VETERAN barley breeder David Moody has had a hand in many of the most dynamic barley varieties to hit the market in Australia in the last 20 years, so when he says that a new variety has the potential to be one of the best he has been involved with, you listen.
Mr Moody, barley breeder at InterGrain, said he thought Spartacus CL, an imidazolinone (imi) tolerant line which is commercialised through his company’s collaboration with Syngenta, would be widely adopted.
“It’s really exciting. Previously when you’ve seen imi tolerant varieties, whether it be in barley or other commodities, there’s been a significant yield penalty compared to non-imi tolerant varieties. But in two years of the National Variety Trials (NVT) Spartacus has ranked extremely highly for yield, and is amongst the highest yielding varieties available.
“Previously Clearfield (the herbicide system used with imi tolerant cultivars) varieties have been useful for farmers with problem paddocks, but they have been used more as an agronomic tool than an out and out cash crop because of that yield penalty the imitolerant varieties possessed.
“Now, with Spartacus, growers will get both the yield and agronomic benefits.”
He said the variety followed on from Intergrain’s La Trobe line, which is malt accredited.
“As it is better in yield and physical grain quality than La Trobe, combined with the imi tolerance, I think it’s going to be big.”
Mr Moody defended the decision to release an imi tolerant variety, with some agronomists, especially in low rainfall zones, expressing concern that farmers were being locked in a vicious cycle of imi usage due to a lack of rainfall to break down the herbicide’s residual component.
“It will be an option for growers, if they wish to give the Clearfield chemistry a break there are other options.”
He said the variety had achieved good results in all climatic zones.
Importantly, NVT results in this year’s tough harvest through Victoria and South Australia mirrored those in more clement conditions in other states.
“It goes well in a tough season, that’s been proven, it is a short season variety and that helps in those tight finishes.”
He said he was also pleased with its good head retention and low levels of lodging.
In terms of grain quality, he said it would be slightly plumper than LaTrobe.
“It’s currently undergoing Barley Australia malt testing, and that is at least a two year process, so an any decision on accreditation could not be made any earlier than early 2018.
“You obviously can’t pre-empt the findings of these tests, but what I can say is in our own small scale tests we’ve been happy with its end use performance.
This season, Mr Moody said there would be 2000 tonnes of Spartacus seed available, enough to plant around 30,000 hectares.
He said the variety would initially be sold as a feed line while the malt accreditation tests were taking place.
The name has an interesting back story.
“From now on, all the Intergrain barley lines from my program will be named after Roman gladiators.
“There is a reason behind this, in the era of the gladiators, they were known as the Barley Men, as they ate a diet heavy in barley to allow them to bulk up for their fighting duties, so we thought it would be a nice touch to name our varieties after them.”