More sugarcane sooner

More productive sugarcane varieties that provide better returns to growers can now be delivered 2-3 years earlier through a more industry-wide approach to sugarcane breeding.

A team led by Dr Scott Chapman of CSIRO Plant Industry in Brisbane has found a simple and effective way to deliver new, more productive sugarcane varieties 2-3 years earlier.

CSIRO, BSES Limited and CSR Ltd, supported by the Sugar Research and Development Corporation (SRDC), have spent 7 years testing the same experimental sugarcane varieties in all Australia's sugarcane regions.

In a new report to the SRDC, the team found that although each variety performed differently at each location and in each year, the effect of regions on performance was relatively small and inconsistent.

For example, if Variety A yields more sugar than Variety B in the Herbert region it will also generally do better than Variety B in the northern NSW region - even if both varieties yield much less in one region.

This 'broad adaptation' of cane varieties to multiple regions is more common than was previously realised, meaning that testing across regions can now take place earlier.

The Sugarcane Breeding Joint Venture, between CSIRO Plant Industry and BSES Ltd, is now exchanging their best material early and placing it directly into final assessment trials - cutting up to 3 years off the development time of new varieties that have already been proven elsewhere.

Pooling resources in this way allows superior varieties and better genetic gains to be delivered faster without compromising the quality of locally adapted varieties.

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