Australia
June 29, 2009
Landmark has invested
in wheat breeding company HRZ Wheats Pty Ltd, one of the four
main Australian wheat breeding companies, with a focus on
developing improved wheat varieties for Australia’s
high-rainfall zone.
HRZ Wheats’ owners are CSIRO,
New Zealand’s Institute
for Plant and Food Research (NZPFR), the
Grains Research and Development
Corporation (GRDC), and now
Landmark.
Landmark’s National Farm Services Manager Bruce Cairns said HRZ
Wheats was an innovative company that had access to some of the
best international wheats and was developing varieties to
include resistance to important diseases, and novel traits
suited to the high-rainfall zone.
“Landmark operates in every cropping region of Australia and we
see the growth potential of these higher rainfall regions, so
investing in the partnership with HRZ Wheats is an important
move for us in meeting the needs of growers,” Mr Cairns said.
“Developed with the combined research expertise of CSIRO and
NZPFR, these new HRZ Wheats varieties will provide farmers in
the high-rainfall zone with wheats that have improved quality,
disease resistance and yields.”
In welcoming Landmark to the company, HRZ Wheats chairman, David
Crawford, said that Landmark’s involvement with HRZ Wheats would
provide marketing expertise and financial support to ensure HRZ
Wheats can deliver benefits to the grains industry and rural
Australia well into the future.
“Through research undertaken by CSIRO and NZPFR, HRZ Wheats is
developing technologies that will underpin a new generation of
high-rainfall zone milling wheats,” Mr Crawford said.
As part of Landmark’s investment,
AWB Seeds (a division of Landmark) has secured the rights to
commercialise HRZ Wheats’ ongoing pipeline of new varieties.
The first large scale release will be “Preston”, a variety with
high and stable yield potential, and triple rust resistance
based on durable resistance genes.
AWB Seeds manager Simon Crane said that Preston has performed
very well in trials in high rainfall areas of Western Australia,
South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. “Preston is a
mid-late season variety that is expected to be APW quality
across the country, with seed to be widely available to growers
via AWB SeedNet during 2009,” Mr Crane said. |
|
