattern is between winter wheats Wedgetail and DS Bennett, and suits medium to high rainfall areas.
Like many barley varieties it has competitive plant type and high tillering ability. Spinnaker, the third new barley, especially in northern NSW independent trials, has yielded around 18 per cent higher than La Trobe. It is an early to mid-maturing type suited for medium rainfall environments and has improved physical grain quality plus low risk for both lodging and head loss.
Ten new spring milling wheat varieties were released for 2024 and beyond. These include Genie, Intrigue, Jumbuck, Leverage, Major, Matador, Tracer, SEA Peel, Sundancer and Tomahawk CL Plus.
Two longer season wheats were released for higher rainfall production zones, Stockade and Longford. A specialist hay wheat, SEA Stockman, was released with a focus on northern NSW.
By way of example of higher yields expected from newer releases Leverage has, on limited independent GRDC NVT (National Variety Testing) assessment, yielded 12 to 16 percent (dependent on region) higher than once leading variety Gregory.
Leverage is APH quality (Australian Prime Hard), mid to slow-maturity suited to late April/early May sowings. Compared to previous commercial varieties in this maturity range Leverage offers higher yield, shorter plant type, improved stripe rust and yellow leaf spot resistance.
Major is a further higher yielding example. AH quality (Australian Hard) in southern NSW northern pending) it has yielded 15pc to 20pc better than Gregory in earlier sown trials, especially in southern NSW. It is a mid-slow maturing spring wheat suitable for early to mid-May sowing with a good disease package for southern NSW with improved Septoria resistance and strong yield performance in both acidic and sodic soil yield trials.
Jumbuck, also a slower maturing (mid slow-maturity) high yielding variety with limited independent NVT yield around 10pc to 14pc higher than Gregory. Classification is pending (potential AH) and suited to late April/early May sowings. Jumbuck exhibits excellent yield stability, has a medium plant height with good lodging tolerance.
Canola varieties change rapidly with 13 new releases for 2024. These include open pollinated lines, speciality type Monola hybrids, triazine tolerant imidazolinone (IMI) (Clearfield ) varieties, IMI + TT hybrid, Truflex hybrid, Truflex + LibertyLink Technology hybrid, and Optimum GLY Technology hybrid varieties. There is also a new Optimum GLY Technology + IMI (Clearfield ) hybrid variety.
A new field pea variety, APB Bondi, is a Kaspa-type with non-dimpled dun seed. There is one new lentil IMI (Group 2) herbicide tolerant small red seed variety, ALB Terrier.
Authors of the publication are NSW DPI specialists Peter Matthews, technical specialist grain services, Kathi Hertel, technical specialist pulses and oilseeds, and Leigh Jenkins, research and development agronomist.
Copies can be obtained via the NSW DPI internet, from agribusiness, or Local Land Services centres.
- Next week: Big crop yields, big nitrogen requirements.
- Bob Freebairn is an agricultural consultant based at Coonabarabran. Email robert.freebairn@bigpond.com or contact (0428) 752 149.
