Western Australia
August 25, 2008
 The
Department of Agriculture
and Food has developed a new farmnote to assist growers
maintain purity in their barley seed stored on-farm.
Department barley industry development officer Jeff Russell said
WA growers had a choice of eight malting barley varieties, the
greatest number that had ever been made available to them.
“Variety purity is of great importance to the malting industry.
The release of the ‘Maintaining variety purity in malting barley
crops’ farmnote outlines some simple measures to assist growers
to avoid cross contamination of seed on-farm,” he said.
“By implementing a proactive on-farm management strategy for
their barley, growers will ensure the purity of seed at delivery
and help maintain WA’s reputation for producing high quality
malting barley.”
Mr Russell said the farmnote was the first step in a program to
raise the awareness of malt barley growers about the importance
of maintaining purity in the varieties they grow.
“The department is also supporting the SEPWA grower group in the
Esperance region who are currently investigating new methods of
genetic based grain identification technology.
“Visual testing, as outlined in the farmnote, will compliment
the adoption of any such future grain testing technology. It is
a practical tool that growers can employ now while waiting for
the new technology to be proved.”
The ‘Maintaining variety purity in malting barley crops’
farmnote was developed with support from the Grains Research and
Development Corporation and will be available to growers at the
Dowerin GWN Machinery Field Days this week as well as at other
spring field days.
The farmnote is also available from local department offices or
from the website
www.agric.wa.gov.au |
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