P.PSH.0749 - New Powdery Mildew Resistant and Spineless Barrel Medics for Temperate and Subtropical Australia

Summary

This project developed the powdery resistant barrel medic cultivar Emperor by transferring resistance from the strand medics cultivar Seraph into barrel medic cultivar Paraggio by way of an inter-specific cross followed by backcrossing. Farmers are increasingly valuing spineless medic pods and often sow spineless burr medics when their soil type is better suited to barrel medics. The project backcrossed the spineless trait into barrel medic cultivar Sultan-SU to develop the new cultivar Penfield. The project used speed breeding and achieved 3.9 and 5.1 generations per year for the mid-season cultivar Emperor and the early season cultivar Penfield respectively. Speed breeding will allow the new cultivars to be commercial in 6.5 years of starting the breeding, which is at least three years earlier than if traditional breeding methods were used.

Objectives

This project will complete the breeding, selection, evaluation, PBR and pre-commercial seed build-up of a powdery mildew barrel medic cultivar.
This project will complete the breeding, selection, evaluation, PBR and pre-commercial seed build-up of a spineless barrel medic cultivar.
A fact sheet will be developed for both cultivars which will provide farmers with key details about the cultivars.

Key findings

• The powdery mildew resistant barrel medic cultivar Emperor will be available to farmers 6.5 years after breeding commencing
• The spineless barrel medic cultivar Penfield will be available to farmers 6.5 years after breeding commencing
• Parents of both cultivars have a range of traits valued by red meat producers
• Modifications to the speed breeding method made the breeding process less labour intensive
• This project has demonstrated what speed breeding can achieve and speed breeding should be considered for other inbreeding annual pasture legumes

Benefits to industry

Annual medics have been sown on over 24Mha and perform well on mildly acidic to alkaline soils Annual medics have high quality and are a valuable source of protein for grazing animals which is particularly important for growing and lactating animals. Annual medics fix nitrogen and provide high quality pastures to livestock. In recent years producers are increasingly planting annual medics instead of subclover due to the high levels of hardseed present in annual medics providing better long-term persistence.. Productive pasture legumes benefit mixed farmers animal production and also the yield of following cereal crops by addition of nitrogen. By commercialising new medic cultivars with desired traits that address producer concerns that constrain production or product quality, allows their feed production to be more efficient and effective use of varied rainfall.

MLA action

Commercialisation approach negotiated in association with amount of seed that can be available co-including with a larger scale launch.
Investigation of ability to establish demonstration sites.

Future research

Delivery of agronomy and management required to maximise pasture production. This includes the best way to establish new pastures including sowing rate, sowing date, weed control, and date required to stop grazing to ensure good seed set by first year annual pastures.