In a season that hasn’t provided many growers in the Wimmera and Mallee with much to celebrate, a new wheat variety is showing promise.
The new variety, which was officially dubbed ‘Scepter’ by its breeders at Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), has been among the top performers in this year’s BCG wheat trials at Berriwillock, Horsham and Nhill.
Scepter is a potential new Mace replacement with expected improved stripe rust resistance. Being an early to mid maturing wheat, it’s suitability to season’s with little spring rainfall was evident in BCG trials, which typically saw the early to mid maturing lines out-yielding their longer-season counterparts at all sites.
However, despite being among the yield leaders in 2015, BCG research manager Claire Browne urged growers to view the results with caution.
“When considering a new variety it is recommended that results from a number of seasons are looked at before making a decision,” she said.
“Sometimes a variety will do quite well one year but the result will not be replicated in other seasons.”
On a whole, yields recorded from BCG wheat variety trials were relatively low, reflective of both the region and the season.
At the Horsham site, which received a measly 188mm of growing season rain, wheat trials yielded between 1.9 and 1.2t/ha. The Quambatook site, which received 165mm, produced yields of between 1.2 and 0.6t/h while the Berriwillock site, where 131mm of growing season rainfall was recorded, yields ranged between 1.5 and 1.2t/ha. Note that not all sites had all the same varieties.
The preliminary results from BCG variety trials are delivered to BCG members approximately 48 hours after harvest. This allows growers to make decisions about what seed to keep and what they need to order well ahead of the next growing season.
For more information, or to become a BCG member, phone (03) 5492 2787 or go to www.bcg.org.au
