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Whetting Western Australian wheat grower appetites for new noodle wheat varieties


Australia
September 15, 2014

Leading Australian cereal breeding company, InterGrain, last week launched two new noodle wheat varieties, Supreme and Zen, at the 2014 Liebe Group Spring Field Day at Buntine, Western Australia.

Having performed well in NVT and other trials as IGW6042 and IGW6046, Supreme and Zen have now successfully emerged from WA’s only dedicated udon noodle breeding program and will be welcomed by growers looking to diversify their wheat marketing opportunities and capitalise on likely noodle premiums.

The breeder, InterGrain’s Dr Dan Mullan, emphasised developing and maintaining durable resistance to yellow leaf spot, septoria and the three rusts in his udon noodle wheat breeding program.

“To achieve these targets our program integrates a quantum leap in the availability of molecular marker technologies through our international linkages, plus our use of the latest in physiological approaches and agronomic assessment,” Dr Mullan said.

“We value our strong industry relationships with AEGIC and CBH in udon noodle quality testing to assist in gaining market acceptance with Japanese end-users and our access to udon noodle quality testing significantly improves how efficiently new lines such as Supreme and Zen can be evaluated.

InterGrain has increased its udon noodle sensory testing 10 fold and expanded its in-field yield trials to accelerate the release of such new, high yielding, elite quality noodle wheat varieties.

After Dr Mullan officially launched the varieties at Liebe, a Mochi Mochi demonstration by Mick Murasumi from Nisshin in Japan, demonstrated to growers how to correctly slurp their noodles.

“Growers not only saw how well InterGrain’s new noodle wheats performed in the field, but then enjoyed a taste test after we cooked three different types of noodles at afternoon tea, so they could compare Supreme and Zen to Calingiri, the variety Zen is set to replace,” Dr Mullan said.

Neil Carter trialled IGW6042/Supreme this year at his farm just north of Meckering, where he planted it on Serradella pasture next to Mace. Sheep and pasture are still part of the Carter system.

His InterGrain Supreme crop was sown May 22 at 63kg/ha, with 100kg Agras Xtra and only 20kg Urea, due to the Serradella pasture providing enough nitrogen.

At end-August he reported that his Supreme looked better than his Mace, had obvious good tillering capacity, looked green and was very healthy, with no apparent signs of diseases such as yellow spot.

 

“As long as the yield at the business end of the season is comparable to Mace it’ll be a profitable crop, as we generally land in the noodle window and gain that premium. We don’t often get the higher protein for AH anyway, as our sandplain country generally pushes it into yield, not protein.

“InterGrain’s Supreme should be a nice profitable crop, if it can gain the premium noodle segregation approval and get that extra premium offered,” Mr Carter said.

He also was pleased that Supreme was as short as Wyalkatchem, which meant less bulk at harvest.

Mr Carter currently grows canola, lupins, Scope barley and Magenta, Mace and Arrino wheats.

He believes Supreme might replace Arrino as it fits into his rotation really well as the later sowing option and also on country which has been ploughed.

“Supreme has better triple rust resistance than Arrino, making it a great replacement as those paddocks will no longer be at risk,” he said.

Les Crane, ‘Gabalong Farms’, Bindi, grew 50 hectares of IGW6046/Zen on canola stubble, applying 70kg of K-Till at seeding, 40kg Flexi-N at seeding and 40 Litres Flexi-N after sowing and at the end of August the crop was looking impressive on only 190mm of growing season rainfall.

He is keen to have an alternate variety to Mace, so that he relies less on one main variety, minimises agronomic risks and spreads the marketing risk.

“I like a variety that has flexibility of sowing time, so that it performs in an early season or a late season, so a variety like IGW6046/Zen, which yields well with a harsh finish, or in the less than 2 t/ha areas, as well as takes advantage of a good finish will be very welcome on my farm,” Mr Crane said.

He’s also pleased that IGW6046/Zen is vigorous and has a good grain size, similar to Calingiri, which means he doesn’t anticipate frustrating screening issues.

Mr Crane has a very clear philosophy that it’s “only two cereal crops in a row” and he has a well thought out nine year rotation plan to get the most out of his country.

“Asking wheat to continue to grow well in a continuous rotation is like asking a marathon runner after he’s finished to turn around and go again” he declared.

“As second year wheat on wheat is where the new InterGrain noodle wheat could fit into my rotation well, as it’s less likely to blow my protein out the top end.

“I am also happy that the yellow spot rating for IGW6046/Zen is better than Calingiri, because when  growing wheat on wheat, you need good yellow leaf disease resistance, Mr Crane said.

Speaking at the variety launch, InterGrain CEO, Tress Walmsley, said there was a bright future and a significant push for new higher yielding, agronomically robust noodle varieties from WA growers and the udon noodle industry and InterGrain intended playing a major role in satisfying that demand.



More news from: InterGrain Pty. Ltd.


Website: http://www.intergrain.com

Published: September 15, 2014

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