Cotton Seed Distributors - Web on Wednesday

We’re just about the release the largest range of new varieties ever released since the CSIRO breeding program started. Could you say a little bit about some of the new varieties that are coming through? There’s a whole range there obviously.

Yes, it’s quite scary Rob. There’s three new Conventionals, there’s two new Roundup Ready’s, there’s five Bollgard’s and six Bollgard Roundup’s in this release and it’s obviously due to the transition from Ingard to Bollgard II, so there’s a lot of Ingard varieties canned obviously and we’re working as rapidly as we can to replace those with a good suite.

The varieties that will be of most interest to people will be the new Bollgard’s, particularly Bollgard Roundup stacks and there are up to six of those.

A couple of them with limited seed supply at this stage but we have a very good suite we believe covering North to South and covering some of the particular issues, especially Fusarium Wilt so some of these varieties have excellent Fusarium Wilt resistance.

Likewise fibre quality has been a very important issue for us and this represents a start of where we’re trying to concentrate more on some of the fibre quality traits that the spinners are after. It’s not insignificant though that there are still three new Conventional varieties released this year, a new mainstream line, a new Fusarium specialist and a new dryland specialist and that I think signifies the fact that we’re still working very heavily on insuring that we produce some new germplasm for what other challenges might arise in the medium and the long time.

So, yes I think there’s sixteen or more there and it’s quite scary. It’s been a big process for us in breeding and obviously a big process for CSD in producing that seed.

Warwick, you might be able to give us a bit of a run down on firstly the new Conventional varieties. We’ve got three of those so maybe if you could let us know what they are and what there attributes are?

Yes Rob, we do have three new Conventionals as you mentioned. The first one that I guess we’d like to introduce is Sicot 73. It’s a new broadly adapted full season variety, it’s got pretty good yield potential, it’s a bit more vigorous growth habit than say 71, what people might be used to but I guess one of the most important things is that it does have a slightly longer or longer staple than what 71 has, which we do recognise as a little bit of a disadvantage with that.

The next variety is Siokra 24. It’s a new full season Okra, pretty vigorous sort of growth habit. It’s got a very good quality package, particularly in the length department. I guess we envisage this suited to the sort of areas where V16 is currently grown to early or normal dryland planting times and also perhaps in Central Queensland if people are looking for an Okra in Central Queensland. It’s a pretty good area there. I guess the most important thing about this variety is that it’s got much improved Fusarium resistance over V16 and we’re talking somewhere in the region of sort of 80 to 90 F-Rank, compared to the sort of 25 for V16.

The last of the Conventional varieties is called Sicot F1. Now this is a new full season variety really targeted at the Fusarium situations. It’s got very good Fusarium resistance, the current data set suggests it’s an F rank of about 220 based on the five data sets that we do have. It’s quite a vigorous sort of growth habit and it’ll have its best performance in the fields where there is a high incidence of Fusarium wilt. We do expect that this variety won’t have the yield potential of something like 71 in areas where Fusarium isn’t present.

And its yield performance overall?

Its yield performance overall I guess is OK, but in reality we have to expect that it is somewhere in the region of maybe 10% or something lower yielding than the best of the Conventionals that are out there.

In the absence of Fusarium?

In the absence of Fusarium. Where heavy Fusarium is present it often out yields those best high yielding varieties.

And certainly a step forward in that it’s a variety now that in some intractable Fusarium areas we’ve got a variety that’s getting there as far as being able to be grown in those fields.

Absolutely, I mean I guess for people who do have those bad fields, put it in, see how it goes and we’ll take it from there.

And what’s its fibre quality like?

Its fibre quality is quite acceptable, something a kin to Sicot 189.

So we’ve got three new Conventionals there. We’ve also got a few new Roundup Ready’s available. Could you outline those for us?

Yes there are two new Roundup Ready varieties to compliment the existing Sicala V2R that we have. The first of these is Sicot 289RR, so this is a replacement for Sicot 189RR. Fairly similar sort of attributes; full season variety, pretty vigorous, adapted to all the Central Western and Nothern production regions. I guess the reason for its advantages over 189RR is that it’s got slightly better Fusarium resistance and also has slightly improved yield over 189RR.

The second of the new Roundup’s that we are introducing is called Sicot 60RR. This is a new medium season variety and it’s going to be best suited to the Central and Southern production regions. It’s got improved Fusarium resistance compared with V2R within a fairly similar sort of package in terms of maturity and quality and so forth like this, but it is a new high yielding option for those Central and Southern production regions.

And its fibre quality?

Its fibre quality is not bad, as I said it’s fairly similar to V2R.

Well Peter we’ve got quite a lot of new Bollgards available for this coming season. Maybe you could run us through those new Bollgard lines?

There is quite a few of them. I’ll start with Sicot 289B, which is a full season, vigorous growing Bollgard, you know very similar to the old 289i/Sicot 189 types, so you know well suited to the full season, central and western/northern areas and it’s got quite an acceptable fibre package and good Fusarium resistance as we would expect.

Another of the new Bollgard’s is Siokra V18B, obviously an Okra leaf, medium maturing, reasonably compact growing but has an Okra leaf advantage suited to the central eastern, southern types of areas. Fusarium is quite reasonable, so certainly an option for some of those areas with a touch of Fusarium.

Another of the new Bollgard’s is Sicot 80B. It will only be a limited release I think in terms of seed quantity I know but certainly a variety which farmers I think will be very interested in. It’s like the Sicot 80 itself; it’s a vigorous growing type, well adapted to the four season areas through a lot of the major valleys and certainly the western north and also to dryland, it’s like the Conventional 80, it’s a pretty good dryland option and of course its Fusarium resistance is pretty good, so a variety which farmers will be pretty keen to try I think.

Another of the new varieties, Siokra V-16B, which obviously is based on the old V16 and is really a dryland option and certainly dryland only in the absence of Fusarium. We want to emphasise that it has absolutely no Fusarium resistance so we must only grow it in dryland areas where the disease isn’t present or likely to be a threat, so it’s similar to the old V16 good reasonably vigorous Okra leaf with excellent fibre properties.

The other new Bollgard variety is Sicala 40B. A compact, fairly early maturing Bollgard basically for the cooler, eastern/southern areas. Fusarium resistance is a little bit better than say the old Sicala 40, but you still wouldn’t grow it in bad Fusarium situations but we certainly have made an improvement I think with that.

So you’ve got a pretty good spread there again geographically on those varieties. I guess a lot of people will certainly be looking at stacks for this coming season and we’ve got quite a few of those so maybe you could run through those options for stacked varieties?

We’ve got another number of very good options I think and again with the stacks and starting with Sicot 289BR which is similar to the 289B and a vigorous full season type with the advantage obviously with the Roundup Ready as well so it will be a very popular variety well suited to most of the major valleys and the western/northern areas, good fusarium resistance and pretty good fibre quality so an excellent package overall for a lot of farmer. We expect it to be a very popular variety.

It’s got a pretty wide adaptation I guess, probably from the western Macquarie right through to Central Queensland?

Yes that’s right, there’s not many places you can’t grow it except the very shorter season areas are I guess the only places you might avoid it but otherwise yes it is very adaptable.

We’ve had it in a few dryland trials where it’s performed quite well too Peter.

Yes, no we do have limited data but it’s certainly showing up quite well and the staple length is quite OK so we would expect it have a place in Dryland as well.

And water short areas?

Yes, sure.

Well another of the stacked varieties is Sicala V3BR. A fairly compact growing type based on the V2 family or the B3RI types I guess a compact growing sort of for the central/southern/eastern type areas, quite high yielding types in those areas. Fusarium resistance is a little better say than the V3Ri, which is a bit ordinary so we have improved that quite a bit. It’s still nor exceptional but certainly an improvement in that area.

Another of the new ones, Sicala 60BR, which is a new type, a somewhat mixed pedigree but it’s a fairly compact growing type but medium maturing and seems to be quite broadly adapted but certainly I guess we’re targeting at mainly the major central growing areas and the southern/eastern growing areas. Very good fibre quality package, quite reasonable Fusarium as well so I think it is a variety which will find a good nitch in quite a number of the areas, so it’s another option for certainly the major central areas.

Another of the stacked varieties is Siokra V16BR, obviously based on the V16 family and very similar to the V16B in most of its characteristics, certainly very Fusarium susceptible so only a dryland variety in the absence of Fusarium but again good fibre quality package for dryland, so we expect it to be quite popular in the dryland scene.

Another one of the stacked varieties is Sicot 71BR. Again I think it would be only limited seed supply but obviously a variety likely to be in very high demand by farmers. It’s similar to the Conventional 71 in plant type, fairly compact, but good yield potential, quite a good disease package and we expect the fibre quality to be also quite good, so possibly a little slight improvement over the Conventional 71 and staple for instance, so it will have a very high demand from farmers.

It appears to be very broadly adapted as well in that I know in our large-scale trials it’s done very well at Emerald and very well in Southern areas as well?

That’s right. It’s similar to the Conventional 71, it does seem to be very broadly adapted while it’s quite a full season variety it is very determinant and even in some of the shorter season areas, particularly with the presence of the Bollgard gene it gives you that extra bit of earliness I think so it will cope with some reasonably short season situations, but certainly wouldn’t expect people to grow it in the very short season areas but certainly in some of the southern valleys it would fit.

I think the last of the stacked varieties is Sicala 40BR, which I think will only be a limited availability but again it’s a shorter season variety with fairly compact growth and really suited for the cooler southern/eastern areas. It’s Fusarium is probably a little bit better than say the old Sicala 40 but still not perhaps exceptional but certainly has been improved somewhat. 

Further Information:  Robert Eveleigh, John Marshall, or Craig McDonald