Bounty wheat only for feed

Press, 30 June 1982, Page 2

Bounty wheat only for feed

One of the new wheat varieties recently added to the list of acceptable cultivars. Bounty, has not been accepted by the Wheal Board for milling and baking in the 1982-83 season.

This means that Bounty, being released in New Zealand by Dalgety New Zealand. Ltd, will be grown only as a feed wheat this season, arid for multiplication and evaluation by the company and testing by the Wheat Research Institute. The Wheat Board said yesterday that it had considered the various alternatives for handling Bounty for the 1983 harvest and had decided,

after reviewing all of the .circumstances, that it should be processed outside the normal milling system. “For the 1982-83 season, therefore, the board has determined, in accordance with section 27 of the Wheat Board Act, 1965, to exclude Bounty from section 26 of the act,” it said. "This means that Bounty does not have to be offered to the board in 1983 and will therefore not 'be bought by flour mills for manufacture into flour. .

‘Handling Bounty in this way was the alternative considered by the board to be the most suitable in the

circumstances. "It will enable the performance of the cultivar, which has yet to be grown in commercial conditions, to be monitored and will provide time for a fuller assessment of the cultivar to be carried out so that its position for 1984 can be assessed,” the board said. At the time Bounty was placed on the acceptable list, Dalgety’s arable manager, Mr C. Mortlock, said that the company had imported and planted 40 tonnes of seed this year, from which it was hoped to harvest 2000 tonnes of wheat which could be used for planting in

1983. Mr Mortlock was not available for comment yesterday, but it is believed that the company, and the farmers who are growing Bounty this year, expected the board’s action. But the eventual aim of the company in importing and evaluating the variety is to have it accepted for human consumption, as it has been in the United Kingdom. The wheat has immunity to stripe rust, which makes it potentially attractive to New Zealand growers, now faced with annual attacks of the disease.