THE SEPWA variety trials are a part of the ongoing improvement of grain production on the South Coast conducted by the South East Premium Wheat Growers’ Association (SEPWA) and help to evaluate new and emerging varieties using farm scale trials.
This improvement includes wheat, barley, oats, canola and pulse sites throughout the Esperance port zone (EPZ).
Various breeding and commercial companies are approached to supply seed for the SEPWA variety trials and to indicate where their particular varieties may be best suited within the zone to maximise the value of SEPWA trials.
Wheat trials
Scepter is a new Mace replacement (Mace as the major parent) which is quickly becoming the new benchmark for wheats in the EPZ.
Other varieties include Cutlass, Long Reach Trojan, Bremer and Mace, Tungsten, Cobalt and TenFour (Edstar Genetics), Ninja, Chief and Magenta (InterGrain) and a new variety from LongReach (Advanta Seeds) LPB13-1995, which is a quick maturity variety earlier than Mace with improved powdery mildew resistance.
Two new durum wheat varieties have been included in conjunction with wheat variety trials at Salmon Gums and Beaumont and in a separate trial at Grass Patch.
The varieties are Durum #190873 and Durum #280913 from the Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales and via SeedNet.
Long season wheat trials
There are three CBH-sponsored, long season wheat trials at three sites at Condingup, Hopetoun and Neridup.
The trials are looking at early sowing of long season winter wheat varieties in the mid to high rainfall areas sown early and are looking for high yields with protein at about 9.5 per cent.
This year’s varieties include winter and spring wheats such as Manning, Revenue and new release varieties DS Pascal from the Dow AgroSciences breeding program, Edstar Genetics’ Zircon (EDGE06-039-13) and Revenue which were in trials last year and new released varieties.
Other new releases include LRPB Kittyhawk (Advanta Seeds) and RAC2341 (AGT).
LRPB Kittyhawk has similar maturity holds to Wedgetail and is controlled by three winter genes while RAC2341 is pending release and final classification as a long season true winter wheat with Mace as the major parent.
Longreach Trojan and Scepter have been included at the higher rainfall Condingup and Neridup sites.
Barley variety trials
In 2017 there were 10 SEPWA barley variety trials sown throughout the Esperance port zone and varieties include La Trobe, Rosalind, Scope, Compass, Fathom, Spartacus and new varieties RGT Planet (SeedForce) and Maltstar (Edstar Genetics).
RGT Planet is a new, mid-season, high yielding spring barley and is being evaluated for malt accreditation in Australia, but already has malt status in many European countries.
RGT Planet has good disease resistance to mildew, net blotch and brown rust.
It also has good straw strength and a reduced risk of lodging.
Maltstar is a long maturity variety similar to Commander and is under malt accreditation.
It is a high yielding barley with excellent hectolitre weight, low screenings and a bright grain colour.
Maltstar has resistance to Powdery Mildew (mlo 11).
Other varieties included by growers are Flinders, Bass, Baudin and Mundah.
As part of the Royalties for Regions funded Barley Brand Development for Asian Consumers project, which is working in with Intermalt in Vietnam to better understand the needs of end users in the market, SEPWA will use samples from its barley variety trials to test malting quality (micro-malt) of varieties throughout the zone.
Oat trials
There was interest in oat varieties in 2016 and SEPWA has again organised three sites at Grass Patch, Mount Maddan and Lake King.
Varieties included milling varieties Williams, Carrolup, Pallinup, Mortlock, Bannister, Durack and SV03198-18 - new variety released this year.
SVO3198-18 is a potential milling variety similar to Mitika.
The main aim of the oat trials is to ascertain if the region can produce high yielding quality oats suitable for milling.
In 2016 Williams was the highest yielding variety with all milling varieties making OAT1 for quality in hectolitre weight and screenings.
Canola trials
SEPWA tested 89 canola varieties for 2011 to 2016 in SEPWA variety trials throughout the zone and has included two conventional, 18 Clearfield, 33 Triazine, 33 Roundup Ready and three RT dual herbicide canola varieties.
SEPWA canola variety trials for 2017 include two Roundup Ready variety trials at Neridup and Wittenoom Hills.
The site at Chris Reichstein, Wittenoom Hills, will include Roundup Ready, RT dual herbicide tolerant and triazine tolerant varieties while there are five triazine tolerant variety trials.
The number of canola varieties in trials this year is down as a result of host growers seeding early and delays in getting seed in time.
PASE trials
The Pulse Association of the South East (PASE) is working more closely with SEPWA and is using SEPWA’s variety trial platform to conduct legume variety trials on some grower properties this year.
This included a lupin variety trial at Wittenoom Hills including PBA Jurien, Jenabillup, Mandelup and the new variety WALAN 2428.
The field pea variety trial at Grass Patch includes PBA Gunyah, PBA Wharton and new field pea OZP1101, while a small chickpea site at Salmon Gums compares the varieties PBA Striker and Amber.
The trial is the initial stage and will be expanded further in 2018 to include other species and varieties.
The trials program is based on near neighbour design farm scale trial plots and it involves the comparison of new varieties to the farmer control variety which they bulk sow in their cropping program.
The information from these trials is then collated via SEPWA and made available back to growers to assist variety selection relative to their specific agronomic conditions.
At harvest all varieties are statistically analysed for yield and quality testing is performed including protein, moisture, screenings, hectolitre weight, colour in barley, and oil percentage in canola, falling numbers, gluten and starch in wheat.