GMOFORUM.AGROBIOLOGY.EU :  Phorum 5 The fastest message board... ever.
GMO RAUPP.INFO forum provided by WWW.AGROBIOLOGY.EU 
Goto Thread: PreviousNext
Goto: Forum ListMessage ListNew TopicSearchLog In
Intergrain: a wheat breeding partnership
Posted by: Prof. Dr. M. Raupp (IP Logged)
Date: April 05, 2008 08:54AM

InterGrain, the new West Australian wheat breeding company, has made
an immediate impact in the market by the release of two outstanding new
varieties, the high yielding Australian Premium White (APW) variety Magenta
and the premium quality udon noodle grade variety Yandanooka.

Both are expected to have major market impact in WA and, in the case
of Magenta, also in South Australia and Victoria.

The Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) Wheat Breeding
Program, which has consistently provided 80 ? 90 per cent of varieties grown
by WA farmers in the last decade, has transformed into the company
InterGrain.

The new enterprise is the corporate product of a long-term partnership
between DAFWA and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

The recently passed Biosecurity and Agricultural Management Act,
enables the state government and the GRDC, the previous owners of InterGrain?s
intellectual property (IP), to continue as shareholders in wheat breeding.

According to Dale Baker, InterGrain?s Chairman, the formation of the
company is in keeping with changing times in the wheat breeding industry.

?There is a trend in Australia for wheat breeding to be run as a
business, rather than as a state government or university program. This move
relates to the concept of competitive neutrality, where government resources
may not be used to compete with commercial enterprise.?

?Until the early 1990s wheat breeding in Australia was through
publicly funded programs and then in 1994 the passing of the Plant Breeders
Rights Act allowed breeders to claim End Point Royalties. This payment,
essentially for intellectual property rights, has enabled wheat breeding to
become commercial,? Mr Baker said.

?We anticipate that the corporate model will introduce efficiency and
relationships that will enable us to do a better job. It runs on business
parameters, rather than public service parameters and makes it easy to deal
with other players in the private sector.

?InterGrain is majority owned and funded by the WA taxpayer and the
economic benefits return to this state,? he said.

At his InterGrain office on the DAFWA campus in South Perth, CEO Keith
Alcock is clear about the reasons for the high performance of the program?s
varieties in WA.

?The WA climate differs from that of the eastern states, except
perhaps the Eyre Peninsula, because across most of the wheatbelt we have
terminal drought and a rapid finish to the season,? he said.

?This means wheat bred for the longer seasons under east coast
conditions run into problems at the finish, either with yield falling away
or with high levels of screenings.

?Our varieties perform against this challenge and we know one big
factor why they perform ? it?s because of the high level of stem-stored
carbohydrates.?

?When DAFWA Principal Research Officer, Dr Tim Setter and his Plant
Physiology team measure the levels in our varieties and in our breeding
material, they are finding them to be the highest in the world.

?We actively select for this using assays, because in drought
environments it is the reserve sugars in the stem which are mobilized at the
end of the season to finish crop ripening,? he said.

Robin Wilson, Senior Wheat Breeder at InterGrain, says that the major
drivers in producing a new variety of wheat are yield, disease resistance
and quality.

He has been involved with developing many WA wheat varieties,
including Magenta.

Magenta and Yandanooka, developed by Dr Iain Barclay, are the first
?progeny? of InterGrain.

Mr Wilson says Yandanooka is a mid-season udon noodle variety, with
good quality and yield, maturing between the two widely grown udon noodle
wheats, Arrino and Calingiri.

It has improved resistance for all three rust diseases, compared to
Calingiri and Arrino.

Magenta is a high yielding, disease resistant variety of APW wheat,
with a number of advantages over the popular Wyalkatchem, including better
stem and leaf rust resistance.

?It has the most complete resistance to the rusts and leaf spotting
diseases of any variety currently available in WA,? Mr Wilson said.

Intergrain Wheat Breeder, Dr Iain Barclay, stresses that a particular
strength of InterGrain?s program is that wheat varieties are bred to cope
with the stressful environment in WA.

?We also look for parental material which will perform in different
and even hostile soil conditions, such as acid, alkaline, saline,
micronutrient deficient, waterlogged and boron or aluminium toxic soil,? he
said.

?We are looking to incorporate traits such as high intrinsic yield,
disease resistance and micronutrient efficiency.?

According to Dr Barclay, research has given breeders many tools to
accelerate the breeding process.

Molecular biology has led to an understanding of the genes which
respond to environmental stressors and markers for genes allow breeders to
directly manipulate genes for a better understanding of the drivers.

Keith Alcock affirms that in the modern world, successful wheat
breeding is a blend of science and market awareness.

?A lot of energy goes into determining what it is that overseas
markets want,? he said.

At present WA produces 40 per cent of Australia?s wheat and 95 per
cent of that is sold overseas, mostly to the Middle Eastern and Asian
markets.

Mr Alcock trained as a plant pathologist, and worked in agricultural
chemical research and product development. He has made the journey from
corporate to public and now back to the private sector.

His involvement with the farming community spans many years and he
says that although the WA production environment is ?challenging?, he thinks
WA has the best growers ? amenable to new technology, new varieties and best
practice in every respect.

Asked about challenges for the future, Mr Alcock said it would be to
increase wheat production through breeding by more than the current one per
cent per annum achieved in the DAFWA program: ?We need to do better than
that to stay ahead of the cost-price squeeze.?

Another challenge is herbicide resistance.

?The current level of herbicide resistance in WA is an example of how
new technologies can be over-used. WA is the herbicide resistance capital of
the world because we over-reached in depending on selective grass killing
herbicides to drive our no-till systems.

?Hopefully, we are now turning this around and now lead the world in
integrated management of herbicide resistance. InterGrain has a part to play
building on the release of the metribuzin-tolerant variety Eagle Rock and
the ?Clearfield?series.?
Mr Alcock emphasized that their record for quality had always been
there.

?Everything in the former DAFWA wheat breeding program, which is
almost 100 years old, has been incorporated into the new breeding program.

?We have in the past and will in the future ensure we produce ?super?
varieties quality-wise. We are aiming for the top of the grade rather than
also-rans.?

Mr Alcock said that InterGrain was on track to release four new
varieties in 2008, with diverse regional adaptations and covering quality
grades from noodles to hards.
[www.grdc.com.au]



Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
This forum powered by Phorum.