Australia
May 10, 2013
Ian Lea, of Superior Seed Co at Deniliquin, pictured earlier last season inspecting the development of a local seed production crop of the new Corack Australian Premium White (APW) wheat variety.
A NEW, Australian Premium White (APW) wheat variety offering solid all-round benefits to growers is likely to claim significant land sown to the crop in southern New South Wales this season.
Ian Lea, of Superior Seed Co at Deniliquin, said some local growers were planning to double the area sown to the new Corack wheat variety this season.
Corack was developed at Australian Grain Technologies’ Horsham-based breeding program in Victoria and is a short season, early flowering variety.
It is a good option for growers in medium to low rainfall zones, particularly areas that regularly experience tough finishes, and it demonstrated this through southern NSW last season.
Ian said while there were reasonable amounts of subsoil moisture, some growers only received 130 millimetres of growing season rainfall compared with 250mm normally.
“However, growers were very happy with the variety. It is compact, not too high and it thrashes and yields well,’’ Ian said.
“Some growers achieved yields up to 3 tonnes/ha in wheat-on-wheat rotations.
Corack is well suited for wheat-wheat rotations due to its moderate resistance to yellow leaf spot.
“It handled the yellow leaf spot well last year, although it was not overly wet,’’ Ian said.
“It also has better sprouting tolerance and good grain size and quality.’’
Corack is moderately resistant to both stem and leaf rust and moderately susceptible to stripe rust, while it also has some of the highest levels of resistance to cereal cyst nematode available.
Ian said the new variety was one of the strongest performing wheats for the local environment.
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