Interest has been growing rapidly for AGT’s new wheat variety Coolah, off the back of excellent yield performance in the National Variety Trial (NVT) system as well as pleasing results on farm.

An APH variety, Coolah is a higher yielding, more lodging-resistant and more disease-resistant alternative to the popular variety EGA Gregory.

In the 2017 early sown NVT’s, Coolah yielded 12 per cent higher than EGA Gregory on average across all NSW sites, following on from a 9 per cent difference in Coolah’s favour in 2016.

Jason Conn, a farmer from Wellington in central west NSW, grew Coolah in the 2017 season and noticed some positive results for his farming system.

“I was looking for an improved longer season spring wheat variety this year and decided to give Coolah a go,” Jason said.

“It handled the difficult sowing conditions and seasonal pressures amazingly, although I didn’t realise how well until I got in the paddock with the header.”

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He said while the other varieties he had grew set up well and then failed, Coolah yield and grain quality proved to be excellent across the board.

“We have now replaced all other longer season spring varieties, including Gregory, with Coolah and some of the shorter season varieties as well,” Jason said.

“Providing the sowing window suits, 95 per cent of our wheat program in 2018 will be Coolah.”

Further south in Wallendbeen, Al Baldry has similar reports on the performance of Coolah.

“The thing that stood out last year was the way Coolah handled the inconsistencies of the growing season,” Al said.

“Despite the challenges and tight finish, Coolah maintained good green leaf area, had consistent tillering and excellent grain fill. Coolah is definitely included in our farming system again this year.”

Due to the success of the variety in NSW, AGT’s marketing manager James Whiteley is encouraging growers to secure Coolah seed as soon as possible through AGT Affiliates, seed retailers or through the AGT Seed Sharing initiative.

More information on the Coolah variety and seed availability can be found on the website at www.agtbreeding.com.au. 

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