Dr Greg Rebetzke. Photo credit: CSIRO.
A new dual-purpose wheat variety developed by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is designed to help growers recover losses from adverse weather events such as unseasonal heat and frost.
The high-yielding Hurdle wheat variety is the culmination of a decade of research and will be showcased to growers at a field walk in Western Australia this week.
CSIRO Chief Research Scientist Dr. Greg Rebetzke led the team that bred Hurdle. The variety can be used for grazing, hay or grain, giving growers additional options following extreme weather events.
The variety was developed after Rebetzke joined the Grain Research and Development Corporation Western Panel for a spring tour through the Lake Grace region of Western Australia following a significant frost at flowering.
The frost severely damaged wheat crops, leaving growers with little opportunity for grain production. Growers in the region also told the panel that frost was regularly damaging their wheat crops.
Peter Roberts, a retired grain farmer, former head of Australia’s Grower Group Alliance and former GRDC Western Panel chair, participated in the tour. Roberts said properties in the eastern and southern Western Australia wheatbelt were becoming increasingly prone to frost, forcing growers to plant later and exposing crops to heat late in the season. The combination could reduce yield and quality.
After meeting with growers, Rebetzke and his team began developing a response that led to the release of the dual-purpose hay and grain wheat varieties Bale and Dual in 2021. The varieties were developed with support from LongReach Plant Breeder Colin Edmondson and hay industry representative Mike Faulkner of AgriLink.
Hurdle builds on the genetics used to develop Bale and Dual, with improvements intended to provide higher yield and larger grain size. The variety is named after Hurdle Creek in Western Australia, where the initial meeting with growers took place.
Rebetzke and Roberts will join LongReach plant breeders, growers, GRDC representatives and other industry representatives at the field walk to showcase Hurdle before its commercial release through LongReach in the coming months.
The field walk is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sept. 17 at Hurdle Gully on Dwelyerdine Road in Tincurrin, Western Australia.
Source: CSIRO, "New wheat variety for the west"