Victoria, Australia
October 22, 2020

The 2021 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide is now available to support growers with their variety choices ahead of next year’s sowing programs.

The Sowing Guide, arriving soon in growers’ letter boxes, has been published by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in partnership with Agriculture Victoria.

GRDC’s National Variety Trials (NVT) Regional Manager – South, Rob Wheeler, says the publication provides the most up-to-date information on disease resistance ratings and variety performance at a time when growers are planning their seed requirements for 2021.

“The Victorian Crop Sowing Guide outlines information on current varieties of the major winter crops grown in Victoria,” Mr Wheeler says.

“The publication prompts growers to ask whether they are growing the best variety for their location, environment and farming system.

“Growers are encouraged to use the summary as a guide for discussion with their consultants, advisers and marketing agents.”
 

GRDC’s NVT Regional Manager – South, Rob Wheeler, says the Victorian Crop Sowing Guide provides the most up-to-date information on disease resistance ratings and variety performance at a time when growers are planning their seed requirements for 2021. Photo: GRDC
 

Mr Wheeler says the majority of grain yield and quality data provided in the summary is sourced from the GRDC NVT program of comparative crop variety testing, with data from some breeding trials added to the information available.

“The NVT program also includes pathology investments which determine disease resistance ratings that are presented in the Victorian Crop Sowing Guide. It is important that growers check the disease resistance ratings each year for any changes from the previous season,” he says.

“Overall, the summary brings together NVT data from the previous five seasons, long term multi-environment trial yield predictions, disease ratings, quality data and agronomic information.”

The 2021 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide features new information generated from the GRDC’s National Phenology Initiative (NPI) which has undertaken time of sowing by variety experiments across Australia to determine development patterns of different varieties in different environments.

The NPI also used simulated optimal flowering periods in different environments from previous GRDC investments.

Once completed, the NPI outputs will be incorporated into the NVT Online website so that growers can estimate ideal sowing times for different varieties in their area.

The 2021 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide also contains some new varieties for growers’ consideration.

The latest 2020 NVT data will be available early in 2021 via the NVT Online website at www.nvtonline.com.au which also hosts the 2021 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide.

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

Published: October 22, 2020