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More than 100 varieties of triticale on display at field day

November 28, 2005

Jessop.thumb.jpgFarmers, graziers, farm managers and agronomists from throughout the Northern Tablelands inspected growth trials of 110 varieties of triticale during The University of New England’s annual Triticale Field Day last Friday.

Associate Professor Robin Jessop, the UNE agronomist who leads the University’s triticale research program, said participants in the field day had been impressed by many aspects of these experimental plants, including their level of resistance to stripe rust. (Dr Jessop, pictured here at the field day, was one of the scientists who identified, in 1978, Australia’s first outbreak of stripe rust - a disease that went on to affect a large proportion of Australia’s wheat crop.)

About 30 people travelled to UNE’s Laureldale Farm for the field day, where they saw several new varieties of triticale (a hybrid cross between wheat and rye) that Dr Jessop and his team are developing for grazing pastures. “We’re building these up at the moment, with a view to commercialisation,” Dr Jessop said.

Then, at UNE’s Kirby Research Station, near Armidale, they inspected grazing land planted with triticale.

UNE has been a leader of the national Triticale Improvement Program ever since it was established by the Grain Research and Development Corporation in the early 1990s. Dr Jessop said there was increasing interest in – and growing awareness of – triticale among Australian farmers. “The market for triticale has opened up,” he continued, “particularly for its use by dairy farmers as both grain and forage.” He said UNE was developing several varieties that could be used for human consumption in bread and breakfast cereals.

Earlier this year UNE announced that one of its experimental triticale crops had broken the elusive “10-tonnes-per-hectare barrier” for the yield of a wheat-related grain crop. At the time, Dr Jessop pointed out that, for comparison, Australia’s average wheat yield was only two tonnes per hectare. “Even in Europe, wheat yields do not exceed six-to-eight tonnes per hectare,” he said.

While most triticale is grown in southern NSW and northern Victoria, there are already about 20 producers in the New England region. Dr Jessop explained that triticale thrived in “somewhat adverse conditions” such as the cool Northern Tablelands climate, and that it was available in grazing, grain, and dual-purpose varieties.

UNE Rural Properties is now involved in seed multiplication, and aims to release new varieties of both dual-purpose (grazing and grain) and spring-grain-only triticale. These will be available from 2007 onwards.


Media contact: Associate Professor Robin Jessop, School of Rural Science and Agriculture, UNE (02) 6773 2502 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 28, 2005 03:30 PM