Victorian Sowing Guide to assist farmers with crop variety choices

By Rodney Woods

Nov 22, 2019

The 2020 Victorian Crop Sowing Guide is now available to support growers with their variety choices ahead of next year’s sowing programs.

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Grains Research and Development Corporation’s National Variety Trials southern regional manager Rob Wheeler said the publication provided the most up-to-date information on disease resistance ratings and variety performance at a time when growers were planning their seed requirements for 2020.

“The Victorian Crop Sowing Guide outlines information on current varieties of the major winter crops grown in Victoria,” Mr Wheeler said.“The publication prompts growers to ask whether they are growing the best variety for their location, environment and farming system.“Growers are encouraged to use the summary as a guide for discussion with their consultants, advisers and marketing agents.”

Mr Wheeler said the majority of grain yield and quality data provided in the summary was sourced from the GRDC NVT program of comparative crop variety testing, with data from some breeding trials added to the information available.“Results from the NVT program are also used by pathologists to determine disease resistance ratings presented in the Victorian Crop Sowing Guide,” he said.

“It is important that growers check the disease resistance ratings each year for any changes from the previous season.“Overall, the summary brings together NVT data from the previous five seasons, long-term multi-environment trial yield predictions, disease ratings, quality data and agronomic information.”The latest 2019 NVT data will also be available early in 2020 via the NVT Online website at: www.nvtonline.com.au

The sowing guide, available at http://bit.ly/2O8jLoh and arriving soon in growers’ letter boxes, has been published by the GRDC in partnership with Agriculture Victoria.