Horsham crop scientist Garry O'Leary has won a Victorian Wheat Research Foundation award for his work on the Australian Grains Free Air Carbon Enrichment experiment. Picture: CONTRIBUTED
Horsham crop scientist Garry O'Leary has won a Victorian Wheat Research Foundation Award for his work.
Dr O'Leary works for the Department of Primary Industries and is one of Australia's leading crop modellers.
His research models the response of wheat to climate change as part of the Australian Grains Free Air Carbon Enrichment AGFACE experiment near Horsham.
Dr O'Leary said modelling provided a way to use knowledge from around the world without the expense of 're-inventing the wheel'.
"It's really a team effort of specialists. Of course, modelling cannot replace field or laboratory experiments, but it accelerates the advance," he said.
"Our national modelling team comprises agronomists, hydrogeologists, soil scientists, computer programmers, chemists, pathologists and physiologists."
Dr O'Leary said the award would contribute to funding the present study in Horsham on the effects of high temperature on phenology and grain set in wheat.
"Specifically, it will assist travel later this year to an international workshop in Mexico, where more than 30 crop models are being tested against crops grown under high temperature in Arizona," he said.
Department of Primary Industries Future Farming Research Systems executive director Ron Prestidge said the AGFACE project was established to reduce uncertainty about the impact of high carbon dioxide levels likely in the future.
He said it exposed crops to elevated carbon dioxide levels under a range of agronomic treatments.
"Dr O'Leary has contributed to the AGFACE research since the program started in 2007 and leads the modelling component," he said.
"His modelling approaches are recognised internationally where he contributes to the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, co-ordinated by NASA and the United States Department of Agriculture."
Dr Prestidge said international scientists voted Dr O'Leary's models to be the most advanced compared with other groups in the world at a meeting in Japan.
"Dr O'Leary uses a methodology that enables climate change impacts on crops to be modelled across the landscape, taking into account differences such as soils, temperatures and rainfall," he said.
"The approach allows investigation of impact of changes to agronomic practice as well as some genetic crop traits."
The Victorian Wheat Research Foundation was established in 1962 to oversee the development and activities of a new wheat research centre in the Wimmera, which was later established at what is now the Grains Innovation Park in Natimuk Road, Horsham.
