In this section:
New Variety Agronomy
The New Variety Agronomy (NVA) program provides a broad range of technical services to all commodities and across their supply chain sectors.
- NVA has science capabilities in crop physiology, crop agronomy, soil science and cereal chemistry (grain quality) and technical skills in field experimental planning and management, data management and research extension.
- NVA outputs are research and extension activities relating to new variety management and performance.
- NVA industry outcome is to increase farm productivity by facilitating the delivery and adoption of high yielding, profitable grain varieties that are well adapted to a range of soil types, environments and farming systems.
2010 Harvest Reports and Sowing Guides available now.
Technical expertise and practical experience
The staff within the NVA program are very well trained and experienced in crop evaluation, many having over 20 years experience. Many staff members are multi-skilled, combining good theoretical knowledge of field crop agronomy with ability to maintain and operate small plot machinery and conduct routine grain quality laboratory tests. This unique combination enhances the quality of field trials undertaken, providing maximum efficiency and minimum research failure.
Operational efficiency and quality of research
The NVA Program has established an excellent reputation for field crop evaluation and agronomy research, and is highly regarded for the services provided. This reputation has been established through the quality of work performed and the timely delivery of results. The group is valued for the practical nature of the research and its relevance to the farming community, not only in South Australia but also interstate.
Operational efficiency is achieved through regionalisation of field operations. The NVA staff, are formed into teams based on regional location at the six following centres - Adelaide (Waite), Clare, Struan, Loxton, Pt Lincoln and Minnipa. This strategic location of staff allows good coverage of the major agricultural regions of South Australia, reducing travel costs to trials and assisting to provide optimum timeliness of crop management field operations. The Group leadership and most seed and grain quality operations are based in Adelaide, while field trials in areas comprising Yorke Peninsula and Northern districts are coordinated from Clare. Field trials in the South East area are coordinated from Struan, the Murray Mallee from Loxton, the Lower and Mid Eyre Peninsula from Pt Lincoln, and the Northern and Western Eyre Peninsula is managed from Minnipa. All teams are managed locally by highly qualified and experienced senior research managers.
Following grain harvest, NVA staff, immediately engage in preparation and physical quality evaluation of harvested grain to enable all yield and quality data to be reported to farmers, consultants and agribusiness within 4 to 6 weeks of harvest completion. Data are distributed to more than 8000 grain producers through booklets and magazines, eg. Grain Business and EP Farming Systems Summary and presented to consultants and agribusiness during February each year at meetings and conferences such as the GRDC Crop Updates.
Through meeting these tight schedules and the demonstrated ability to conduct reliable and accurate field experiments and communicate the results, the NVA Program has established a good reputation for field crop evaluation and agronomy, and is highly regarded for the services it provides.
Field Crop Evaluation and Agronomy
The New Variety Agronomy program works towards increasing farm productivity by facilitating the delivery of high yielding, profitable grain varieties that are well adapted to a range of soil types, environments and farming systems.
This is achieved by providing accredited, unbiased information to farmers on better adapted crop varieties, or new and better cultivars, at the earliest opportunity.
Crops evaluated include cereals (wheat, barley, oats, triticale, rye), pulses (peas, lentils, beans, lupins, chickpeas, vetch) and oilseed crops (canola, mustard).
The program collects and delivers the data which, not only assists farmers with their choice of suitable varieties, but also facilitates the registration and commercialisation of new cultivars by plant breeders.
The experimental protocol, has been established through a series of state-wide trials (see Figure 1) to evaluate the advanced breeding lines against a common set of commercial varieties to characterise their yield, quality, disease resistances/tolerances and agronomic characteristics.
Trials are conducted in replicated small plots (eg 8 rows by 10 metres) at a number of key locations in South Australia. Between 30,000 and 40,000 plots are evaluated each year, and the information collected is stored in a data base to provide easy access in data analysis and reporting.
The program routinely publishes 'Sowing Guide Fact Sheets', 'Post Harvest Reports', 'Annual Reports' and 'New variety information brochures' which are widely disseminated throughout the SA farming community.
Figure 1: Field Crop Evaluation & Agronomy Program Locations
Click on image to enlarge
