Overseas Wheats "Vetted"

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

Overseas Wheats "Vetted"

So far, they had not had any variety of wheat from overseas that had outyielded Aotea under test in New Zealand, Mr L. G. Copp, senior cereal breeder at the Crop Research Division, told members of the staff of grain and seed firms who visited the cereal plots at Lincoln this week.

Mr Copp said that any variety that was well spoken of in Europe was “vetted” at Lincoln and put into trials. Speaking of wheats grown in Britain, Mr Copp said that of 3.5 m acres of whes-t grown there, only a small amount went to mills—the great bulk of the production was for

feed. Their standards were thus quite different from those in New Zealand, where the main purpose of grain growing was milling. Mr Copp said that the quality of New Zealand wheat for milling and baking was comparable with wheat that was bought from South Australia. New Zealand wheat was required to stand up to the

sort of handling it would have to contend with in modern bakehouses.

Mr Copp showed the visitors a plot of Gaines wheat growing at Lincoln. Under irrigation this wheat had yielded more than 200 bushels to the acre in Washington State, he said, but its baking quality was so poor that millers in the State would not buy it. In trials at Lincoln, Mr Copp said, it had not outyielded Aotea. Without irrigation,’ Mr Copp said, Aotea had yielded 150 bushels to the acre in a commercial crop in Southland. The highest yield of Arawa in a commercial crop was 130 bushels, in the Oamaru district, and the highest yielding commercial crop of Hilgendorf had returned 100 bushels to the acre.

The visitors also saw a plot of Hybrid 46, which at one time held the world record, at 1321 bushels to the acre. “This is most promising,” said Mr Copp, referring'to a new variety, 1020,01, which has still to undergo three or four more years of trials yet. This year, he said, it hadgiven yields as far above Aotea as Aotea had been above Cross Seven, and its baking quality seemed to be quite satisfactory.

In its parentage this wheat has Arawa, Aotea, Hilgendorf, Atson (a Swedish wheat), Selkirk (a Canadian spring wheat), and Gabo an Australian wheat). In the case of 946,01, Mr Copp said it had yielded slightly better than Aotea, and its quality was also slightly better. But it had been tested for only two years, and it was desirable to test new varieties for at least five years before they were put on to the market. This was a possible replacement for Arawa, he said. Now that farmers were growing spring wheat in the Methven, Sheffield and St Andrews districts, Mr Copp said, they were giving attention to spring wheats, and a small pilot plot had been established at Sheffield. They had now been breeding at Lincoln for more than 40 years and from their crosses they had had quite a large number of spring-type wheats. But spring wheat material could not be put into plots in a district if no-one was springsowing wheat. The main objective with oats was to get rust resistance and a somewhat shorter straw to facilitate harvesting and handling, said Mr Copp. The variety known as 72,01 had all the attributes of Mapua and was also a little higher yielding, said Mr Copp. It was a likely replacement for Mapua. “You might hear more of this,” commented Mr Copp, referring to 182,01. This was in yield trials for the first time, and it had done extremely well in earlier trials. It was higher yielding than other varieties and had very little barley yellow dwarf virus in it.