New Western Australian trial results have increased knowledge about competitive wheat lines – which could give growers the option of keeping weedy paddocks in crop.

The latest results from the National Variety Trials (NVT) are now being released to assist southern region grain growers and their advisers in preparing for this year’s sowing programs.

Results from 2011’s trials are progressively being made available via the NVT Online website, www.nvtonline.com.au.

GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair David Shannon says NVT Online is an easy-to-use searchable database which provides users with direct access to both long term and single site results from any site selected.

“It offers detailed information about wheat, barley, triticale, oat, canola, lupin, lentil, field pea, faba bean and chickpea varieties and their performance, disease rating guides, and links to variety brochures and other useful resources,” Mr Shannon said.

The first of two state-of-the-art grain research facilities has opened at Merredin in Western Australia.

New wheat lines are offering hope for providing partial resistance to crown rot disease in durum wheat.

Western Australian growers will benefit from new research which will help produce wheat varieties containing higher levels of protein and extra ‘functionality’, without requiring additional fertiliser.

The GRDC Board is accountable to Australia's grain growers, through the industry peak organisation and to the Commonwealth Parliament, through the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The GRDC Board normally has between seven and nine directors.

The Chairman is selected and appointed by the Minister. Mr Keith Perrett was appointed by the Minister on 1 October 2007, and reappointed until 30 September 2013.

The Managing Director is appointed by the Board of the Corporation. The Managing Director is the sole Executive Director and holds office at the Corporation's pleasure. John Harvey was appointed as the GRDC’s Managing Director on 1 March 2011.

Five to seven Directors are appointed by the Minister, on advice from a selection committee selected by the Minister. On 22 November 2011 the Minister announced the appointment of 6 directors, until 30 September 2014.

Lentil growers in southern Australia have welcomed the release of the first lentil variety featuring extra herbicide tolerance.

The new Pulse Breeding Australia variety, PBA Herald XT , offers improved tolerance to the herbicide flumetsulam, plus reduced sensitivity to some sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicide residues.

PBA Herald XT will be available through PB Seeds for the 2012 growing season and is supported by Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) and its partner agencies, Australian lentil growers and the Australian Government through the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

The small red lentil was developed by Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd (AVS) through the work of Dr Michael Materne (Department of Primary Industries Victoria), Larn McMurray (South Australian Research and Development Institute) and the PBA team.

The new lentil has been recently launched at specific pulse field days, including those at Arthurton in SA and Rupanyup in Victoria, giving growers and advisers the opportunity to view and assess the variety in their local districts prior to its availability next season.

Lentil breeder Dr Michael Materne says having shown minimal crop damage and yield loss in trials subjected to herbicides or residues, PBA Herald XT will bolster growers’ efforts to manage in-crop weeds.

A unique and superior new faba bean variety developed for production in southern Australia is expected to appeal to the major Egyptian market due to its large size and quality characteristics.

Developed by the Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) faba bean breeding program, led by the University of Adelaide, PBA Rana represents a new grain quality category for Australian faba bean production.

The seed of PBA Rana is larger than current faba bean varieties and no other major faba bean exporter is producing a bean of comparable size and quality.

Already, feedback from the market in Egypt for this larger type of faba bean has been very positive, according to Australian authorities.

PBA Rana will be available through Viterra for the 2012 growing season and its development is supported by PBA and its partner agencies, Australian faba bean growers and the Australian Government through the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

Faba bean breeder Dr Jeff Paull, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, says PBA Rana is a relatively late flowering variety and trials have shown it produces the highest yields in high rainfall and long season faba bean production regions.

Dr Paull says areas of best adaptation are in south Western Victoria and South Australia’s Lower South-East, Central Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula and the high rainfall sites in the Lower Mid North.

Australian wheat breeders have been equipped with new tools to assist the development of varieties which, at harvest, are less likely to be downgraded in quality due to grain defects.

A new lentil variety being launched this spring will provide growers with a superior variety option to reduce herbicide damage risks in lentil producing areas of southern Australia.

The new variety will be available through PB Seeds for the 2012 growing season and is supported by Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) and its partner agencies, Australian lentil growers and the Australian Government through the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

It was developed by Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd (AVS) through the work of Dr Michael Materne (DPI Victoria), Larn McMurray (SARDI) and the PBA team.

The new lentil is being launched at specific pulse field days this spring, giving growers and advisers the opportunity to view and assess the varieties in their local districts prior to their availability next season.

The two main launches will be at Arthurton on the Upper Yorke Peninsula in South Australia on October 18 and at Rupanyup in the Wimmera of Victoria on October 25. The new variety is also being featured at other field days.

Please see attached Grain Flash for further details, or go to grdc.com.au/media.