Learning About Wheat Breeding, Testing

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 8

Learning About Wheat Breeding, Testing

Members of the staff of grain and seed firms are important intermediaries in the process of handling New Zealand’s wheat harvest.

For instance, they dispatch samples of farmers’ crops to the Wheat Research Institute for testing for baking quality, and receive the results of tests from the institute. This is one of the most important stages in the disposal of the farmer’s crop,' because baking quality is an important guide to the miller in making his purchases. They also, of coiirse, play a leading part in the actual sale of the crop.

And because the staffs of these firms have such a close association with the handling of the crop, special open days have been held this week under the auspices of the Wheat Research Institute to enable these people to visit the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln to see the start of the growing process in the breeding of new varieties and diseaseresistant varieties; then to visit the Wheat Research Institute to see how quality testing works; and finally to talk to officers of the Wheat Board about aspects of the actual handling of next harvest’s expected record volume of wheat. The director of the Wheat Research Institute, Mr R. W. Cawley, said this week that in the past those associated with breeding and quality testing had frequently talked to farmer audiences, and often merchant representatives had also been present. However, these open days were aimed particularly at the staff of merchants who in their intermediary role needed to be well-informed about what was going on. For three days of this week, nearly 50 persons each day from firms from Invercargill to North Canterbury followed a similar programme. At the Crop Research Division a plant breeder, Mr G. M. Wright, showed the visitors the glasshouse cells and the three growth chambers used to speed up the growth of early generations of new

varieties and new diseaseresistant varieties.

With supplementary lighting in the glasshouse to extend day length in the winter, he said that it was possible to grow two generations of a variety a year, using a combination of a normal crop outside and then the raising of a further crop in the glasshouse in the winter.

But in the growth chamber, where temperatures were maintained at 70 to 80 degress and maximum growth was obtained with fluorescent lights burning 18 hours a day and incandescent lights burning continuously, it was possible to get four generations a year, and with a little trouble, five. If wheat or barley was harvested in the soft stage, about two weeks after flowering, and care was taken to see that no fungus contamination occurred, seed could be germinated, and by this method it was possible to put six generations a year through the chamber.

Referring to breeding for disease resistance, Mr Wright said that with any luck they should have a mildew-resist-ant Aotea, but even when such a disease-resistant variety was ready for use the mildew could also breed new strains or races, and one could never be sure how far ahead of a disease one was. Tolerance to mildew, such as Arawa had, was likely, to be more permanent, but it was harder to breed. Still, they were trying to secure this in Aotea as well.

While most of the open days were devoted to wheat matters, a little time was given at the Crop Research Division to discussion and inspection of oat and barley breeding material. Mr Wright recalled that the most recent of the division’s growth chambers had been built by the Canterbury Malting Company, and he showed the visitors the division’s barley plots. In its collection of barley varieties, he said they had 900 different barleys from all over the world. A Scandinavian - type barley called Zephyr now has the spotlight. Mr Wright said that it had been imported by a South Canterbury man and so far had had one season’s extensive trial in New Zealand. It was extremely promising and was far ahead of anything that had been bred here. Mr Wright said that several of their hybrids had been through full-scale tests and some, which had been bred from Carlsburg, were not fat behind that variety in yield, and quite promising from a malting point of view. But Zephyr was away ahead of Carlsburg in yield, and looked as though it would also be acceptable for malting. As far as breeding was concerned, they had to lift their sights. “I do not think that we have got anything coming on that will beat Zephyr,” said Mr Wright, “but we have got crosses with Zephyr, and maybe in a matter of 10 years we will have something.” Progress could only be made slowly, he said. From the time that the initial cross was made, until a new variety came on to the market, was 12 to 15 years. Only a year or two could be saved by use of the growth chamber, but by using the backcross method of breeding for disease resistance—crossing a variety with a diseaseresistant variety, and then crossing back to the original variety until a variety very similar to the original one was obtained —progress could be speeded up quite a lot.