A new CSIRO Plant Industry-bred soybean variety, ‘Stuart’, will give Queensland sugarcane farmers a valuable rotational crop.

Soybean crops can both break the disease cycle and add nitrogen to the soil for following crops.

It can also be sown as either a grain or green manure crop.

Developed by CSIRO Plant Industry’s Dr Andrew James, Stuart is broadly adapted to planting in both the wet and dry season in the tropics and from South East Queensland through to North Queensland.

'Stuart is particularly useful in these areas because of its nematode resistance,' Dr James says.

'It is much more resistant to most root nematodes than other soybean varieties.

'It also has resistance to rusts, bacterial pustule, bacterial blight, downy mildew and purple seed stain,' Dr James says. 'No symptoms of virus have been noted in Stuart crops or seed.'

The new variety also has a light-coloured hilum (a mark on the grain where it joins the plant), making its grain suitable for some human consumption markets.

Dr Russell Muchow, Executive Director of the Sugar Research and Development Corporation (SRDC), says that the SRDC was pleased to support the research which led to the release of Stuart.

'Including soybean in sugarcane farming systems leads to increased cane productivity and industry profitability,' Dr Muchow says.

Seed from Stuart has been increased this season and will be commercially available to growers for planting in late 2005.