WHEAT Quality Australia (WQA) has released its 2018 wheat variety master list including 15 newly classified wheat cultivars.
The 15 newly classified lines run from Australian Prime Hard (APH) quality down to feed.
The 2018 list also sees the removal of 38 old wheat varieties, which were initially flagged for removal in 2016, in line with WQA’s policy of gradually phasing out varieties to give growers time to adjust.
WQA executive officer Hugh Robertson said the master list, updated annually, was part of a push to ensure Australia’s ongoing competitiveness on the world wheat stage.
“There is a lot of competition from places like the Black Sea, and while we might not be able to compete on price we can compete on quality,” Mr Robertson said.
The list features varieties and what grade they can be delivered into across four broad growing regions in Australia, northern, south-eastern, southern and western.
New additions to the 2018 list are: Illabo, Sunprime, SEA Condamine, Razor CL Plus, Longsword, EG Titanium, EG Jet, Gold, Cobalt, DS Tull, DS Bennett, DBA Vittaroi, DBA Bindaroi, RGT Zanzibar, and RGT Calabro.
Other changes in the list include Cutlass being upgraded to an Australian Prime Hard in the Northern Zone and DS Faraday classified as Australian Prime Hard in the South Eastern Zone; while Scepter and DS Pascal have been classified as Australian Hard in the Northern Zone, and Sunmate has been upgraded to Australian Hard in the Southern Zone.
B53 has also been classified as Australian Standard White in the Northern Zone.
Mr Robertson said a part of the WQA charter was to review all lines over ten years old.
As a result of this review process, 250 varieties have been flagged for removal or reclassification over this period.
He said the old varieties slated to be phased out were not widely grown.
There were two varieties where consultation with industry meant the lines stayed on the master list.
The downgrade of Kennedy in the Northern Zone from APH to feed quality was postponed to 2019, allowing an additional season for growers to adjust, while the removal of Calingiri from Australian noodle wheat has been extended until 2020 to allow the market acceptance and producer uptake of alternatives to be fully assessed.