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GCTV Ep#4 Peanuts
Julian Cross: ‘Four Winds’, Kumbia QLD The last twenty years we’ve had shortened
sort of seasons and the longer varieties, come March when it hasn’t rained they’re
running out of puff.
Narrator: For peanut growers the way to hedge against
such seasonal vagaries is to get the crop off sooner.
Julian Cross: The early maturing varieties can make use
of that early storm rain, get the crop in, get it harvested before the drought basically
hits.
Narrator: And the sooner it’s in, the less chance
of exposure to aflatoxin - A real bonus given aflatoxin costs the Australian industry anywhere
from three to five million dollars each year.
Graeme Wright: Manager of Breeding, Seed and Innovation, Peanut Company of Australia
Kingaroy Qld Aflatoxin is actually produced by a fungus
in the soil particularly at the end of the season when you get very dry and hot conditions,
so a bit like drought as well - if you can avoid those conditions you’re going to avoid
aflatoxin.
Narrator: A shorter interval between sowing and harvesting
means less inputs and money back in your pocket sooner. It also provides the flexibility to
tailor your planting and harvesting schedule to suit the season, and spread your workload.
But less time in the ground means crops have less time to grow a large number of pods,
so early maturing varieties will always have a lower yield potential than full season varieties.
That’s why a new ultra-early variety, with increased yield and improved disease resistance
is making growers sit up and take notice.
RCN Rachaputi: Principal Agronomist, QAAFI University of Queensland
It is a very quick growing crop. And it can come to flowering by about thirty days and
finish off in fifteen weeks.
Narrator: It’s called Tingoora and it produces an
erect bush with pods concentrated near the main stem.
Sound Up from RCN:
RCN Rachaputi: These plants are four weeks old and all the
flowers will be around that.
Narrator: Meaning easier harvesting, even on heavier
soils. Tingoora was developed from an earlier line
called Walter and has some significant advantages over its parent, including a higher proportion
of larger, fuller-flavoured kernels – making for an increased return when kernels are graded
for size and quality.
Graeme Wright: Nearly ten percent grade-out value higher
than Walter. And yield of course. It’s ten to fifteen percent higher yielding.
Julian Cross: A lot longer dormancy on the Tingoora, which
saves a lot of the splitting and sprouting at harvest.
RCN Rachaputi: It responds to higher population too, so the
planting rates can be improved, up to 200 thousand plants per hectare.
Narrator: This new variety also surpasses Walter’s
level of rust tolerance.
Graeme Wright: We can see with this leaf here it’s from
a variety that’s pretty well susceptible so you can see the susceptible ones you get
a lot of lesions and they actually form pustules there see with the actual rust. Whereas here
you’re still getting infection but the size of the pustules are a lot smaller.
Narrator: Like all Australian peanuts Tingoora is high
in oleic acid giving it better flavour and cooking properties, ten to twenty times longer
shelf life, and a higher proportion of monounsaturated oils. On a global market where other players
aren’t growing high-oleic products that’s a real plus.
Julian Cross: PCA or Australian Peanuts are the only ones
who can guarantee 100 percent high oleic peanuts so that’s a great bonus straight off.
Narrator: Although Tingoora’s been developed for dry
land areas, results in high-input irrigated conditions show yield potentials exceeding
five tonnes per hectare which compares favourably with around 7 tonnes per hectare for the best
full season maturity cultivars.
Graeme Wright: That’s really surprised us. The sugar guys
are looking for a quick rotation crop that gives them a benefit then in their cane in
terms of breaking the cycle and adding some nitrogen.
Jane Drinkwater: Reporter For growers like Julian, a higher-yielding
ultra-early maturing variety that’s easier to harvest is fantastic news. That’s why
he’s going to plant this paddock with Tingoora.
Julian Cross: The yield increase we’re getting now you’re
not as disadvantaged by growing them. Yeah.
Graeme Wright: Depending on your level of risk that you’re
prepared to take, you might want to go 30 percent Tingoora and 70 percent longer season
varieties. Or say the El Nino is looking really bad, and the outlook is bad, you might go
for 70 percent Tingoora and 30 percent full season. So it’s a way of spreading your
risk.
Narrator: In poor seasons, an early maturing variety
can be a godsend.
Graeme Wright: The big thing about Tingoora – it will always
give you a yield even in those really severe drought years it will give you something.
Narrator: Breeding Tingoora has been accomplished in
record time. More intensive techniques in the glasshouse have doubled or even trebled
the number of breeding generations per year, while seed production was also fast-tracked
through the use of winter nurseries in North Queensland.
Graeme Wright: Now that just is such a benefit for growers
really to get the new varieties out there a lot quicker.
Narrator: So instead of the usual 13 years, Tingoora’s
gone from first-cross to commercial release in under seven years, verification that GRDC
is delivering better varieties faster.
Graeme Wright: The thing about the smaller crops such as
peanut is that they just can’t, you can’t afford to run a commercial, fully commercial
breeding program based on say end-point royalties or seed royalties, so it really relies on
partnerships between the industry you know the growers, and government.
Narrator: That partnership is already looking ahead
– with a sister line to Tingoora in development, providing further improvements.
Graeme Wright: We’re more and more ramping up the kernel
size. And disease resistance is the other really big one.
Julian Cross: When they reckon they’ve got a new one out
I’ll be keen to have a look at it too, yep.
Narrator: And according to Julian Cross other growers
should do the same.
Julian Cross: For anyone who says - oh no, no, you’ve
got to stick to the Middletons or the Florunners, I’d say no just have a bit of a look and
have a go because you will be surprised.
Ends