The GRDC's National Variety Trials program runs over 650 sites across Australia to help oat growers pick the right varieties. It tests 10 crop species with statistical rigor and delivers results through harvest reports and an interactive yield tracker. Growers value it for independence and cost savings.
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This OAT trial site at York in WA is part of GRDC's national variety trial program, the NVT. Impressively the world's largest independent trial of its kind, the NVT features over 650 trial sites sown at more than 300 Australian locations, covering 10 crop species.
At the end of the season, we release the yield reports that show how these different varieties perform at each location. This is purely about allowing the varieties the best chance to show their genetic differences.
GRDCNVT staff oversee the sites, which are managed regionally to ensure consistency across sowing, harvest and trial management. Comparative grain quality and yield information is delivered to growers in ways that are tailored to their locality needs. This involves constant collaboration with key industry stakeholders through NVT advisory committees to achieve results acutely relevant to growers, locations, growing conditions and importantly, to match local grower practice while showcasing genetic differences.
Typically, it starts if we take it through seasonally. We collaborate with our NAC committee to decide what where these trial sites are supposed to be to give the best value for the growers, and then we're working with the breeders to decide what varieties are going to be present in those trials. And then constantly communicating with growers and different grower groups about whether or not the trial in that location is helpful, the varieties being tested and the results coming out of that are actually beneficial to them.
Milling oats, more grain on it you see the bigger canopy of grain ready to harvest, to be honest, or ready to cut.
One of the priorities of the NVT is to reflect evolving grower practice, a big attraction to growers themselves. For example, for this season, the NVT altered the sowing windows for the OAT trials.
So each year we've got for all trials being sown, a sowing window where it needs to be sown in so that the results can be included and that is to match growl practice. When are the surrounding farms growers sowing their crops? That's what we need to try and match.
Growers like Malcolm Cole have embraced the NVT for its capacity to be local as well as benefiting the grains industry as a whole.
The NVT's impact on the grain industry has probably been to help increase production on the land that's available for cropping. You can compare crops and grains without putting large areas in, so you can make decisions without spending a lot of money and doing it simply. And it's very, it's independent, so it's reliable.
That reliability is underscored by rigorous statistical analysis and quality assurance. Tests before data is published and you can find the trial results through highly interactive tools on the NBT website along with harvest reports and sowing guides. These cover new variety information, yield performances, quality and disease responses collated and presented to match growers local requirements and practices.
Some of the items you find on there like the harvest reports are a PDF document that just lists all the information gained from these trials but the long term yield reporter is highly customisable. You can select your specific region, climate types and then what you're looking to grow or what you've grown in the past and that provides very intuitive information.
If you're a farmer and you're looking at what varieties can suit your country getting involved in an MVT trial even just going to look at it with a grower group can be invaluable. You'll get to see you get discussion amongst farmers at the trials which are really good and discussion with agronomists and it helps make decisions. It's a really good tool.
