Australia
January 6, 2005
Rust is currently one of the biggest concerns to
grain growers around Australia, but relief may be in sight.
HRZ Wheats
P/L, a company formed by Export Grains Center,
CSIRO and NZ Crop & Food
Research, currently has elite wheat lines with outstanding
resistance to both stripe and leaf rusts in advanced trials at
ten sites around Australia.
Germplasm
from New Zealand and the northern hemisphere, many crossed with
Australian wheats, are now being evaluated by HRZ Wheats P/L for
yield, disease resistance and grain quality.
Many of the
new lines are proving to have excellent all round potential, in
particular for rust-resistance where many crops are completely
free of both stripe and leaf rusts. Breeders have seen healthy,
green, resistant lines right next to crops totally covered in
yellow rust fungus.
The elite
lines under evaluation are part of a drive to breed Australia’s
first milling quality wheats specifically tailored to the high
rainfall zone, and will include Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV)
resistance, as seen first in the CSIRO-bred Mackellar, released
in 2003.
The first
of the new rust-resistant varieties could be ready for
commercial release as soon as 2006. |