Growing interest in plant evaluation

Press, 8 December 1978, Page 10

Growing interest in plant evaluation

The interest that New Zealand firms are showing in crop research and evaluation continues to grow. Next week a research unit will be opened at Prebbleton — the fourth to be established in the Christchurch district in the last two years.

To be known as Crop Improvement Associates. It is situated near the intersection of Springs and Marshs Roads, and comprises 20 hectares of rich cropping land. Nine companies, and two subsidiaries of one of them, have combined to establish the new unit, but the main firms are the Canterbury Farmers’ Cooperative Association, of Timaru; the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, of Christchurch; and Hodder and Tolley, Ltd, with a combined interest of 75 per cent.

It is as yet early days for the project, but already the manager (Dr John Field-Dodgson) has established multiplication trials for a big company in the Netherlands.

These consist of 40 Fl lines of spring wheat, 92 lines of Fl barley, and 400 ears in the multiplication of another single line. At this stage, the unit will be involved mainly with the cereals wheat and barley and also garden peas. Already, through the associations of the various shareholding companies, arrangements have been entered into with companies in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Dr Field-Dodgson hopes that in time the group will be able to involve farmers with their work. This would involve the larger type of trials, and the multiplication of accepted varieties before their release for general usage.

For some species of brassicas, this will mean growing seed in isolated areas. Already this aspect is being investigated. Dr Field-Dodgson said this week there was a good demand from overseas breeders for multiplication programmes in New Zealand. This was probably because New

Zealand had ideal growing conditions, coupled with reliability. “In fact, I would say we go higher than the quality they require. Other firms, already in this field, have proved this.” While seed multiplication will be a major part of the unit’s work, Dr Field-Dodgson and his staff will also be evaluating many of these varieties to determine their acceptability under New Zealand conditions.

The bigger trials will be very similar to trials run by the Ministry of Agriculture for the acceptable cultivar or variety list, and they will be carried out to the Ministry’s requirements.

The move of Crop Improvement Associates to

Prebbleton coincided with the height of the growing season, so it has meant very busy days for Dr Field-Dodgson and his staff.

His assistants to date are Mr Graham Price, a widely experienced man in cropping, and Mr lan Gold, who has obtained a diploma in field technology at Lincoin. Staff will be added as required. Buildings so far completed include an office block and laboratory, and a large farm machinery building.

With a free-draining type of soil, Dr Field-Dod-gson considers the new site is ideal for a plant breeding project. With costs in mind, he is concentrating on methods involving a minimum of tillage. To achieve this, he purchased a chisel plough rather than a moleboard plough and, more recently, a set of power harrows, at the time believed to be the only set of their type in the South Island.

Dr Field-Dodgson envisages moving into horticultural varieties along with cereal trials and, in the long term, there may be a place for tree-crop trials also.

The project is to be officially opened next Tuesday afternoon by Professor R. H. M. Langer, professor of plant science at Lincoln College.

Beside the three companies with an individual 25 per cent interest, other firms associated with the project include Allied Farmers’ Co-operative, Ltd, Donald Reid-Otago Farmers’ Ltd, the Hawkes Bay Farmers’ Co-operative Association, Ltd, the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-oper-ative Distributing Company, Ltd, the North Otago Farmers’ Co-oper-ative Association, and the Southland Farmers’ Cooperative Association.

The directors are Mr R. Holland (chairman), who is manager of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-oper-ative Association, Mr R. A. Eaton, managing-direct-or of Hodder and Tolley, Ltd, Mr J. N. Macassey, managing-director of Donald Reid-Otago Farmers, Ltd, and Mr J. M. Crawford, general manager of the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association, Ltd.