A new Australian plant breeding company, with an associated and significant grain grower shareholding, is entering the Australian broadacre seed market with initial plans for the development of new, high performance varieties of wheat, other cereals, pulses and oilseeds.

Through agreements with some of the world’s leading plant breeding companies in Europe and North America, the new company, Access Genetics Pty Ltd, expects to offer broadacre grain growers access to some of the best, high-yielding superior quality genetics from North America and Europe, through the delivery of new plant varieties.

And it’s all based on non-genetically modified breeding techniques that will help protect market access for locally produced crops in vital domestic and export markets.

The new company is partly farmer-owned through the Nugrain consortium, made up of Nufarm, GrainCorp, AusBulk, Co-operative Bulk Handling, and Wesfarmers Landmark.

Access Genetics is already well ahead in its initial plans and expects to launch several new varieties for the 2004 season.

Importantly for local grain growers, the company believes that its breeding and development programs are delivering new varieties that are more than competitive with current varieties in terms of crop yield, grain quality, disease resistance and other attributes.

The company is part of a new shuttle-breeding project between Svalof Weibull and World Wide Wheat Inc. that provides broader adaptation during breeding, and in addition, wider quality profiles to meet international market needs. The company is also confident of faster variety development as a result of the worldwide program that achieves some 50,000 crosses per year, with some 5,000 to 10,000 in Australia alone. Nugrain Chairman, Victorian grain grower, Allan McCallum, who is also Chairman of the new company, officially launched Access Genetics in Melbourne on January 30.

Svalof Weibull wheat breeding nursery in Spain

Grain grower participation through several of the consortium’s members is expected to facilitate direct input to breeding direction and will provide rapid and effective feedback on varietal performance under a wide range of conditions.

Access Genetics has established agreements with two of the world’s leading plant breeders in World Wide Wheat Inc. of the USA and Svalof Weibull, whose principal wheat breeding station is in the arid, Mediterranean climate of Spain.

In Australia, the company has established breeding operations in Victoria and New South Wales and local assessment centres in Western and South Australia, Victoria, and northern New South Wales.

These centres have been delivering data on candidate varieties for some years according to Mr. McCallum.

Mr. McCallum said these centers were enabling a thorough and vigorous assessment of candidate varieties under the unique and extremely diverse growing conditions of the Australian wheat belt.

"It is essential that any and all candidate varieties are given a chance to prove themselves under local conditions and that our farmer customers have full access to trial results and quality data for any variety that we release. We see local evaluation across the wheat belt as a routine procedure for Access Genetics and see local field days as an essential part of the communication program from the company to farmers and vice versa."

Joining Allan McCallum on the Board of the new company are Managing Director, Donald Coles, and Barry Cox, General Manager of Nugrain.

Donald Coles is the founder of Access Genetics and is Chairman of pasture seed company Valley Seeds Pty Ltd. Other Board members include Nufarm Group General Manager R&D, Mike Dalling and Valley Seeds Manager, Chris Lamrock.

Access Genetics, jointly owned by the Nugrain consortium and founder Donald Coles, has reached out across the world, to form fresh partnerships with two of the most respected breeders from Europe and the USA.

As a result, Australian grain growers can expect unique access to superior germplasm from overseas programs, and far less time for new varieties to reach the market than traditional breeding programs.

The breeders, Svalof Weibull and World Wide Wheat Inc. are recognised as leaders in their fields.

Managing Director, Donald Coles explains the benefits for local grain growers in terms of access to better varieties in less time from the breeding program’s first crosses to commercial release.

"Our partnerships are proving to be highly productive in terms of the rate of development of new varieties, which are showing themselves to be very competitive in a number of grain growing regions.

These arrangements provide Australian growers with access to the rapid advances made in Europe and the US as a result of the huge investment in cereal development in North America and Europe.

With 6,000 lines of wheat already available to us and more than 3,000 being generated annually we are confident that our breeding program will be amongst the best in the world," said Mr. Coles.

According to Mr. Coles, several candidate wheat varieties from Access Genetics will be undergoing final assessment in the coming year.

"Weather permitting, we expect to be finalising submissions for classification of these varieties for release in 2004," he said.

"We see classification as one of the final hurdles to release and we approach this significant step with great confidence in our candidate varieties."

Mr. Coles said that Access Genetics also expected a number of field days in the coming spring season to demonstrate the attributes of the new varieties.

"And we expect to demonstrate the attributes of our varieties to grain growers in the most practical way possible – in comparison trials on a field scale before they buy." Durum potential "Results from trials with the base northern hemisphere breeding material in Australia over the past three years have demonstrated the potential for significant improvement in crop yield over current leading varieties. Importantly, these varieties appear to exhibit competitive quality and disease resistance. But perhaps the most immediate benefits from Access Genetics’ move into the international breeding world will come in the Durum wheat sector", he said. "Our breeding partner World Wide Wheat Inc.is a world leader in Durum breeding. Our new durum wheat varieties offer significantly higher quality and are amongst the best quality in the world as well as being adapted to local conditions. We expect very strong interest from growers in the key durum regions, especially South Australia".

At a trial site at Bindi Bindi in Western Austreali, Access Genetics new varieties have longer heads compared to Westonia; a unique characteristic that can, in some regions, lead to higher yields.