Plant breeder, Michael Materne, with the new Kingbale oat variety at Landmark Manangatang’s Victoria trial site.

KINGBALE, the world’s first imiadazolinone (IMI) tolerant hay oat, was launched by InterGrain at South Australia’s Hart field day this week.

Bred by Michael Materne, the IMI hay oat, formerly known by its breeding code GIA1701, was developed by Grains Innovations Australia (GIA) and will be commercialised by InterGrain following a recent agreement with GIA.

Dr Materne said Kingbale offered growers a new herbicide option for their oaten hay rotations, while significantly improving weed control.

“While looking over the fence from our pulse trials, we saw weedy oat crops and quickly learnt that herbicide options were very limited. This presented us with an opportunity to develop IMI herbicide tolerant oats to improve weed control within this crop and the broader rotation,” he said.

“Kingbale’s imiadazolinone tolerance supports the variety as an excellent option where there are residue concerns from imidazolinone use in previous crops.”

While yield information is currently limited, 2019 independent industry trials across southern Australia will provide an opportunity for further hay and grain yield testing.

InterGrain chief executive officer Tress Walmsley said InterGrain and GIA were proud to join with Nufarm to bring innovative herbicide technology systems to help overcome challenges in controlling weeds in their oaten hay.

“The Nufarm partnership means InterGrain and GIA can introduce expertise in weed control and further sharpen our focus on innovative solutions that will help solve identified challenges for grain growers,” she said.

“InterGrain always prioritises maximising grower returns from the varieties we introduce to them and strategic partnerships can value add that proposition.”

A tall oat variety, Kingbale has good early vigour and preliminary data shows it has a similar disease profile to Wintaroo.

Ms Walmsley said launching Kingbale at the Hart field day was the perfect fit, with South Australia’s Mid North which was a large export oaten hay producer.

“Our new partnership with GIA and the Kingbale launch complements the current wheat and barley varieties we have available to growers and supports our Australia wide market leading cereal breeding programs.

“Kingbale is the first of what we like to call the new oat dynasty, with other lines in the GIA pipeline also set to deliver agronomic and yield benefits that will boost Australian oat and oaten hay production and subsequent profitability for growers.”

Kingbale was bred and developed by Dr Materne of Global Grain Genetics, the research division of GIA, a private breeding company developing innovative crop varieties.

“We have been intensively developing Kingbale for four years and have trialled it in our South Australian and Victorian programs within our summer and winter programs,” he said.

“As we release varieties and help solve current grower and farming system limitations, we will be able to explore more of our novel, innovative ideas for a prosperous and sustainable grains industry and also continue to support the rural communities we are part of and unashamedly passionate about.”

Source: InterGrain. Visit: https://www.intergrain.com/variety/kingbale/