Ag Industry, Research, Uncategorized

New variety tipped to help barley production boom

A new high-performance barley variety is set to turbocharge the industry in Australia

New barley variety Neo is tipped to take Australian barley production to the next level.

The high-performance variety promises to increase yields by 10 per cent, generating a potential $110 million annual boost to the value of Australia’s barley industry.

The variety, which was recently submitted for malting barley accreditation, is well suited to medium to high rainfall environments – boasting strong pest and disease resistance and superior grain quality characteristics.

“Neo is a once-in-a-lifetime find in a breeding program that evaluates tens of thousands of lines annually,” says Neo breeder David Moody.

“As a result, we have fast-tracked the breeding process to get this exceptional variety out to growers as quickly as possible.”

The naturally bred variety is a product of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s cereal doubled haploid program, accelerating the development of breeding lines tailored to Australian conditions.

Moody says the Neo variety has much better resistance to the spot forms and net forms of net blotch than the more widely grown RGT variety, as well as high levels of rain plumpness, good tolerance to lodging, good head retention and tolerance to head loss.

Neo was created by Western Australia-based breeding company InterGrain, co-owned by the WA government and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

“We are confident that it will be a game-changer for growers, in terms of yield, disease and quality, with indicative micro-malting quality attributes suggesting it will be very popular with domestic and international maltsters,” InterGrain chief executive officer Tress Walmsley says.

“In Western Australia alone, the anticipated scale of adoption of Neo will boost the value of the barley industry by more than $45 million per annum.”

Barley harvest in Western Australia

InterGrain is expanding to a state-of-the-art plant breeding facility at the WA government’s biosecurity and research facility at Murdoch University and a new facility in Horsham, Victoria.

It is also establishing a seed production site at Narrabri, NSW.

The company has a close alliance with the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC), co-owned by Grains Australia and the WA government, to ensure new varieties satisfy market requirements.

“Neo barley reflects its name – a modern variety, ahead of its time and bred using the latest plant breeding technology to generate a leap in production and malting performance,” says WA’s food and agriculture minister Jackie Jarvis.

“Our government is pleased to be partnering with InterGrain and AEGIC to back research and development that supports WA growers and the broader industry to remain internationally competitive now and into the future.”

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