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High-performing grain seed becomes commercially available

November 23, 2006

TriticaleDay.thumb.JPGThe University of New England is ready to make one of its high-performing strains of triticale commercially available.

Visitors to the University’s annual Triticale Field Day last week learnt that seed from this year’s 200-hectare crop on UNE rural properties near Armidale and Warialda would soon be available for purchase.

Associate Professor Robin Jessop, the agronomist who leads UNE’s triticale research program, said that several of the graziers attending the field day had placed orders on the spot. “Interest in triticale (a hybrid cross between wheat and rye) is growing,” Dr Jessop said. “More than 30 people – mainly from the Northern Tablelands, but a few from the surrounding slopes – came to the field day at UNE’s Laureldale Farm. While some of them have been growing triticale for several years, others tried growing it for the first time this year and were very impressed with the results.” (Dr Jessop is pictured here at the field day.)

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. While most triticale is grown in southern NSW and northern Victoria, there are already more than 20 growers in the New England region. Dr Jessop said that triticale thrived in “somewhat adverse conditions” such as the cool Northern Tablelands climate.

The seed available from early next year is UNE’s “Everest” variety, and even higher-yielding varieties will be available in subsequent years. “We plan to build up a major operation, based at our McMaster Research Station near Warialda, for the commercial production of triticale to be used as stock feed,” Dr Jessop said.

Visitors to the field day saw experimental crops of 40 spring grain varieties, and received a detailed introduction to a dozen of the more recent ones. They also inspected and discussed six longer-season varieties used for grazing as well as for grain. Dr Jessop said the main topics of discussion during the day had been the improved level of disease resistance in many of the UNE strains, and improvements in spring grain yields. (Last year UNE announced that one of its experimental triticale crops had broken the elusive “10-tonnes-per-hectare” barrier for a wheat-related grain crop.)

Dr Jessop said that interest in triticale was increasing around the world. “At a recent international conference in South Africa, delegates from many countries were interested in the potential of triticale for ethanol production,” he said. “This is because of the unusually high energy content of the grain.”

UNE’s triticale research is funded by the Pork Cooperative Research Centre as well as the University itself.

For more information on triticale seed sales, contact Milton Curkpatrick, UNE’s Rural Properties Manager, on (02) 6773 2648 or 0427 247 045.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 23, 2006 12:00 PM