Minister launches three new barley varieties

24/8/07
Agriculture and Food Minister Kim Chance said the State's grain and livestock industries were set to benefit from today's release of three new barley varieties.
The varieties, Hannan, Lockyer and Roe, were bred by the Department of Agriculture and Food as high yielding feed grains.
Mr Chance said the new varieties would complement each other in different parts of Western Australia's grainbelt, providing most growers with another feed barley option. Feed barley varieties accounted for 20 per cent of the sown barley crop in Western Australia.
The Minister said Hannan also had potential as a domestic malting barley and would undergo commercial evaluation to determine its classification.
"Hannan is an early maturity barley with plump grain and moderate resistance to scald," he said.
"It is expected to be competitive in all areas, but less suited to low rainfall areas unless there are early sowing opportunities.
"Results from agronomic trials and crop variety testing show it to have a higher yield potential than Stirling and Hamelin, and equivalent to Gairdner and Baudin."
Mr Chance said growers in the medium to low rainfall areas could look to Roe as an early maturing spring barley with higher yields and improved resistance to powdery mildew than Stirling and Hamelin.
Its screenings were better than Baudin and Gairdner and equivalent to Hamelin, Stirling and Vlamingh. Roe was seen as a direct competitor to Mundah.
The variety was not recommended for the southern coastal areas where it could be susceptible to higher disease pressure.
Lockyer was a medium to late spring maturing barley with moderately plump grain and improved resistance to scald, net-type net blotch and powdery mildew.
The Minister said Lockyer was suited to medium and higher rainfall zones, with particular advantage in areas which yielded above two tonnes per hectare.
It had superior grain brightness, lower screenings and plumper grain than Gairdner.
"The Department of Agriculture and Food's barley breeding program has again made an outstanding contribution by delivering three excellent new feed varieties to boost the options of WA farmers," Mr Chance said.
"These varieties will provide growers with a range of choices to take advantage of conditions as the season unfolds."
They are anticipated to replace current feed varieties in WA such as Doolup, Mundah and Molloy.
Seed of Lockyer and Roe will be commercially available at the end of 2008. Hannan will be available for sale at the end of 2009, after its commercial evaluation is complete.
Minister's Office: - 9213 6700