In this section:
Variety Evaluation
The New Variety Evaluation 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 operates through a team of 22 technical and scientific staff with units located at the Waite Research Precinct in Adelaide, Struan Research Centre, Loxton Research Centre, Minnipa Agricultural Centre and Port Lincoln PIRSA Regional Office.
The program is supported by the South Australian State Government, Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), South Australian Grains Industry Trust (SAGIT) and by farmer co-operators who freely provide and prepare their land for experiments.
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 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.
National Variety Trials (NVT) (external link)
NVT is a national approach to variety evaluation, generating consistent and credible information for growers about newly released varieties. This information is stored and available from this site, to assist growers in making variety selection decisions. You can generate a report or reports specific to crop, variety and district.
