THE Grains Research and Development Corporation has this month released National Variety Trial harvest reports for all three of its regions in time to help guide growers on planting decisions for the 2023-24 crop.

The reports – one each for the Northern, Southern and Western regions – contain yield, disease resistance/susceptibility and grain quality results.

Reports for the Southern region cover South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, while the Northern region covers New South Wales and Queensland, and Western covers Western Australia.

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.

Trials are sown and managed to reflect local best practice, such as sowing time, fertiliser application, weed management, pest and disease control and fungicide application in line with the NVT protocols.

the harvest reports were a useful resource that help growers and advisers make more informed decisions when choosing what crop variety to plant.

GRDC NVT regional manager – north, Laurie Fitzgerald, said the reports contain the past five years of results for every NVT trial across Australia, and are one of the most important channels for providing varietal results to the public.

“The reports compile the outcomes of all NVT trials conducted throughout Australia since 2018. They complement the state-based Sowing Guides that are published ahead of harvest and serve as a crucial decision-making tool for growers,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

GRDC NVT regional manager – West Isabelle Rogers. Photo: GRDC

Data from successful 2022 NVT trials has been fed into a multi-year, multi-environment trial (MET) variety performance analysis.

“These multi-year datasets for all crops and growing regions provide the most valuable information to support decision making around what to sow each year,” GRDC NVT regional manager – west, Isabelle Rogers, said.

“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,” GRDC Southern Panel member and research agronomist Andrew 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.”

Mr Ware said that as race changes in diseases, 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.”

“At this time of year growers can still finesse the variety mix they plant based on the results shown in the harvest reports.”

Source: GRDC