Australia
March 10, 2011
AUSTRALIA’s largest wheat breeder, Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), has launched the first double gene Clearfield® wheat varieties in the country for growers for the 2011 season.
The new wheats possess two Clearfield® tolerance genes, providing improved levels of tolerance to imidazolinone herbicides and thereby extending the options for in-crop weed management for producers.
The new wheat varieties are to be branded as Clearfield® Plus, and have been named JUSTICA CL Plus and SABEL CL Plus. Intervix® herbicide from Crop Care is now registered for use with these varieties.
AGT Senior Wheat Breeder Jason Reinheimer said the company was excited to be bringing this technology to Australian farmers.
Australian Grain Technologies (AGT) Senior Wheat Breeder Jason Reinheimer and WA Senior Marketing and Operations Manager Nick Joyce during the company’s launch of Australia’s first double gene Clearfield® wheat varieties at the Agribusiness Crop Updates in Perth.
Dr Reinheimer said the double gene Clearfield® wheats were a major breakthrough in in-crop weed control for growers, offering significant benefits over single gene Clearfield® varieties.
“The advantage of the two gene varieties is the higher level of tolerance to imidazolinone herbicides, hence providing much higher crop safety than the single gene lines,’’ Dr Reinheimer said.
“The combination of improved imidazolinone herbicide chemistry through Intervix® and the increased tolerance of the two gene CL Plus wheats will enable growers to spray earlier and achieve more effective grass weed control.’’
He said the new wheats would become a key tool for use in growers’ cropping rotations to assist their specific weed management strategies.
Justica CL Plus and Sabel CL Plus will be available to producers in limited quantities for the coming season. Both names continue the tradition of naming wheats bred at AGT’s Roseworthy Campus program after bladed weapons, with Justica a Portugese word for sword and Sabel a Dutch word for sword.
WA Senior Marketing and Operations Manager Nick Joyce said Justica CL Plus, tested as RAC1683, was derived from the Spear and Espada wheat families and was suited to medium to high rainfall areas, mainly south of the Great Eastern Highway.
Justica CL Plus is a mid-season maturing wheat (later than Wyalkatchem but earlier than Magenta*) that has excellent stem and stripe rust resistance, a useful level of leaf rust resistance and with tolerance of boron toxicity.
Early data also suggests Justica CL Plus has sprouting tolerance similar to Yitpi and better than Wyalkatchem .
Mr Joyce said Sabel CL Plus, tested as RAC1671 and which has Espada family parentage, was mid to late maturing and suited to all environments in the WA agricultural region.
Like Espada , it produces broad, erect leaves with a heavy wax cover and it has a similar disease profile to Justica CL Plus. Sabel CL Plus also is tolerant of boron toxicity and it is likely to have a similar level of sprouting tolerance as Wyalkatchem .
Both varieties have preliminary APW/AH quality classification, which will be confirmed next month.
Justica CL Plus and Sabel CL Plus wheat varieties are available through AGT seed Affiliates. For further information, contact Nick Joyce on 0488 303 070.
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