DESPITE clashing with the start of harvest, 60 farmers and people involved with agribusiness attended last week’s National Variety Trials (NVT) and agronomy field day at Gerogery.
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An impressive line-up of speakers from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Charles Sturt University and Sydney University spoke at the day, held at the Moll family property Elderslie.
Topics included seed production, herb resistance, trial plot comparisons themselves, frost management and time of sowing, heat stress on cereal cops at flowering time, a new triticale variety and more.
The day was organised by Local Land Services Riverina and supported by DPI and Local Land Services Murray.
The NVT is an initiative of the Grain Research Development Corporation, which began in 2005.
But the Moll family have been involved with the trials for many years, according to the family farm manager Daniel Moll.
“My grandfather Gordon and father Evan became involved about 50 years ago,” he said.
“Clashing with harvest wasn’t a good thing but I would say the season is 10 days to two weeks early this year but it was still a great day and very full on.”
The day was co-ordinated by LLS Riverine agronomist Lisa Castleman.
“The trials have been going for many years but only came under the banner of the NVT in 2005,” she said.
Ms Castleman said the day had been a success and there had been good feedback from those who spoke at it.
“It was about getting information out there and there was a lot to look at,” Ms Castleman said.
“The agronomists who came along were very happy and there was a lot for them to digest and take home.”
The NVT is a national program of comparative crop variety testing with standardised trial management, data generation, collection and dissemination.
According to its website, this is managed through an internet-accessed database that ensures a common approach and uniformity across the system.
Further, the change from the previous testing system was driven by the increasing commercial focus of plant breeding programs in Australia.
The NVT system has been developed to complement the plant breeding programs.
Breeders will make their release decisions prior to nominating lines for testing in the program.
NVT will only be testing lines very close to commercial release.
