AUSTRALIA'S grain producers will have a range of new varietal choices following releases over recent weeks.
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Headlining the new varieties is a world-first oat tolerant to imiadzolinone (imi), a widely used herbicide in Australian cropping systems.
Bred by Michael Materne, well known for his work in the pulse industry, the oat cultivar, called Kingbale, was developed by Grains Innovations Australia (GIA) and will be commercialised by Intergrain following a recent agreement with GIA.
According to Dr Materne, Kingbale offered growers a new herbicide option for their oaten hay rotations that significantly improved weed control.
"While looking over the fence from our pulse trials, we saw weedy oat crops and quickly learnt that herbicide options were very limited," he said.
He said the crop was suited to growing where there was imi residue that would mean a non-tolerant variety was susceptible to herbicide damage.
"Kingbale's imiadazolinone tolerance supports the variety as an excellent option where there are residue concerns from imidazolinone use in previous crops," Dr Materne said.
A tall oat variety, Kingbale has good early vigour and preliminary data shows it has a similar disease profile to Wintaroo.
Intergrain chief executive Tress Walmsley said the oat variety was ideally suited to South Australia's Mid North - a large export oaten hay producer, and was part of the company's new oat dynasty.
Meanwhile, Intergrain is also quietly excited about its new wheat, Rockstar, launched with both the Western Australian and eastern markets in mind.
Rockstar is designed for the mid- to late-flowering maturity bracket.
The new variety has yielded well in trials across a range of environments and has hard classification in the southern zone, with Intergrain awaiting classification for WA and southern NSW.
Meanwhile, newcomer to the wheat seeds market, S&W is upbeat about the prospects of their winter wheat DS Bennett.
DS Bennett, designed for planting in medium rainfall zones across Victoria and southern NSW, has performed well in trials in comparison to similar varieties.
Wheat breeder S&W research and development lead Nicholas Willey said the company was thrilled with the early signs.
"We are certainly seeing that our DS Bennett, as well as DS Pascal, are widely delivering excellent results for growers seeking dual-purpose wheat options in these unpredictable seasons," Mr Willey said.
He said the variety could be used as part of a frost management strategy due to its flowering window.