Earlier Release Of New Wheats?

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 8

Earlier Release Of New Wheats?

In the future promising new wheat varieties may be released for growing commercially earlier than has been the practice in the past. A sub-committee of the Wheat Research Committee has suggested that the time new varieties are in co-operative trials round the country could be reduced with, the idea of increasing the number of varieties in use. This was one of the recommendations in the report of the sub-committee which was adopted by the main committee.

The trials are described as being cooperative because they are between the Departments of Agriculture and Scientific and Industrial Research and fanners.

Sir Walter Mulholland, a wheatgrowers’ representative on the committee, said that a criticism heard from farmers was of the time that was involved before the release of a new variety, even after it appeared to be worth while. It seemed that testing was carried on almost to the point of trying to condemn it, he said. Yet this criticism was answered to a degree by the very successful releases that had been’made. The chairman of the committee, Professor J. Packer, said that in effect the criticism was that they were trying to be too sure before a variety was released. In its report the subcommittee, consisting of Messrs R. W. Cawley (chairman), L. C. Dunshea, R. G. Rainey, W. R. Hawker, J. K. Ireland and L. G. Copp, said: “the wheat breeding procedure used at present has been successful, but it has been criticised because it has produced too few varieties. If in any year climatic conditions are favourable for an epidemic of some disease, a great part of the crop might be threatened. It is considered that there should be at least six varieties, each with wide adaption, which would provide farmers with some choice of wheat to grow.

“A shortening of the period during which an advanced line is tested in co-operative trials could be considered as one way of permitting the testing of a larger number of lines. Such a step, however, would involve an increased risk of the release of a variety which might prove unsatisfactory, and there would have to be modifications of the release procedure. A line would be considered for release only if it was shown to be entirely satisfactory in trials. In cases of doubt, as with the susceptibility of 1020,01 to the grain aphis, further trial? would be necessary, or even re-selection from the bulk material. “Because of the short time available it would not be possible to produce pure seed to be available at the time of release (earlier in the report

it was stated If a line shows promise after one or two years of field trials single plants typical of the majority of the plants are selected in the first stage of the production of nucleus seed, anticipating the possible release of the line as a named variety and ensuring that there is certified seed available should it be required’). Therefore it would be necessary to increase stocks of bulk seed, which would be very impure and would be sold as uncertified seed.

“It has been found by past experience that the only equitable way to distribute seed of new varieties is through the Seed Merchants’ Associations and if varieties are to be released as impure bulk seed the same procedure shall be followed. Pure seed of the new variety would be produced as soon as practicable and would enter certification in the usual way. “It would be necessary for the committee to choose a name for the bulk line before it was released commercially. The lines under test have only the numbers of their respective crosses, and there would be a great deal of confusion in the seed trade if varieties were labelled with numbers. It is suggested that the Maori nam-s for birds be adopted, and if it is considered necessary to distinguish between the bulk release and the certified variety, alternative Maori names for the same bird could be used.

“At the present time, all selections of early generation material are carried out at Lincoln. Only the advanced lines, which have proved superior at Lincoln, are tested in extensive trials in the main wheat areas. If the number of years taken in the testing of advanced lines in co-operative trials is to be reduced, it will be necessary to sow lines of earlier generations at locations with soil and climate different from Lincoln. Facilities for the rapid sowing of trial plots and a tractor-mounted harvester for small plots acquired last season have made possible the extension of this part of wheat testing. Information will be gained on the adaptability of the early generation lines, and it is possible that lines will be selected which are not particularly suited to the Lincoln area, but which have a definite place in other parts of the South Island.”

Dr H. C. Smith, director of the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln, who criticised the report on several grounds, said that it described the breeding programme at Lincoln, but it took no account of techniques used by the division’s sub-station at Palmerston North. He suggested that selection in the breeding programme was so vigorous that it limited selection for yield. They took the attitude that every avenue of plant breeding should be looked at in the interests of improving the wheats of New Zealand, said Dr J. M. McEwan, who is in charge of the wheat-breeding sub-station in the North Island.

Mr L. G. Copp, senior cereal breeder at the Crop Research Division, said that the report contained a general description of the policy that had been used in wheat breeding at Lincoln and which had been most successful. This was the pedigree system of breeding. At Lincoln, he said, they were “right up with the male sterile method” and the short straw wheats had been in use for about 12 years and while nothing had come out of them they still had lines in their breeding material. The policy that had been adopted over the years was that they had to be satisfied that a new variety for release had to have given reasonable yields over a number of years in different parts of the country. “We have been testing the adaptability of new varieties in various parts of the country under differing soil fertility and rainfall and even under the differing techniques of the co-operating farmers.”

Mr Copp said that they were now proposing to test for adaptability at a much earlier stage and if this was successful they could possibly have a variety for release after three years whereas In the past they had always worked on at least five years testing before a new variety was worth considering. Advising that care should be exercised in the release of new varieties, Mr J. T. Gould, a bakers’ representative on the committee, said that once a variety was released, there was no control over the sort of flour that was produced. The interests of bakers in the quality of the product was also emphasised by Mr W. McCutcheon, another bakers’ representative, who said that it was the consumers of bread whose interests must be given the greatest attention. It was for this reason that bakers were concerned to protect quality. They were the protectors of the consumers. Mr J. K. Ireland, a flourmillers’ representative, said that it had been said in another report before the meeting that no industry would survive unless it satisfied the interests of its customers. To satisfy the customers wheat must be grown that satisfied millers and bakers.

In the breeding programme Mr Copp said that selection was made< first on agronomic characteristics, then on yield and then on quality.