SunPrime Seeds, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), this week released a new stripe rust resistant, main season bread wheat at a field day at Monteagle.

Most of SunPrime’s non Prime Hard varieties - like Ventura (Australian Hard (AH)  and dual purpose, grain/gazing wheat Marombi  (ASW) – are named after noted farm properties associated with the Plant Breeding Institute, Narrabri based  breeding program. In keeping with that tradition the variety released this week is named Carinya.  Carinya is the name of one of the properties owned and managed by Hart Bros at Junee in southern New South Wales.

The cross that produced Carinya was designed by the late Dr Frank Ellison and made at the University of Sydney Plant Breeding Institute, Cobbitty. The purpose of the cross was to incorporate additional genes for stem, leaf and stripe rust resistance into the background of the well adapted variety Janz.

Carinya is a Janz derivative with a slightly larger grain size and has resistance to the current strains of stem rust and moderate resistance to the current strains of leaf and stripe rust. Carinya has a similar maturity to Janz with good milling characteristics and is eligible for AWB’s Australian Hard (AH) grade in NSW.

SunPrime Seeds will have limited quantities of Carinya seed available for planting in 2006; interested growers should contact their seed supplier. More information on Carinya and other seed varieties can be found at the SunPrime Seeds website.