There is a growing expectation that plant breeding will be to the fore in delivering sustainability for the Irish tillage sector.
Brian Reilly manages Drummonds’ extensive crop trials programme. The work provides an insight into the performance potential of new wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape varieties.
With the prospect of new agrochemicals coming to market now fast diminishing, he firmly believes that plant breeding will be the key driving force in delivering enhanced levels of sustainability for tillage farmers.
“The number of chemical-based management options in a farmer’s tool box is already diminishing,” he told Agriland.
“But the good news is that plant breeders are already responding to help make up this gap. In our case, 80% of the oilseed rape seed sales last year were of a variety that is totally resistant to sclerotinia.
“This means that the growers in question will not have to spray for the disease at all.”
The variety in question is Pioneer BT303. Looking further down the track, Reilly is also predicting the commercial availability of a rape variety that is fully resistant to clubroot.
“Clubroot is not becoming a problem in Ireland as a direct consequence of the increased rape acreage,” he said. “The issue has more to do with the inclusion of various brassica varieties within cover crop mixes.”
Barley breeding
Turning to barley, Reilly is very hopeful that a winter variety with strong resistance to Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) will be available later this year.
“We have trialled Molly very successfully over the past number of years. It is a two-row option that yields strongly and should perform well under Irish conditions,” he explained.
“Molly has been submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine [DAFM] for inclusion in the national crop evaluation trials.”
Drummonds has two new spring barley varieties available for the 2023 season.
Skyway, from Nordic Seeds, was on the DAFM provisional recommended list in 2022.
Trials confirm that it is the highest yield spring barley in the DAFM variety list for 2023 with moderate susceptibility to lodging and straw breakdown.
Skyway is a moderately later maturing variety. It has demonstrated very good resistance to mildew and good resistance to both brown rust and rhynchosporium. Skyway is moderately resistant to net blotch.
“Skyway can be used for both malting ad feed purposes,” Brian Reilly added.
The other new spring barley option from Drummonds this year is Rockway. A feed option only, it has been included in the DAFM provisional recommended list for 2023.
Rockway is a high yielding, moderately later maturing variety. It shows good resistance to lodging and moderate resistance to straw breakdown.
Rockway has also demonstrated very good resistance to mildew, good resistance to both rhynchosporium and net blotch plus moderate resistance to brown rust.