INTERGRAIN's new barley variety is performing well for one grower in the Avon Valley.
Beverley grower Duncan Young is growing Spartacus for the first time this year following its solid performance in the national variety trials (NVT) last year.
Mr Young hosted a barley and wheat breeding trial site for Intergrain.
He said one of the advantages of hosting a breeding site was the opportunity to see first-hand the progress of new varieties in the InterGrain program and also through visiting NVT trial sites.
"It allows us to see how new varieties will perform in our own district and on our own farm," Mr Young said.
He planted 20 hectares in May of the new early maturing, superior yielding variety, which has good disease resistance to powdery mildew and net form of net blotch.
The variety also has good straw strength, lodging resistance and head retention compared to Scope.
It is undergoing Australian malt and brewing accreditation, making it particularly attractive for growers.
"I saw the performance of Spartacus CL when it was still a trial line,” Mr Young said.
“Seeing how well it performed in NVT trials, I was keen to give it a go when it became commercially available.”
"So far with a wet and favourable season, the Spartacus CL crop is looking good.
"The yield advantage we have seen in trials was a good enough reason to introduce Spartacus into our program.
"If we are able to deliver crops as malt when the season is right, that would be an added bonus."
Mr Young planted 20ha in May as part of his 2800ha cropping program and is looking to replace 80 per cent of the area sown to Scope to Spartacus in 2017.
The remainder of his barley program will be La Trobe.
Previously, Mr Young grew Scope CL to target Brome grass.
His decision to switch to Spartacus CL was driven by its yield advantages over Scope CL and the need to continue using Clearfield chemistry.
"A two spray fungicide strategy is used on the barley with the application of Cogito (propiconazole and tebuconazole) and Amistar Xtra (azoxystrobin and cyproconazole) to minimise leaf diseases and maximise yield potential," he said.
"It is good to know that we can use Intervix (imazamox and imazapyr) to target specific problem weeds in crop if we need to, but we haven't had to use it this year as the double-knock use of Axial (pinoxaden) and Velocity (bromoxynil and pyrasulfotole) in-crop have kept the crop clean," Mr Young said.
Spartacus is the latest barley variety released from a collaboration between Syngenta and InterGrain.
