Australia
July 1, 2011

New results from the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program’s (ACRCP) annual review of rust responses of Australian wheat and triticale varieties is now available online.

Dr Colin Wellings, University of Sydney, Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) on secondment from NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) says a growing body of data is shedding new light on rust management for growers.

The report is available from www.nvtonline.com.au/reports and Dr Wellings urges growers to take advantage of the large amount of information now contained on the site.

“This body of information is being progressively assembled over successive years through the assistance of the National Variety Trials (NVT) website,” Dr Wellings said.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supports both NVT and ACRCP as cereal rust is a major disease across all grain-growing regions of Australia.

Dr Wellings said any change in the response of varieties to the cereal rusts from previous ratings was a reflection of pathotype variations and seasonal variation in disease intensity and severity.

“While the data for stripe rust have been the subject of focussed attention by pathologists and breeders across the majority of the Australian wheat growing regions for many years, leaf rust and stem rust have been more sporadic,” he said.

“However, we have made an effort to develop a similar consultative process for all wheat rust diseases, culminating in this report which combines disease responses for current varieties, together with relevant resistance genotypes.”

The program aims to extend this process to rust responses for barley and oat varieties.
 

Website: http://www.grdc.com.au

Published: July 1, 2011