Mr Timothy Green1, Dr Sergio Moroni1, Dr Felicity Harris1, Professor Jim Pratley1, Dr Daniel Mullan2, Dr Greg Rebetzke3
1Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia, 2InterGrain, Bibra Lake Perth, Australia, 3CSIRO, Black Mountain Canberra, Australia
Biography:
I completed my Bachelor of Science degree at CSU Wagga Wagga before gaining employment at the Department of Primary Industries in Wagga Wagga and at Yanco in cereal and cotton pathology, respectively. While there I completed my honours with ANU in novel pathogens of wheat and a post graduate certificate in cotton production. I commenced my PhD in early 2021 at CSU Wagga on 100-day wheats and am currently in the process of writing my thesis.
Abstract:
Autumn rainfall in southern Australia is decreasing and becoming less reliable, often forcing growers to sow dry and risk poor germination and subsequent emergence. Additionally, increasing farm size, double knock herbicide application, soil amelioration, and double cropping are becoming more common. These operations require more time at the start of the season and inevitably delay sowing. A delay in sowing using today’s commercial varieties can result in mistimed flowering and yield losses. Therefore, a later sown wheat option needs to be developed for southern Australian wheat regions. A literature review has been conducted to identify characteristics and traits essential to an ideotype of a 100-day wheat. The 100-day wheat ideotype will be a variety with high early vigour when sown mid-winter. It will cover the ground rapidly for maximum light interception, and progress quickly through the vegetative stage to reach anthesis before heat and drought stress occur. Field experimentation across two years at Wagga Wagga and one year at Merredin have demonstrated significantly higher yields produced by novel high early vigour lines relative to current commercial lines. Further analysis has revealed the traits that have enabled greater yields when sown mid-winter; these included spike and grain number but not early vigour or days to anthesis as anticipated. The literature review and field experimentation have shown the feasibility of late sowing in mild years and highlight the need for the development of a short season wheat variety for winter sowing.