Mr Jeremy Curry1,2
1Dept. of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Esperance, Australia, 2The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
Biography:
Jeremy Curry is a DPIRD Research Scientist who conducts research programs focussed on optimising management for yield and quality of broadacre crops including wheat, barley and canola. Based in Esperance on WA’s south coast, Jeremy maintains a particular focus on the opportunities and constraints common to cropping in this geographic area. With rainfall during harvest particularly prevalent in this region, pre-harvest sprouting can be a considerable quality issue in conducive seasons. In 2023, Jeremy commenced a PhD project to understand how pre-harvest sprouting risk of wheat is genetically and physiologically controlled under variable crop maturation environments.
Abstract:
Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is a grain quality issue that occurs when grains germinate on the mother plant, adversely affecting the end-use quality and value of the grain upon harvest. The risk of this precocious germination changes throughout seed development, maturation and after-ripening and is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Australia predominantly produces white wheat genotypes that exhibit low levels of grain dormancy, meaning that wet conditions near grain maturation can lead to significant pre-harvest sprouting incidence in some seasons. However, the impact of rainfall that does occur depends on complex genotype-by-environment interactions.
In recent years, maturation timing has been linked to pre-harvest sprouting risk, such that in Western Australian environments, early maturing crops (through early sowing timing and quick developing varieties) are more likely to exhibit pre-harvest sprouting through visually germinated grains and low Falling Number. Sequential field sampling has demonstrated that detrimental levels of PHS are occurring during the maturation drying period and well before harvest maturity (12-14% moisture content) has been reached. In these scenarios, even optimal harvest timing cannot prevent PHS, and so alternative and proactive crop management is required at seeding time to prevent this risk at harvest.
This presentation will highlight the link between maturation timing and conditions that lead to increased PHS risk, the latest physiological understanding of what drives PHS risk in Australian germplasm under Australian conditions, and how crop management can be optimised to maintain wheat quality and yield potential under variable harvest conditions.