CROPPING

National Variety Trials reports now available

THE latest National Variety Trials (NVT) reports, incorporating results from the 2022-23 harvest, are now available.

Staff writer
 The latest National Variety Trials results are now available to help with sowing decisions. Image courtesy GRDC.

The latest National Variety Trials results are now available to help with sowing decisions. Image courtesy GRDC.

The reports are available free for growers across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania who can use the latest results on the performance of different grain varieties to help them choose the best variety for their situation.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) NVT Harvest Reports contain yield, disease resistance/susceptibility and grain quality results.

The six reports for the southern region cover: the Eyre Peninsula; Northern Victoria; the Mallee in South Australia and Victoria; Central South Australia; High Rainfall regions in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania; and the Wimmera and Upper South East South Australia.

For GRDC southern panel member and research agronomist Andrew Ware, the Harvest Reports are a useful resource that help growers and advisers make more informed decisions when choosing what crop variety to plant.

"The Harvest Reports show us the potential of some of the new varieties and how they can perform in a really good year, like 2022," Ware said.

"You can use this information and compare it to a year like 2020 where we didn't have anywhere near that sort of finish.

"If you can grow a variety that yields well in both those scenarios - and there are varieties that can do that - then you have a lot of confidence that your choice will do well whether it's a good season or a poorer season."

Ware added that as disease challenges change so do the levels of resistance varieties have to the disease.

"The Harvest Reports have up to date information on varietal resistance to help growers plan their management strategies for the upcoming season," he said.

"At this time of year growers can still finesse the variety mix they plant based on the results shown in the Harvest Reports."

The NVT is the largest independent coordinated trial network in the world. It harnesses data from more than 650 trials across 300 sites Australia-wide for 10 crop species: wheat, barley, canola, chickpea, faba bean, field pea, lentil, lupin, oat and sorghum.

NVT Harvest Reports are freely available as pdfs here: https://bit.ly/3KOGjYC

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