New wheat Impresses
A new high-performing Clearfield wheat variety, Impress CL Plus, bred by InterGrain, has been officially released by Agriculture and Food Minister Ken Baston and is now available to WA growers.
Mr Baston said Impress CL Plus was set to be widely adopted by WA wheat growers, particularly in the northern Wheatbelt.
The new variety is an early to mid-maturing Australian premium white variety that demonstrated excellent yields during trials.
It comes with a robust disease package, including good resistance to yellow spot.
Mr Baston said the new variety was based on the well-known variety Wyalkatchem and, being a two-gene imidazolinone tolerant wheat, provided growers with a broader suite of control options.
The new variety is the first Clearfield Plus wheat to be released by InterGrain since it was formed in 2007.
Manmanning farmer Kevin Avery, who trialled Impress CL Plus last year, said he was impressed with its performance.
In order to attend an overseas wedding, he planted his Impress CL Plus quite early, on May 4, at seeding rates of 60kg/ha and 80kg/ha, adjacent to plantings of Justica CL Plus.
The paddock grew Clearfield STL in 2013, hence there was a reasonable level of inoculum of yellow spot to potentially infect his 2014 crop.
Mr Avery noted, however, that yellow spot infection was more severe on the Justica CL Plus than on the Impress CL Plus.
"Late in the growing season, I was delighted to see bigger heads, probably a spikelet longer, in the Impress," Mr Avery said.
"Also, I was comforted to see its very large grain size, which I felt should help with yield and reduce the likelihood of high screenings in a harsh finish."
Mr Avery's Impress CL Plus yielded about 1.8 tonnes/ha, or 15 per cent more than the Justica, and its protein percentage was higher, putting it into the APW2 grade.
He said the superior yellow spot resistance was obvious earlier in the year and expected this could be why Impress delivered more yield and protein.
"I was so impressed with how the new InterGrain wheat went in 2014, considering the season we had, that I anticipate moving totally over to Impress CL Plus from Justica," he said.
Impress CL Plus had been bulked up and seed was available for purchase for the 2015 season.
The end-point royalty on the new Impress CL Plus is $4.10 a tonne.
Mr Baston said the Government was committed to supporting initiatives like this to improve the profitability of the WA grains industry.
"The development of new varieties provides a major advancement, which will have far-reaching benefits to growers, industry and the State's economy," he said.
