Anthony Cattle & Peter McGuire-  BSES Limited

The system of breeding and selecting varieties for NSW has been continuously improved since it began in 1992. The present system is a sophisticated one aimed at releasing varieties with the best productivity, including disease resistance for both one and two year cycles. The flow chart below shows the steps involved in this process.

In the early stages of the program there are very large numbers of varieties to assess so the assessment is done at or near the Bundaberg Experiment Station where BSES has the staff and resources needed for this early culling. In year 6 (2015 in the chart below) the top 400 varieties are sent to NSW each year. The following year the best 150 are planted into field trials in NSW. From there it is another 6 years before best varieties are released to growers.

The following link is a NSW Variety Release Timeline issued by BSES.

Variety Release Timeline for NSW

For more information contact:

Anthony Cattle, BSES Variety Officer  02 66208231 or 0418694656

Peter McGuire, BSES Principal Extension  Officer 02 66700745 or 0408 764742