New wheat achieves benchmark yields with breakthrough in weed control

A new wheat variety achieving comparable yields to the benchmark Baxter and Spitfire varieties is importantly offering growers a major breakthrough in weed control and herbicide resistance management.

Released last season, the new “double gene’’ Clearfield® Plus wheat variety, Elmore CL Plus, is tolerant of the Clearfield Intervix® Group B herbicide, which offers control of problem weeds like wild oats, including Group A resistant populations. Intervix herbicide also is registered to control barley grass, Indian hedge mustard, muskweed, wild radish, wild turnip, dense flower fumitory, marshmallow, sub clover and volunteer cereals, and provides useful suppression of bedstraw, doublegee and silver grasses.

Improved crop safety with the “two-gene” imidazolinone tolerant wheat allows application of this more robust herbicide as early as the three-leaf stage, which is vital to help control problem weeds and limit crop competition.

Lower Balonne agronomist and sharefarmer Greg Nicol said a number of Elmore CL Plus growers in the region had reported excellent grass and broadleaf weed control from the use of Intervix herbicide with the crop this season.

"This Clearfield technology gives robust weed control and is another tool against resistance. It helps to get on top of broadleaf weeds and it is a resistance breaker for black oats,’’ said Greg, who operates Total Ag at Dirranbandi.

"Herbicide resistance also is emerging with some barnyard grass and feathertop Rhodes grass populations and it is now time to get on top of it.

"For paddocks with hard-to-kill weeds or tired, weedy country, Elmore CL Plus is a good fit.’’

In cases where Clearfield canola was being grown and there were following crop safety concerns, he said the new wheat would be a good option, while it could also provide benefits in rotations with chickpeas.

"Growers are using chickpeas as a good disease break in rotations and they could perhaps use the Clearfield technology to have a crack at black oats or a specific weed problem in a Clearfield Plus wheat crop preceding chickpeas.’’

Greg said his 80-hectare share-farmed crop of Australian Hard quality Elmore CL Plus was recently harvested and yielded more than 2.8 tonnes/ha with 14 per cent protein.

Yields achieved by other growers, as well as the variety’s performance in trials, had been very similar to that from Baxter and Spitfire.

Greg said their Elmore CL Plus crop was sown into a full soil moisture profile on May 12 and while 50 millimetres of rainfall was recorded during May and June and 85-90mm for July, there was then little rain for the remainder of the season, which made the variety’s yield even more impressive.

"We usually get about 150mm for winter. September and October are our driest months, but we got nothing.’’

He said the early to mid-maturing Elmore CL Plus bounced out of the ground and its seedling vigour and early growth was incredible, so much so that it caused some concern over susceptibility to frost later in the season.

"It was our first crop harvested. For the Lower Balonne, I wouldn’t recommend sowing it before May 15-20.’’

Greg said they also treated the crop to combat stripe rust, but this was part of their typical crop management strategy and he considered it was “probably overkill’’.

Elmore CL Plus has solid overall resistance to all three rust diseases, including stem, leaf and stripe rust.