Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
WHEAT Quality Australia has released its updated Wheat Variety Master List.
The 2019 list will feature 13 new varieties along with a host of reclassifications of existing wheat lines.
There will also be the removal of four old wheat varieties, first flagged for removal in 2017.
The 2019 list introduces the new varieties Catapult, Sunchaser, Hellfire, Nighthawk, Nyala, Oryx, Parakeet, Devil, Kinsei, Sheriff CL Plus, Vixen, DBA Artemis, DBA Spes, and RGT Relay.
In other zones, Illabo is now an AH line in the northern zone; Sunprime has moved to an AH in the southern zone and EG Titanium is an APW in the Northern Zone while Chief CL Plus also moves to an APW classification in the south eastern zone.
WQA chairman Don Plowman said the removed varieties constituted a miniscule proportion of the Australian crop.
“Many of these old varieties represented a tiny percentage of wheat grown in Australia,” Dr Plowman said.
“The varieties removed are also no longer referenced in any state, industry or GRDC sowing guides, as they have been superseded by new varieties with better agronomic, yield and quality characteristics.
“This is now an ongoing process of updating and refreshing the list, to ensure the quality and competitiveness of Australian wheat worldwide.”
The removal process is scheduled to continue over the next two years.
Varieties planned for removal in 2020 are: SW Flamenco, Peake, LRPB Dakota, Merinda, EGA Wills, EGA Eaglehawk, EGA Jaeger, EGA Stampede, EGA Bounty, and Naparoo.
Varieties planned for removal in 2021 are: Blade, Clearfield JNZ, Clearfield STL, Pugsley, Tammarin Rock, Binnu, Bullet, Yandanooka, Zulu, Zebu, Frelon, Zippy, Bumper, and Endure.
“WQA continues to work closely with all sectors of the Australian wheat industry to ensure the quality attributes for each class of wheat are directly aligned with end use market requirements,” Dr Plowman said.
There is a wide range of quality specifications among the new lines, ranging from Australian Prime Hard right through to feed quality.
On the other hand four cultivars in Guardian, winter wheat Amarok, Hunter and Shenton have been deleted from the list, following consultation with industry over the past couple of seasons.
Other changes have occurred in the form of reclassifications.
In the Western Zone there are a number of upgrades this year, including Illabo, Coolah, Beckom, Suntop and Elmore CL Plus all being moved to AH standard.
The popularity of noodle wheat in the west has also meant a number of varieties have been altered to have the noodle classification added to their existing hard class, including Havoc to AH (N); Cutlass to APW(N) and Trojan to APW(N).
