Investment Details

Applying machine learning to improve genetic gain delivered from genomic selection in plant breeding

Machine learning is the next-generation solution to identifying patterns in large datasets and involves using computer science and statistics to analyse very large datasets. These datasets are too complex to uncover with traditional human-led analysis.

This project will use large volumes of data (plot images, environmental, soil, crop yield, grain quality, single-nucleotide polymorphism data, weather and lidar) with the aim of providing a predictive tool or computational model to assist breeders increase genetic gain in a range of crops by finding the gene and environmental factors that maximise yield.

Identification, surveillance and advisory platform for management of grains pests

A national grains pest identification, surveillance and advisory initiative that will use available monitoring data to accurately identify pest problems and provide timely and independent management options for growers and advisers.

Insecticide resistance in the green peach aphid: national surveillance, preparedness and implications for virus management

Insecticide resistance in the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae, GPA) continues to threaten canola and pulse production. There are diminishing chemical options available, and the functional diversity, prevalence and severity of resistances encountered in the field is increasing.

The current project enables the grains industry to track the status (distribution, severity, and mechanisms) of resistance evolution in GPA across Australian grain crops. An ongoing availability of knowledge and access to resistance maps and updated management tools will provide approaches to sustainably managing aphids and virus risk in grain crops, minimise yield losses, and reduce the likelihood of further GPA resistance issues.

Future options for the control of RLEM in Australian grain crops

The red legged earth mite (RLEM) is one of the most destructive and economically important establishment pests of grain crops. Insecticides are currently the most effective and widely used control method against RLEM, however the emergence and spread of insecticide resistance to synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphates in the RLEM has resulted in a need for a reassessment of management options for this pest.

This investment will focus on broad scale field surveillance, exploration of novel synthetic and biological based approaches, investigation of IPM tactics for sustainable RLEM management, and development of risk forecasting tools to support proactive management of RLEM.

CSP00182 - Genetically improving wheat's ability to outcompete weeds

The cost of weeds to Australian agriculture is enormous and continuing to rise with increasing crop value, and as herbicide resistance becomes increasingly widespread. Herbicides remain among the most cost-effective weed management options but herbicide resistance and the threat of few new herbicide chemistries places increasing reliance on the deployment of more weed-competitive crop varieties.

A previous GRDC project demonstrated the potential for development of weed-competitive wheat genotypes; building on that work the aims of this project are:

1. to develop a robust and repeatable screening methodology for improved weed competitiveness for use in commercial breeding programs;
2. to understanding of those morphological/physiological factors contributing to improved competitiveness; and
3. development and release of elite spring wheat germplasm containing traits with improved competitiveness for use as parents in breeding of new weed-competitive varieties.

CSA00056 - Developing farming systems for the LRZ of Western Australia

This project will research novel agronomy and soil water management practices to deliver increased profitability and reduced risk for farming systems in the low rainfall zone (LRZ) of Western Australia. This region is characterised by low and variable growing season rainfall and consequently the effective management of soil water is central to profitable and sustainable farming systems.

The project will use field experimentation to evaluate three complementary potential farming systems changes. Novel soil moisture management techniques, early sowing and high value break crops (field peas, lentils, chickpeas and/or lupins) will all be tested. Field research will underpin farming systems modelling research that will evaluate how these strategies can be used at both the field and farm scale to increase profitability and reduce risk in the LRZ. Models will allow interactions with livestock systems to be understood. By integrating the three complementary farming systems strategies together, the project has the potential to provide a step change in productivity in LRZ farming systems.

CSP00203 - Increasing production on sandy soils in low and medium rainfall areas of the South

A large gap exists between actual yield and water limited yield potential on sandy soils in the low rainfall cropping zone of south-eastern Australia. This project investigates the potential for the management of constraints to production under these conditions through a combination of mitigation and amelioration strategies.

An initial research focus will establish the nature and extent of the constraints, measure the degree to which the problem controls the yield gap between yield attained and yield potential, and develop appropriate and cost-effective management strategies with estimates of return and risk of investment. Using that information the project will develop a framework to support growers with problem sands considering trialling practices to overcome crop water-use constraints.

The framework will help growers:

1. Identify problem sands;
2. Identify the primary constraints to crop water use and their relative impact;
3. Identify treatments to address constraints;
4. Identify funds, skills and equipment required to trial potential practice changes;
5. Measure the success of each practice; and
6. Identify the most useful timing and extent of implementation on-farm.

CSE00061 - PYC106 - CSIRO Snail biocontrol revisited – Phase 2

Mediterranean white and conical snails are important introduced pests of a range of crops and vines. They can clog farm machinery, contaminate harvests, feed on seedlings and pasture and can be hosts for human diseases. One way of managing these pests is using molluscicides, whilst effective they are also expensive so potential biocontrol agents in the native range of the snails (western Mediterranean) have been identified.

This project will investigate the delivery and release of a new strain of the conical snail parasite biological control agent Sarcophaga villeneuveana to the Australian grains industry. It is hoped that this strain will be better adapted to Australian conical snail genotypes than the current strain S. penicillata released in the early 2000s and demonstrate significantly greater parasitism levels against Australian conical snails.

Australian Cereal Rust Control Program (ACRCP) - CSIRO: Delivering genetic tools and knowledge required to breed wheat and barley with resistance to leaf rust, stripe rust and stem rust

Rust diseases are a significant threat to wheat production in Australia. Disease control relies heavily on breeding for disease resistance. Genetic resistance is preferable to fungicide control because of the lower input and environmental costs and the risk of restrictions of fungicide use due to weather conditions and supply constraints. However, the emergence of new virulent rust strains and threat of foreign incursions means that it is imperative to increase the levels of genetic resistance in Australian wheat cultivars.

This project aims to deliver simple and accurate DNA markers to breeders for detection and selection of novel seedling rust resistance (R) and adult plant resistance (APR) genes that collectively will provide resistance to wheat stem, stripe and leaf rust diseases along with information on the additive effects of these genes in combination.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• develop simple and accurate DNA markers for effective resistance genes;
• determine which resistance genes work best in combination; and
• generate germplasm containing useful resistance genes in adapted backgrounds.

These outputs will enable breeders to efficiently introduce effective R and APR genes into breeding pipelines, stack these genes in combination, and accurately assign rust resistance genotypes to elite lines. This will ultimately lead to the release of cultivars with increased genetic disease resistance for Australian wheat growers and reduce the impact and risk of yield loss due to rusts.

Future Farm Phase 2: Improving farmer confidence in targeted N management through automated sensing and decision support

This Future Farm investment aims to re-examine the way in which soil and crop sensors are used to inform decisions about input management.

The project will target automating the process from data acquisition, through analysis, to the formulation and implementation of decision options. The initial focus is on improving the efficiency and profitability of applied nitrogen (N).

Lupin Breeders Toolbox - A Resource for Lupin Genetic Improvement

This project aims to expand the current genomic and genetic resources available in one of the major grain legumes grown in Australia, narrow-leafed lupin (NLL; Lupinus angustifolius L.).

These genomic and genetic resources will significantly help accelerate the NLL breeding program, including the development of an NLL genotyping platform, and will help lead to the desired outcome whereby by 2025 locally adapted NLL germplasm with 20% higher yields are available to growers.

Understanding mouse biology and ecology in zero- and no-till cropping systems to inform best practice crop production and mouse management practices

This project is designed to explore and test a range of management practices with the aim of making some practical recommendations for growers and the grains industry to enable them to better manage mice, without having to rely on applications of zinc phosphide. Through a series of ten sets of replicated experiments across the three regions (North, South and West), we will evaluate the impact of these practices on mouse populations, but also evaluate the economics of the practices and the impact on profitability of growers. There will be a strong communications effort to enable growers to understand the economic thresholds of mouse populations including management practices.

Improved surveillance and management options for mice in crops

Mouse plagues are a regular feature of grain growing regions across Australia. Growers and the broader grains industry need to be made aware of potential mouse problems so they can take appropriate management actions to reduce the chance of crop damage and significant cost to their business. The monitoring is used to collect information about the population size, breeding status and overall activity of mice. This information is used in predictive models to determine the probability of changes in mouse abundance. All the information from the monitoring and outputs from the models is synthesised into a 'Mouse Update' that is released three times a year. The aim being to widely disseminate through various channels clear recommendations for growers.

As it is not possible to monitor every cropping system across the grain belt, the project will also explore the development of an automated remote monitoring system for mice. This may be linked in with existing wireless networks and systems to record mouse activity and upload data to a central database to interpret the data and include in broader monitoring.

Optimising Canola Production in Diverse Australian Growing Environments

Canola growers in Australia need to be able to select varieties that will perform optimally in their local growing conditions. The timing of flowering is an important factor in determining sowing time and avoiding frost, heat and terminal drought.

This project will generate genome marker, gene expression and phenotype datasets from a diverse range of Australian and global canola varieties in both controlled environment and multi-site field trials. It will then use 'big data' analysis methods to identify the genetic and environmental pathways that control the timing of flowering in Australian and global canola varieties. This will enable canola breeders to select optimal combinations of flowering time gene alleles to deliver new varieties adapted to Australian growing environments, thereby assisting growers to choose varieties and sowing dates to optimise crop yield.

Program 4 - Towards Effective Control of Blackleg of Canola: Phenotyping for Adult Plant Resistance (APR - Quantitative Resistance) in canola

Blackleg disease is a threat to canola production in Australia with an estimated 15% reduction in total grain yield annually. Control strategies include isolation of crops from disease sources, chemical control as well as varietal resistance. Major gene resistance (MGR) is a gene-for-gene interaction whereby one gene in the plant interacts with one gene in the blackleg pathogen. As the blackleg pathogen is capable of rapid and constant change, major gene resistance can be overcome in as few as three years, rendering the crop completely susceptible. Currently, all commercially available canola cultivars contain major genes but relatively few of these are effective.

Quantitative resistance (QR) comprises multiple genes with minor additive effects, and has proven more durable than MGR. In addition, the presence of QR can enhance the durability of MGR. However, it is difficult to breed for QR as it is comprised of numerous genes and is often masked by the presence of MGR. Consequently, QR is not widely present at effective levels in Australian commercial cultivars.

This program of research will identify how QR functions within the plant to reduce blackleg disease, determine conditions under which QR is reliably expressed, and develop methods to accurately quantify QR. This will form the basis to identify the genes underlying QR which will enable canola breeders to provide growers with canola varieties that have more durable QR and reduce blackleg-related yield loss.

Virtual fencing for better crop integrated weed management

Livestock can be a key Integrated Weed Management (IWM) tool in cropping systems through grazing in the summer fallow, the pasture phase, in dual purpose crops, by spray grazing and potentially for in-crop weed management. Grazing weakens the plant and in some cases flowers and seeds can be actively consumed. Large numbers of livestock currently exist in the grain growing regions of Australia including approximately 65% of the Australian sheep flock (MLA 2018) and with recent high meat and wool prices, their value to the farming system is even greater. The relatively recent technology of virtual fencing can allow grazing in discrete spatial areas. This would achieve high stocking density and less selective grazing. It could also allow specific grazing of patches where weed burdens are high. This could occur in pasture, fallow or even in-crop. Controlled spatial grazing also provides the manager with the flexibility to avoid grazing areas of a paddock prone to erosion without losing grazing from more benign areas.

This investment will test the use of targeted grazing in a crop, pasture and summer fallow setting using virtual fencing for 'zonal' or patch grazing aimed at maximising weed control value and minimising crop and environmental impact.

Increasing return on investment from canola seed through improved establishment - Program 1

This research aims to achieve a 25% improvement in canola establishment in Australia by 2030 by ensuring canola breeders have the know-how and tools to develop new cultivars with improved establishment. This will be delivered by providing Australian canola breeders with the genetics (germplasm with an average of 75% crop establishment) and the know-how (diagnostic markers and efficient phenotyping methods) to develop varieties with improved establishment and early growth potential.

Growers and advisers will gain a better understanding of how establishment-related traits are influenced by their management decisions (eg sowing depth, time of sowing), as well as benefiting from the overall outcome of better canola establishment.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship: High-throughput quantitative analysis of flowering dynamics and canopy structure in Canola germplasm using image analysis and deep learning methods

Crop improvement is dependent on accurate measurements of plant traits such as flowering time, leaf and seed number. For canola, a major grain crop in Australia, these traits are currently assessed by human observation, a time-consuming and costly process.

This investment will develop tools and methods to automate and scale up the collection of phenotype data with a focus on flowering time and canopy architecture. The project will employ a variety of imaging techniques and data extraction methods based on recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: Understanding gene flow in mouse populations to improve management outcomes

This investment will use population genetics to understand dispersal, gene flow and population structure of mouse populations ('landscape genomics') to develop robust management recommendations for the grains industry.

Frost SENSE: An integrated modelling framework to rapidly map the extent of stem and reproductive frost damage in wheat and barley

Frost risk occurs virtually every year across southern and eastern Australian agricultural regions. Actual occurrence of frost is determined by location and landscape factors as well as climate. This project aims to demonstrate the capability of satellite data, combined with temperature maps and other data sources, to map frost damage in wheat and barley crops.

The project will also Investigate farm scale economics of frost-damage mapping and the benefits of improvements that may be obtained from remote sensing data.

AgScore: An agricultural approach to assessing the skill of seasonal climate forecasting systems and their value for aiding on-farm decision making

This project takes an agriculturally focused approach to assessing the skill of seasonal climate forecasting systems and their value for aiding on-farm decision making. It makes use of AgScore - an innovative software tool that provides robust comparisons of seasonal climate models using agriculturally relevant metrics.

AgScore is a cloud-based tool which executes APSIM (the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) with uploaded climate model data and analyses the results against identical APSIM simulations using baseline climatology for the same period to identify biases and weaknesses in climate models for predicting agriculturally relevant metrics such as crop yield.

This approach will be applied to a selection of global climate models and different Australian agricultural industries with the results communicated at different levels to growers, advisors, extension specialists in climate risk management and the broader climate science community. The project will also model the economic value of using seasonal forecast information to aid strategic on-farm decisions such as crop choice prior to sowing in different circumstances.

Program 5: IDM package for Ascochyta Blight in chickpeas

Ascochyta blight (AB, Phoma rabiei) is a devastating fungal disease of chickpea in Australia and worldwide. Current control recommendations often fail as the fungus is highly mutable, rapidly eroding host genetic resistance. As a consequence, while host genetic resistance and chemical control are both integral components of an integrated disease strategy for AB, reductions in the overall inoculum load of the pathogen are a key management component to prolong their efficacy.

This project will focus on gaining new knowledge on sources of inoculum of AB that contribute to epidemic initiation and investigate interventions or alternate strategies that can be implemented to reduce inoculum production or carryover. This will reduce the sources of inoculum to initiate disease epidemics and reduce the selection pressure on AB populations. Seed and stubble are the known primary sources of inoculum in Australia, with small amounts of inoculum required for initiation of an epidemic under conducive conditions. The amount and longevity of inoculum will be quantified from different sources (seed, stubble, alternate hosts) across the main chickpea growing regions to inform potential inoculum carryover. In addition, we will assess potential for novel interventions to limit AB growth and spore release. In combination, this information will be used to investigate potential for new tools to help control AB and inform models that can be used to explore how the distribution of chickpea crops in a landscape affects AB. New information will be provided to growers as part of an integrated management plan.

Optimising genetic control of oat phenology for Australia

To achieve maximum yield and optimal grain quality, the time of year when cereal crops flower and produce grain must coincide with optimal seasonal conditions. Variation flowering time allows breeders to produce cereal varieties suited to specific regions, climates and management practices. Genes that underlie this variation have been identified in wheat and barley but less is known about the genetic control of phenology of oats (Avena sativa), although phenology underpins both adaptation and year-to-year environmental impacts on milling quality.

Information from a survey of genetic variation in global and Australian oat varieties, together with pedigree records, will be used to develop a more targeted oat diversity collection that captures broad genetic diversity, while also being highly relevant to Australian growers. The phenology of the core diversity collection will be assayed in controlled growth conditions, to identify genes that control sensitivity to vernalization, photoperiod or inherent earliness. This analysis will use genome-wide markers, transcriptome sequencing and machine-learning to gain functional understanding of the gene-networks controlling flowering. Functional gene-marker information will then be delivered to oat breeders to facilitate parent selection and prediction of crossing outcomes.

CSIRO - Understanding constraints to crops profit on highly calcareous soil

Very highly calcareous soils contain 30-90% free lime and pH is above 8.0 which has major implications for crop nutrition, root diseases and other issues, resulting in poor crop establishment, vigour, grain yield, and gross margins.

This investment aims to boost crop profitability on calcareous soils in South Australia through increased understanding of the underlying mechanisms impairing the availability and uptake of phosphorous and other nutrients, along with other soil and plant constraints, and the validation of management practices to address these constraints.

Using Machine Learning To Develop New Methods For Genetic Gain In Crops Challenged By Fungal Diseases

This project will apply a machine learning approach to genetic and high throughput phenotyping data to draw out genetic markers associated with resistance to fungal infections in wheat, canola, lentil, and chickpea crops.

Optimising mungbean yield in the northern region - Mungbean Agronomy

Conventional plant breeding and innovative agronomic research in Australia has transformed mungbean from a small opportunistic crop to a highly profitable, broad-scale grain crop in Australia. The aim of this project is to capitalise on the opportunity to improve yield reliability of newer mungbean varieties through optimised agronomic management. This project will be based on a participatory approach to learning with growers and agronomists being integral in the identification and prioritisation of treatments at each trial site, the interpretation of data and adoption of new management practices. The project will also update the mungbean Best Management Practices training course manual and other associated documents.

National Resistance Monitoring for Insect Pests of Stored Grain.

Insect pests of stored grain increase costs to grain growers, through physical losses, costs of controlling infestations, and limiting access to markets. Fumigants and grain protectants are used to manage these pests. Resistance monitoring generates information that provides a basis for effective pest management.

Monitoring resistance to the key fumigant phosphine in major stored grain pests has been integral to effective pest and resistance management. This project aims to monitor on farm grain storages for resistance to key grain protectants for five major stored grain insect pests.

The program provides growers with strategic information on resistance trends in their region, and incidences of pests and strong resistances in grain stored on properties visited. Data will be stored in the Australian Grains Insect Resistance Database (AGIRD).

Program 4: Minimising the impact of major barley foliar pathogens on yield and profit: Screening of elite breeder material transitioning to a fee for service model.

Industry access to a reliable, high-throughput disease screening capacity is a critical component of any effort to breed effectively to counter the impact of the three barley pathogens, Pyrenophora teres f. maculata, the causal agent of the spot form of net blotch (SFNB), P. teres f. teres, that produces the net form of net blotch (NFNB), and Rhynchosporium secalis (scald).

This project supports the development of high throughput and accurate NFNB, SFNB and Scald screening methods and facilities using standardised techniques, isolates, controls and well characterised testing environments. The establishment of this infrastructure will enable Australian breeders to accelerate and expand efforts to deploy new and durable NFNB, SFNB and Scald resistance in barley varieties.

Boosting profit and reducing risk on mixed farms in low and medium rainfall areas with newly discovered legume pastures enabled by innovative management methods – southern region.

Growers have shifted their focus from livestock to crops over the last 30 years, however continuously cropped paddocks are not sustainable and come with high risk, especially in dry areas where wheat cultivation dominates. Intensive cropping is susceptible to herbicide resistant weeds, requires large nitrogen fertiliser inputs, and there are significant financial implications when yields are restricted by frost or dry conditions.

This project builds on previous work undertaken in the medium rainfall zones of Western Australia and southern New South Wales. It aims to demonstrate how novel pasture legumes improve livestock production through enhanced growth and reproduction, and earlier access to markets, while dramatically reducing fertiliser and herbicide inputs for following crops. The project will also develop whole farm economic modelling to equip farmers with tools to adopt new pasture varieties and management practices.

Multi-species DNA chip platform - A resource for pulse genetic improvement

This project will develop and provide a low-cost DNA genotyping platform for chickpea, field pea, faba bean, lentil and lupin for use by the Australian pulse breeding and pre-breeding programs. In addition, it will ensure that data generated using this platform is combined with previous, current and future genomic datasets to generate a valuable resource that accelerates research outcomes and the translation of pre-breeding outputs into breeding programs.

Nutrient re-distribution and availability in ameliorated and cultivated soils in the Western Region

This investment aims to improve grain growers and advisers' understanding of how soil modifications alter the availability of nutrients in the soil and for how long, and consequently how this may impact decision making regarding fertiliser requirements. Substantial modification of soils through one-off mechanical soil amelioration activities including ploughing, ripping, topsoil inversion, delving and spading alter the distribution of nutrients through the soil profile, whereby nutrients that are near the soil surface are redistributed through the soil profile.

Given that the soil modifications are aimed at overcoming important constraints such as non-wetting, soil compaction, lime incorporation and herbicide resistance, there is every likelihood that the practice will expand in future. The effects of different mechanical soil modifications on the movement and subsequent plant availability of different nutrients will be measured. In addition, the suitability of previous methods for estimating quantities of plant-available nutrients after soil has been modified will be assessed.

Increasing farming system profitability and longevity of benefits following soil amelioration

Research and consultant analysis indicates that amelioration of sandplain soils in the Western Region is highly profitable, resulting in consistent and persistent improvement in crop water use efficiency and productivity. Factors that limit adoption or benefits of soil amelioration include uncertainty about how to sustain long-term benefits, poor crop establishment and potential for erosion in the year following amelioration.

This investment will identify management changes that preserve the benefits of soil amelioration and maximise profitability for growers. The research will determine the most profitable crop rotations, species choice and seedbed preparation that maintain the long term benefits of soil amelioration while managing the risks, such as wind erosion and poor crop establishment.

Increased grower profitability on soils with sodicity and transient salinity in the eastern grain belt of the Western Region.

Interacting combinations of sodicity and transient salinity, often associated with high subsoil pH, ion toxicities and poor subsoil structure, interact to constrain crop yields by reducing water extraction by crop roots. In the Western Region, approximately 2.5 million hectares of land in the eastern grain belt are affected by soil sodicity. Many growers attempt to profitability manage these constrained soils by opportunistically cropping them in better seasons or after fallow or by minimising costs and accepting lower productivity across all years.

This investment will evaluate the benefit of different options to improve water capture and availability, including water harvesting onto crop rows, targeted amelioration in the root zone and increasing soil water capacity, and determine the profitability and reliability of such approaches.

Re-engineering soils to improve the access of crop root systems to water and nutrients stored in the subsoil.

Multiple interacting soil constraints are reducing Plant Available Water (PAW), grain production and long-term profitability of crops across most of the 12 M ha of sandplain soils in the medium-high rainfall zone (van Gool 2018) of the Western Region resulting in lost yields with an estimated value of $1.2 Billion per year (Peterson, 2016). Current soil amelioration options (liming, deep ripping, spading, mouldboard ploughing) address one or more constraints to a depth up to 40cm. The potential yield benefits of addressing multiple constraints through complete soil profile re-engineering to a depth of 80cm is unknown.

This investment aims to:

1. Identify the most profitable and long-lasting soil amelioration and amendment strategies for managing multiple interacting soil constraints.
2. Demonstrate the benefits of re-engineering the soil profile through a combination of deep soil loosening; reconstituting profile layers and deep placement of nutrients and soil amendments.

High Value Pulses – Raising awareness, optimising yield and expanding the area of lentil, chickpea and faba bean in Western Australia

Pulses are an important part of many productive, profitable and sustainable farming systems in Australia. Historically in the Western Region, the main pulse has been lupin but more recently, lupin production has declined due to low prices and lack of adequate weed control options. New pulse options (chickpea, lentil and faba bean) are needed for the western region.

This investment will take a participatory approach with growers and advisers to identify potential pulse options, undertake agronomic experience required for successful pulse production.

Optimising high rainfall zone cropping for profit in the Western and Southern Regions

This project aims to work with growers, advisers, researchers and the broader grains industry to define the research and development needs in the high rainfall zones of GRDC's Western and Southern Regions.

Experimental sites in various and differing high rainfall areas will be established to measure cereal and canola growth in response to seasonal conditions and management decisions. Field trials and extension outcomes are aiming to understand the yield potential with different combinations of germplasm (Winter versus Spring germplasm) and farming systems inputs required to reduce the yield gap whilst still being profitable; and to also understand the economic risks associated with potentially higher input farming systems.

Survey Of The Summer/Autumn Brassica Refuges For Diamondback Moth In The Western Region To Predict Early Season Risk Of Infestation

This project aims to provide Western Australian canola growers and advisers with earlier warning about potential diamondback moth (DBM) outbreaks, so they can be pro-active in managing this insect pest. The evolution of resistance to insecticides in DBM means growers have limited insecticide options. Surveys will be undertaken to provide more information about how plants, such as species from the Brassica family, are harbouring DBM in Summer and Winter, where in the landscape these host plants are occurring, and how DBM subsequently move through the grain belt and re-colonise canola crops.

Ultimately, this information will help improve the forecasting of seasonal risk of DBM outbreaks and help the industry manage insecticide resistance. Information could also be used to produce a forecasting system for DBM, similar to those already developed for crop diseases such as blackleg disease in canola and black spot disease in field pea.

LMA Project B – A novel high-throughput, low-cost test to determine cause of starch damage in wheat grain

Late maturity alpha-amylase (LMA) is a grain defect causing a reduction in Hagberg falling number and results in potential failing to meet Australian receival or market specifications. The incidence of LMA in wheat grain is currently assessed using an ELISA assay to detect and quantify high pI alpha-amylase, the product of LMA expression. The test is relatively low-throughput and cannot be easily adapted to assist decision-making by growers or grain receivers.

This project will develop a low-cost test for starch degradation in wheat grains which can also assign the cause of starch damage to either LMA or pre-harvest sprouting (PHS). This will be achieved by establishing a laboratory-based method that uses sensor-based technology to map the spatial distribution of starch damage caused by alpha-amylase activity across the surface of the grain. The spatial distribution of alpha-amylase activity will be used to distinguish between LMA and PHS, since activity near the embryo is known to be caused by PHS, while that occurring within the endosperm is caused by LMA.

Knowledge of the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum detected by the sensor technology that associate with starch damage caused by alpha-amylase activity will be used to inform the development of rapid, mobile and low-cost sensors. These tools will be usable by breeders and researchers to determine the cause of starch damage in breeding materials and research populations in the field. They will also be suitable for growers to aid post-harvest decision making and allow grain receivers to determine starch damage rapidly and reliably.

Program 1: Minimising the impact of major barley foliar pathogens on yield and profit: Development of international host differential sets.

The development and maintenance of international host differential sets is a key resource for identifying new virulent pathotypes in the field and identifying novel sources of genetic resistance. This program aims to work and collaborate internationally to develop host differential sets for the net form of net blotch (NFNB, caused by Pyrenophora teres f. teres), the spot form of net blotch (SFNB, caused by P. teres f. maculata) and Scald (caused by Rhynchosporium secalis).

The knowledge gained from this coordinated effort will reduce duplication and redundancy in these key barley foliar disease host-pathosystems and facilitate the optimal deployment of new genes by breeding programs.

Program 4: Towards effective genetic and sustainable management of Ascochyta blight of Chickpea - Accurate, effective, cheaper and rapid high-throughput method for qualitative and quantitative evaluation for AB genetic resistance.

Ascochyta blight is the greatest disease threat to the Australian chickpea industry and can result in complete crop loss. With limited genetic options, management is reliant on multiple fungicide applications. To reduce reliance on chemical control, improve profitability and reduce risk, improved genetic resistance is highly desirable. However, a significant impediment to the identification of new sources of resistance and subsequent development of cultivars with improved genetic resistance is access to high capacity and cost-effective screening capability in Australia.

This project will develop a high throughput field and controlled environment phenotyping facility to provide a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of genetic resistance for chickpea ascochyta blight. There will be significant investment in irrigation infrastructure and evaluation of field and glasshouse methods to develop accurate and efficient screening methodologies. These cost effective and high capacity phenotyping services will be provided to researchers, pre-breeders and breeders as a fee-for-service activity. There will be an annual increase in the capacity to ensure that resistance breeding activities are not limited by a lack of phenotyping capacity. At the conclusion of the project the phenotyping capability will be available to breeders and the research community on a fee-for-service basis.

Increasing the effectiveness of nitrogen fixation in pulses through improved rhizobial strains in the GRDC Northern region

This investment aims to develop improved rhizobial strains and inoculation practices for chickpea, lentil and faba bean in acidic soils of the GRDC's Western and Northern regions. The development of elite rhizobial strains is important in increasing pulse production. Pulse production in central and southern New South Wales is likely to be constrained by acidic soils which are widespread throughout the region and results to date indicate that elite strains may increase nodulation in these circumstances.

The aim of this project is to evaluate the potential of a number of elite strains of rhizobia suitable for use across the Group E/F legume host range with a view to releasing a suitable strain that is well adapted to these regions. The release of such a strain offers potential to increase nitrogen fixation by pulses and increase the area of adaptation where they can be successfully grown.

Improving production of grower retained open pollinated canola seed using agronomic management to increase establishment in the MRZ and LRZ of the GRDC Northern Region.

The investment will characterise and evaluate agronomic management strategies that improve canola seed germination and vigour in addition to grower practices (seed size, speed of sowing, depth, fertiliser placement) that optimise plant establishment density in medium to low rainfall zones in the GRDC northern region. It will identify optimal management (including but not limited to; growing environment, nutrition, harvest management) of open pollinated canola crops destined for seed production to improve subsequent crop establishment.

Resistance surveillance for sustainable management of Helicoverpa in grains

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera is a major pest of grain crops and represents a significant challenge for the Australian grains industry given the ongoing reliance on chemical control methods. H. armigera reduces yield of pulses, oilseeds, coarse grains and occasionally winter cereals. To further enhance Helicoverpa resistance management in grains, a resistance management strategy (RMS) for H. armigera specifically designed for pulse crops was released in April 2018.

Resistance surveillance is a key component of the RMS and this project will provide the information critical for evaluating the effectiveness of this strategy. It will also provide an evidence-based platform for review and revision of the RMS in response to quantitative shifts in resistance frequency. This work will support growers and advisers in making informed management decisions to protect the longevity of important insecticides in grains production.

Facilitating adoption of integrated weed management strategies for feathertop Rhodes grass in the Northern Region, Prg 2. (southern NSW)

Feathertop Rhodes grass is a highly aggressive weed that is continuing to increase in incidence and severity in northern farming systems. The recent confirmation of resistance to glyphosate also highlights the need to manage the weed with an integrated systems approach.

This project will conduct a benchmarking survey of the current distribution and level of infestation of feathertop Rhodes grass in southern NSW and investigate the biology and ecology of southern feathertop Rhodes grass populations comparing with the northern ones. These studies will assist in designing the best management program for effective feathertop Rhodes grass management in southern NSW. The roles of pasture/livestock on feathertop Rhodes grass (stopping or favouring the spread) in mixed farming systems will be determined.

A range of field trials will be conducted in conjunction with farming groups to evaluate site-specific weed management, effective pre and post emergent herbicidal options in fallows, grazing management, spray/grazing and effective herbicide options in managing feathertop Rhodes grass in pastures. A key component is the extension of this work to growers in southern NSW.

Maximising The Uptake Of Phosphorus By Crops To Optimise Profit In Central And Southern NSW, Victoria And South Australia

This project explores the effect fertiliser placement has on nutrient use efficiency given nutrient stratification, soil water availability and the root architecture of different crops. The project deploys a series of experiments designed to identify strategies that increase crop yield through increased phosphorus (P) uptake in central and southern NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Studies are based on a combination of field experiments, and controlled environment studies that will be used to understand if and why certain combinations of P placement and soil moisture can enhance P fertiliser use efficiency for different crop types. Furthermore, the research will identify P application rates that can be used to enhance P uptake and crop yield in diverse soil and climate scenarios.

Computer simulation studies on soil water along with other data help guide site and treatment selection. The project has three components that address the following questions:

1. Does the dual placement of subsurface and surface P improve crop yield and/or P use efficiency over surface P placement only;
2. Do crop species differ in their response to subsurface P placement; and
3. How does water and root proliferation interact with subsurface P application and crop uptake of P.

Development and validation of soil amelioration and agronomic practices to realise the genetic potential of grain crops grown under a high yield potential, irrigated environment in the northern and southern regions.

This investment will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of novel soil management technologies and crop specific agronomic management practices on the profitability of irrigated systems. The aim being to addressing key constraints of yield and profit in irrigated cropping systems, with a focus on knowledge gaps in durum wheat, faba bean, canola, chickpea and maize crops grown under irrigation. Setting new economically achievable yield benchmarks for these crops will, along with other related irrigation investments, improve grower capacity to respond to varying water and commodity prices through agronomic practices targeted to the unique constraints of irrigated cropping systems.

Agronomic management of weeds, crop nutrition and farming practices in central west NSW to maximise crop profitability

The services are to facilitate the delivery and validation of past and current key research findings across the CNSW sub-region.

Program 1: Towards effective genetic and sustainable management of Ascochyta blight of chickpea - Ascochyta blight pathogen biology, population dynamics and epidemiology.

Ascochyta Blight (AB, Phoma rabiei) is a major fungal disease capable of causing significant loss and management costs to chickpea crops. Current disease management practices include a fungicide spray regime combined with growing resistant chickpea cultivars. However, since its introduction to Australia, the fungus has become increasingly more aggressive on recently deployed and widely adopted cultivars.

In response to this the current project will develop a deeper understanding of the evolutionary potential of the fungus to determine the extent to which specific farming practice and/or climatic factors in each growing region are contributing to adaptation. In addition, parts of the fungus genome that condition the ability to cause AB will be identified and specific differences in genome sequences between fungal isolates, that are able to cause different disease levels on different chickpea cultivars, will be characterised. These sequence differences will then be validated as novel molecular tools to determine the pathogen risk within regions/climates, on particular cultivars and/or within particular farming systems.

Once the farming systems and/or climate factors that are most influential in increasing the aggressiveness of the fungus are identified, they will be used together with the new molecular tools, to predict the occurrence of disease epidemics and guide revision of disease management practices at a regional scale.

Program 2 - Towards effective genetic and sustainable management of Ascochyta blight of Chickpea

Chickpea is an internationally important pulse crop the profitability of which is consistently negatively affected by Ascochyta blight (Didymella rabiei) epidemics and the pathogen's ability to evolve enhanced aggressiveness. In order to manage the global threat posed by the disease, ICARDA, one of the international Agricultural Research centres working on chickpea germplasm development (Ascochyta blight resistance), is leading this project to bring together experts from Australia, Canada, Spain, Turkey, India, Tunisia, Ethiopia to form the first international Ascochyta blight consortium.

This consortium aims to generate outputs (knowledge, products and tools) and standardize research methodologies that will be of benefit to the Australian chickpea industry. Anticipated outputs of the project are a new differential set of chickpea lines with known markers associated with each resistant gene. and associated Ascochyta blight pathotype structure with the corresponding identified (A)virulence genes. Identification of the (A)virulence genes and a global pathotype structure will determine which resistance sources can effectively be employed in specific chickpea production areas.

By end of the project, Australian chickpea breeders and pre-breeders will be able to:

1. access novel Ascochyta blight resistant genes available in the chickpea germplasms;
2. understand the value of each Ascochyta resistance gene(s); and
3. generate future varieties with improved durable Ascochyta blight resistance.

Facilitated action learning groups to support profitable irrigated farming systems in the northern and southern regions.

GRDC are putting growers at the center of a suite of irrigation investments. Irrigation Discussion Groups are able to focus on local challenges and opportunities whilst they benchmark and test the key learnings from the linked irrigation investments. The eight discussion groups are located in the southern Murray Darling Basin, South-East South Australia, and the South Australian/Victorian Mallee. Their aim is for growers to be supported to push the boundaries of best practice in irrigated grain production through soil amelioration, agronomic practices and improved decision-making to maximise the dollar return of every megalitre applied.

Northern Australia Agronomy

Northern Australia Crop Research Alliance (NACRA) is a private research organisation consisting of three companies namely, Ord River District Co-operative (ORDCO), The Chia Co and Kimberley Agricultural investment (KAI).

The purpose of the Alliance is to gain efficiencies in the conduct and delivery of crop research across far Northern Australia. GRDC is investing with NACRA to address knowledge gaps in crop production and deliver research outcomes focussed on varietal evaluation, crop physiology, nutrition and sequencing.

Agronomic management of weeds, crop nutrition and farming practices in Northern NSW & Southern QLD to maximise crop profitability

This investment aims to investigate, validate and extend current key research findings into pest management, crop nutrition and farming systems across grain production regions in Northern NSW and Southern Queensland.

Future Peanut Breeding

This investment in peanut breeding will deliver superior new varieties with increased reliability and profitability for growers. The specific traits of high priority include higher yields, better disease control (late leaf spot, leaf rust and net blotch), Peanut Kernel Shrivel tolerance and improved quality (ie seed size, blanchability etc.).

This is the final investment in transition of the breeding program to the private sector. At the completion of this investment, commercial arrangements for varieties to be made available to industry will be in place.

Leveraging Existing International Germplasm to Deliver Improved Acid Soil Tolerance Chickpea for Australian Growers (GRDC/USA/Ethiopia Initiative)

This project uses genomics-assisted breeding to develop chickpea varieties with enhanced tolerance to acid soils. Development of novel chickpea varieties that thrive under acidic soil conditions, where aluminium toxicity and phosphorous deficiency otherwise limit plant growth, would be a significant outcome for Australian farmers.

The project benefits from linkage to the UC Davis-led Chickpea Innovation Lab that has been exploring the potential of chickpea germplasm to tolerate acid soils. The project will use genomic based breeding approaches to harness traits from chickpea landraces, grown for millennia on acid soils in Ethiopia, and from pre-breeding populations containing the previously untapped genetic potential of chickpea's wild relatives.

Determining the incidence of herbicide resistance in Australian grain cropping

There are currently 47 weed species which have confirmed herbicide resistance status in Australia. These are resistant to 10 different Modes of Action and 30 of these species are known to be weeds in crop production systems.

This investment seeks to further understand the incidence and extent of herbicide resistant weeds. Data from this project will inform investment decisions to develop strategies to manage and prevent resistance and support optimal weed management decisions.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: Integrating yield optimisation in mungbean aligned to UOQ1807-003RTX.

APSIM is an internationally recognised modelling framework to predict growth and yield of a variety of crops in different environments and underpin agronomic performance management decisions.

This investment will upgrade the current APSIM - Mungbean model to improve the ability to simulate differences amongst cultivars and provide greater functionality with respect to sensitivity to water, temperature stresses and drivers of canopy development.

UMU00048 - Genetic approaches to reduce the nitrogen dilution effect and increase nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) in wheat

The nitrogen dilution effect refers to the observation that high wheat yields are often associated with low grain protein content (GPC). As grain protein is a key determinant of price, growers seek to maintain both high yield and high GPC.

This investment seeks to confirm recent gene network discoveries in relation to quantitative and allelic effects on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and GPC. New gene resources for high NUE and GPC will be targeted through gene mapping and cloning, accompanied by mechanistic studies at the molecular level. Genetic resources and molecular markers will be provided to breeding companies to allow increasing GPC while maintaining yield.

Boosting profit and reducing risk on mixed farms in low and medium rainfall areas with newly discovered legume pastures enabled by innovative management methods – Western region (Dryland pasture legume systems).

Growers have shifted their focus from livestock to crops over the last 30 years, however continuously cropped paddocks are not sustainable and come with high risk, especially in dry areas where wheat cultivation dominates. Intensive cropping is susceptible to herbicide resistant weeds, requires large nitrogen fertiliser inputs, and there are significant financial implications when yields are restricted by frost or dry conditions. There are also indicators of reduced sustainability under these intensive systems which include increases in areas of saline seeps. This work builds on a pilot project undertaken in the medium rainfall zones of Western Australia and southern New South Wales which demonstrated how novel pasture legumes improve livestock production through enhanced growth and reproduction, and earlier access to markets, while dramatically reducing fertiliser and herbicide inputs for following crops.

This collaborative project with MLA and AWI will develop recently discovered pasture legumes together with innovative management techniques to improve profitability for mixed farms (cropping and livestock) in the low and medium rainfall areas of Western Australia. The new legume varieties will reduce nitrogen requirements, increase soil fertility, reduce weeds and diseases for following crops and be a source of quality feed for livestock. The project will also develop whole farm economic modelling to equip farmers with tools to adopt new pasture varieties and management practices.

Increasing the effectiveness of nitrogen fixation in pulses through improved rhizobial strains in the GRDC Western Region

The adaptation of high value pulse crops (chickpea, lentil and faba bean) is restricted by the suitability of current rhizobial strains to soil and climatic conditions.

This project, in collaboration with similar projects in the GRDC's Northern and Southern regions, will evaluate a range of elite rhizobial strains for high value pulse crops with the objective of releasing elite commercial strains.

Such strains will improve the adaptation range of high value pulse crops and their use in farming systems resulting in increased nitrogen fixation and a reduction in reliance on inorganic nitrogen fertilisers. The work is also examining soil and crop management practices, particularly inoculation and herbicide applications, which may affect nodulation and nitrogen fixation of pulse crops.

Synchrotron Postdoctoral Fellow no. 4: Plants - Novel foliar fertilisers and nutrition trait diversity of grains

As global attention shifts towards nutritional food security, the density of key micronutrients (zinc, iron, selenium, iodine and Vitamin A) in Australian cereal grains will increasingly become a key market requirements and potential differentiation point.

This investment will utilise Synchrotron technologies to determine the micronutrient density in wheat from the Western and Southern grains regions to determine how well situated Australian grain is to supply markets that specify micronutrient dense grains. The project will focus on Zn in the first instance and determine which Zn fertiliser forms, including novel foliar Zn products, can boost Zn density in grain.

Oat genomic resources for breeders and pre-breeders

Yield gains in oats are currently limited by the lack of availability of modern genomic and genotyping resources. Recently an international consortium consisting of members from the UK, Germany, Sweden, Finland, China, Canada, USA and Australia resolved to sequence multiple oat genotypes, develop modern oat genomic resources and construct an oat pan-genome.

This investment will sequence and assemble three oat genomes, including two Australian varieties which cover the diversity of Australian oat breeding germplasm and one wild oat genotype, as part of the international consortium efforts.

UA00163 - Pulse Breeding Australia: Faba Bean Breeding

Faba bean is one of Australia's major cool season food legumes with production extending over a wide eco-geographic range with the major production area in the southern region (Victoria, South Australia) and a smaller area in the northern region (northern NSW and southern Queensland). These regions encompass a diversity of environments ranging from Mediterranean and Temperate environments to sub-tropical ones. As such, it is necessary to breed a number of varieties that have a broad range of adaptive traits in order to maintain yield stability and an adequate level of disease resistance.

This investment supports the Faba bean breeding program that is targeting a number of traits including heat, frost and resistance to a number of fungal and viral diseases (ascochyta blight, rust, chocolate spot, Cercospora leaf spot, bean leaf-roll virus (BLRV) and bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV)). In addition, breeding for tolerance to Group B herbicides has progressed to the stage where the tolerant variety PBA Bendoc was released in 2018. Further opportunities exist for improving tolerance of faba bean to herbicides.

Australian Cereal Rust Control Program - Novel sources of stem rust resistance from uncultivated wild relatives of wheat

Rusts are have the potential to cause significant losses for Australia wheat growers. These potential losses are largely prevented through the incorporation of sources of genetic resistance into varieties.

This project aims to continue the successful incorporation of rust resistance from related species into wheat and distribute the elite lines to wheat breeding programs. Although stem rust resistance is the major focus, the uncultivated relatives of wheat also carry valuable resistance genes against other diseases such as leaf and stripe rusts. Additional screening for resistance to these other diseases is undertaken by the University of Sydney as a partner organisation in the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program.

Optimising plant establishment, density and spacings to maximise crop yield and profit in the southern and western regions

Rapid and even crop establishment is a foundation for vigorous crops that are competitive against weeds.  In recent years there has been growing interest in Australia and overseas in adapting precision seeding technology that is widely used in summer crop production, to winter crops. However, there is little information on the current levels of crop establishment and stand uniformity in the major winter crops, the potential for improvements in crop establishment and the potential agronomic and economic benefits of improving crop establishment and stand uniformity within modern farming systems.

To address these issues, this project will focus on:

• identifying the factors that are most influential in determining variation in crop establishment and uniformity
• providing recommendations to growers and to assess the agronomic and economic benefits and risks of different seeding systems, and
• providing a communication program on the outcomes of this work to industry.

Increasing the effectiveness of nitrogen fixation in pulse crops through development of improved rhizobial strains, inoculation and crop management practices

This project aims to improve the viability and profitability of high value pulses (faba bean, lentil and chickpea) through the provision of improved inoculant strains, the assessment of inoculant delivery technologies under hostile establishment conditions and improved understanding of pesticide impacts on the symbiosis.

It will demonstrate where inoculation is of value and identify opportunities for future symbiotic improvement.
Promising strains of acid tolerant rhizobia for faba bean and lentil have been identified in previous research. The next phase of this work will focus on commercialising one of the strains and understanding the pH boundaries where it reliably delivers benefits. The ability of the new rhizobia to survive in soils outside of the host plant, will also be tested. Similar rhizobia strain improvement work will be initiated for chickpea.

In addition, this project will assess the merit of different inoculant formulations and whether they provide advantages under challenging conditions. The extent to which crop protection chemicals are impacting on N fixation will be measured and growers and industry informed about which pesticides are most damaging. The work will investigate the extent to which herbicide tolerant pulse varieties overcome the detrimental impacts of some herbicides on N-fixation.

Improving Australian malt barley flavour to address Chinese brewing requirements

This investment aims to identify key malt flavour characteristics of Australian and Canadian malt to determine why Canadian malt is preferred in China and other key export markets.

The investment also will try to determine what are the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to different malt flavour profiles. This information can be then be used by researchers and breeders to develop barley varieties that will be more competitive in key export markets to increase the demand for, and price of, Australian malting barley.

New knowledge and practices to address topsoil and subsurface acidity under minimum tillage cropping systems of South Australia

Soil acidity is an emerging issue in some areas of South Australia under minimum tillage cropping systems.

This investment will characterise the extent of soil acidity issues across SA, assess the effectiveness of lime application, identify and validate new soil acidity amelioration practices and provide improved management information to growers and their advisers. The investment will instigate new long-term field trials and glasshouse experiments, revisit existing lime trials, and conduct extension and communication activities to:

1. Understand the extent of spatial variability in soil acidification across a range of soils and farming systems in SA, including the impact of seeding system and fertiliser applications
2. Generate new information regarding lime movement and effectiveness when applied to the surface different soils and environments in minimum tillage systems
3. Identify, develop and validate novel acidity management practices - lime forms, placement and incorporation, including soil inversion or delving to overcome the impacts of subsoil acidity
4. Extend current knowledge and decision support tools illustrating the economic costs of acidity, to better inform grower and advisor decision making regarding lime applications.

Manipulation of stomata to increase yield potential in wheat (IWYP collaboration)

Maximising grain yield requires a careful balance between photosynthesis, water use efficiency (WUE) and maintaining optimal leaf temperature for photosynthesis. Stomata are a key determinant in these processes as they regulate the balance of CO₂ uptake for photosynthesis, while minimising water loss and dehydration.

Stomatal conductance is controlled both by anatomical features (such as density on the leaf) and functional response to environmental stimuli. Stomatal patterning and changes in aperture are independent but linked mechanisms whereby plants can optimise gas exchange to increase CO₂ capture for photosynthesis, and to control water loss and leaf temperature through transpiration.

This project targets different genes in stomatal development and functional pathways using transgenic/mutagenic approaches to improve photosynthesis and yield potential in wheat as part of a germplasm development initiative and to better characterise these pathways in cereals. This project forms part of a larger effort under the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) that seeks to improve wheat yield potential.

Utilising novel genetic diversity to increase Barley yields nationally

This project aims to utilize an exotic barley population (HEB-25) to enhanced yield potential of future Australian barley varieties by identifying germplasm with improved biomass production under water-limiting environments, and higher grain number per ear or thousand grain weight than current yield-leading varieties. Incorporating beneficial alleles from HEB-25 into elite Australian barley varieties will lead to the development of a significant genetic resource. Field validation of the developed germplasm with the wild beneficial alleles in the background of Australian elite varieties, and across a range of environments in Australia will ensure that ensure that private breeding programs can move forward with confidence in utilising such materials.

Machine learning to extract maximum value from soil and crop variability

The yields of major crops in Australia are often below their water-limited potential. A reason for this is the complexity of Genotype x Environment x Management (GxExM) interaction, which results in crop growth with high variability.

This project aims to use machine learning to undertake a more detailed analysis of data already generated as part of previous research with a focus on soil factors that impact on grain yield variability. It will combine multi-layer paddock and field trial datasets with machine learning (ML) analytics with simulated cropping scenarios generated in Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM). The model will be trained on paddock data and tested on research plots to see whether the machine learning algorithms can detect patterns from the research that traditional approaches were unable to identify by accounting for more variable across the whole GxExM interaction. The APSIM model will also be used to generate additional scenarios for testing with the machine learning algorithm.

Program 2: Minimising the impact of major barley foliar pathogens on yield and profit: Surveillance and monitoring of pathogen populations - SARDI

The barley foliar diseases, scald (Rhynchosporium secalis), the net form of net blotch (NFNB, Pyrenophora teres f. teres) and the spot form of net blotch (SFNB, P. teres f. maculata) are caused by three highly variable fungal pathogen populations that can evolve rapidly to adapt to changing varieties and/or fungicide usage. If not managed properly, each disease can cause serious damage to infected crops and, if left uncontrolled, can develop into more serious problems over larger areas in subsequent years making future control even more problematic.

This surveillance and monitoring project addresses an important component of an overall management strategy aimed at suppressing these diseases. By developing a better understanding of variation in the pathogen population, the project will provide early warnings to barley breeders, growers and others of new pathogenic changes so that more effective action can be taken to counter the threat.

Program 1: Identification of novel sources of resistance to Septoria Leaf Blotch and understanding of evolution and virulence of the pathogen

Septoria avenae blotch is a significant oat disease especially in Western Australia where almost all oat crops have some level of Septoria infection. Average yield losses from Septoria in the high rainfall zone are approximately 15% and result in significant economic loss. The Septoria pathogen population is diverse, making breeding for durable resistance difficult and to date little work has been undertaken to identify and characterise genetic sources of resistance to Septoria avenae blotch.

The aim of this program of work is to investigate the evolution and virulence of the pathogen population, establish Septoria avenae blotch differential sets and identify novel sources of resistance to provide breeders with the germplasm and tools to breed varieties with durable resistance to Septoria.

The development of an accurate, high throughput, affordable and relevant screen for LMA risk for the Australian wheat industry

This project aims at the development of an accurate, high throughput, affordable and relevant screen for Late Maturity alpha-Amylase (LMA) risk in the Australian wheat industry. Falling number is a global industry standard used to quantify detrimental pre-harvest sprouting, as early release from seed dormancy leads to significant effects on end-product quality. However, low falling number can also be caused by the LMA trait, susceptibility to which is currently an Australian milling wheat classification criterion.

The current screen for LMA susceptibility is time consuming and costly thereby causing a major bottleneck in the release of new wheat varieties. In this project, we will build on and improve the current LMA screening procedure to increase throughput and accuracy and to reduce cost. The current screen requires the tagging of individual spikes at anthesis and removal of the spikes post anthesis for a cool shock treatment to induce LMA expression.

This requires a significant amount of labour and poses the risk of confounding factors based on the maturity type of lines and environmental conditions. Our strategy is to focus on:

1. determining the necessity for the cool shock treatment through testing continuous low-temperature growth conditions before and after anthesis;
2. reducing variability in growth conditions and shortening the growing cycle to minimise the time window of anthesis between the lines; and
3. growing the same lines in field trials across Australia and duplicate seasons to correlate the LMA expression in the controlled environment with low falling number in the field.

Towards Effective Control of Blackleg of Canola Program 1: Disease Epidemiology And Management

Blackleg disease is the major threat to the canola industry in Australia and worldwide, having caused major epidemics on several occasions. Changing farming practices to avoid inoculum, application of fungicides and the use of plant resistance genes form a basis for an integrated disease management (IDM) system for blackleg disease. This investment will provide disease management strategies for canola growers across all canola growing regions.

This investment will monitor changes in virulence of the blackleg fungal populations nationally, releasing warnings to growers when specific resistance genes are at threat of high levels of disease. In previous work it has been demonstrated that upper canopy infection (UCI) can be responsible for up to 40% yield losses through infection of upper stems, branches, flowers and pods. Factors leading to severe UCI will be determined, including how current farming practices are impacting on both crown canker severity and UCI. Best farming practices will be developed to determine how the new fungicide chemistries can be used to maximise efficacy and provide protection for both crown canker and UCI through selective application regimes. Lastly, high-throughput screening techniques will be developed to allow for screening commercial cultivars for resistance to UCI.

Program 2 - Towards Effective Control of Blackleg of Canola: Coordinating international blackleg research and development

The use of resistance genes is one of the major strategies for minimising the impact of blackleg disease of canola. Therefore, the accurate identification of resistance genes in Australian canola cultivars is essential for the continued high levels of canola production. All commercial cultivars are released with associated resistance groups, allowing growers to select and rotate cultivars with different sources of resistance to minimise the impact of blackleg disease. The identification of resistance genes, and therefore the classification of Australian cultivars into resistance groups, requires phenotypic screening using a set of precisely defined differential isolates of the blackleg fungus and cultivars that have been characterised for all known genes involved in disease.

This project will maintain and further improve the set of pathogen isolates and host lines, as well as screen all commercially released canola cultivars each year. Furthermore, the differential set will be expanded to incorporate new isolates or lines as needed when new sources of resistance are identified. These differential sets will also be provided to programs to enable delivery of other research, such as the identification of molecular markers for resistance genes and identification and characterisation of quantitative (adult plant) resistance.

Novel suppression and resistance management of invertebrate pests

This project aims to assist the Australian grains industry transition to more sustainable and predictive approaches for the management of pests, through innovative solutions that will decrease disease transmission, improve chemical stewardship and effectively forecast pesticide resistance issues. The Australian Grains Pest Innovation Program (AGPIP) brings together researchers and extension specialists from The University of Melbourne and Cesar Australia to develop novel pest suppressive technologies for the Australian grains industry.

The Program is undertaking research and development activities that embrace endosymbiont technology; predictive forecasting, diagnostic tools and mechanisms of insecticide resistance; knowledge to reduce chemical impacts on beneficial insects; and other innovative ways to manage grains pests. The extension component of the Program is focused on translating the Program’s research outcomes into grower guides and other tools to support industry adoption of sustainable and effective pest management practices.

UQ00063 - Regional soil testing guidelines for the northern grains region

The national database "Making Better Fertiliser Decisions for Crops" has identified large gaps in knowledge regarding soil nutrient-yield response relationships for many of the crops grown in the GRDC Northern region, and for most of the nutrients, as well as the appropriate soil testing methodology to assess subsoil phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and Sulphur (S) status.

This project aims to fill these gaps for the major crops in the region (sorghum, wheat and chickpea), by conducting trials from the Central Highlands in Qld to the southern Liverpool Plains in NSW including western areas of southern Qld and central and northern NSW. The project will generate soil test - plant response calibrations covering the above gaps in knowledge, with this project focussing on P, K and S soil test-crop response information, with the objective of better matching fertilizer inputs to meet crop demand while minimising nutrient losses.

Better sorghum: larger grain with more protein

Feed grains are utilised primarily as a source of energy, with most of the energy from starch, with the protein component usually considered of secondary importance. However, protein needs to be supplemented from crops such as soybean or lupin, and this represents a more expensive input per unit of metabolisable energy. Seed storage protein in sorghum is notorious for low digestibility, and can have adverse impacts on starch availability. In addition, small or variable grain size, a common problem in sorghum, results in yield losses to the farmer and higher processing costs for feed rations and human food uses.

This investment aims to use novel genetic approaches to increase grain size, grain protein content and grain protein digestibility to produce high value sorghum hybrids to increase grower profitability.

Economics of ameliorating soil constraints in the northern region: Spatial soil constraint diagnoses

Approximately 75% of Australian soils have single or multiple constraints that limit agricultural productivity, and in the GRDC's Northern Region, these commonly take the form of sodicity, acidity, salinity and compaction.

Project A is part of an integrated body of work that will provide growers with tools to identify a) what constraints are present and where these occur (Project A); b) what management strategies can be used to increase yield (Project B) and profitability (Project C); and c) how strategies can be effectively communicated and demonstrated to growers (Project D).

Economics of ameliorating soil constrains in the northern region: Program co-ordination – communication, extension and evaluation

Approximately 75% of Australian soils have constraints that limit agricultural productivity. In the GRDC's Northern Region, these commonly take the form of sodicity, acidity, salinity, and compaction. These constraints may occur singly or in combination, at the soil surface or in the subsoil, and they tend to occur heterogeneously across paddocks and properties. This project (Project D) is part of an integrated body of work that will provide growers with knowledge and capacity to enable them to identify what constraints are present on their properties and where these occur (Project A), and what management strategies will alleviate these constraints to increase yield (Project B) and the profitability of these strategies (Project C).

This project (Project D) will coordinate and guide the operations of Projects A, B, and C and assist with communication and collaboration between the groups and in leveraging opportunities between projects to ensure a better outcome. It will also be responsible for coordinating the communication, extension and evaluation of the whole program's results to growers and advisers.

The overall aim of the projects is to provide growers in the GRDC's Northern Region with the technical and economic knowledge and tools to identify and manage soil constraints to achieve improved farm profitability.

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Interfacing crop improvement and agronomy/ nutrition programs

This investment will explore the interactions between stratified or banded nutrients and root morphology, with a specific focus on deep root development and crop exploitation of subsoil moisture reserves. The goal is to quantify the impact of spatially separate distributions of water and immobile nutrients on crop productivity, identify root traits that will confer productivity advantages in soils with stratified/banded nutrient reserves, and explore the potential to screen for those traits in summer and winter cereal breeding programs.

Optimising sorghum yield through agronomic management

The overall aim of this project is to develop the knowledge and tools to assist growers and advisers on early sowing decisions for sorghum. The project will investigate how do combinations of sorghum hybrids, crop management and the environment modify stress environments and yield distributions in early sown sorghum, and what is the influence on the cropping system?

In the GRDC's Northern Region, managing heat and moisture stress at critical growth stages remains important to increasing yields and reducing the likelihood of uneconomical sorghum crops. The main adaptation strategy for growers to manage these stresses is to avoid the overlap between heat stress events and flowering. This can be achieved by targeting optimum flowering windows and selecting more than one hybrid to spread the risk of all their crops flowering in the same window. Sites will be characterised to allow APSIM modelling combined with economic analyses, so that cropping system impacts of non-standard sorghum sowing times can be quantified. In addition, agronomic management guidelines for the key sorghum production zones across the GRDC's Northern Region will be updated based on the results of this project's trial data and modelling outputs.

Optimising mungbean yield in the northern region - Mungbean Physiology

As mungbean increases in popularity grower confidence in mungbeans is limited by high levels of yield variability in the paddock. In addition, understanding the drivers of this variability is currently limited by poor understanding of the crop physiology. This project aims to address significant gaps in our understanding of mungbean physiology including drivers of yield in mungbean, constraints that limit yield performance under optimal and sub-optimal (heat / water stress) conditions and dynamics of harvest index. In addition, the field data will be used to develop the NextGen APSIM mungbean model.

This project focuses on understanding how we can optimise breeding and management strategies to increase grain yield and crop resilience in mungbean for the benefit of growers and the broader industry.

Rooty: A root ideotype toolbox to support improved wheat yields

This project aims to rapidly develop elite wheat lines with optimised root systems by combining recently discovered genes that modulate root architecture and biomass.

Higher yielding crops developed will most likely demand more water and nutrients to support those yields, and roots must supply these in an efficient manner without draining any more carbon away from grain formation than is necessary to provide this function. By employing a combination of high-throughput phenotyping and marker-assisted selection strategies, along with 'speed breeding', elite wheat materials with distinct root ideotypes will be assembled. To determine the value of the improved root systems, the wheat lines will be evaluated for yield under different environments, at sites in Mexico and Australia.

This project forms part of a larger effort under the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) that seeks to improve wheat yield potential.

Next generation plant breeding: integrating genomic selection and high throughput phenotyping to enhance genetic gain in sorghum and mungbeans

A range of new technologies including genomic selection and high throughput (HTP) phenotyping systems have the potential to dramatically improve the rates of genetic gain in crop breeding programs. This requires the development of integrated data management and analysis pipelines using high performance computing systems to generate genomic breeding values in a timely fashion to allow for their effective use in crop improvement programs.

This investment aims to develop approaches to integrate genomic selection and high throughput phenotyping to bring about improvements in the rate of genetic gain in sorghum and mung bean breeding programs.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: Designing roots to enhance durum wheat yield aligned with GRDC Project UOQ1810-002RTX-Rooty

Root biomass accumulation is considered a key aspect of root development that could potentially increase soil resource capture, particularly if the mechanism is combined with genes modulating root growth angle.

This investment explores the identification of Quantitative Trait Loci associated with root biomass and root angle and the potential of combining these in elite durum wheat lines for evaluation in durum production regions and use by breeding companies.

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Enhancing Genomic Prediction for Sorghum to deal with genotype-by-environment interactions for yield

This project will investigate the opportunity to develop more powerful genomic prediction methods that can better handle the effects of genotype-by-environment interactions using the sorghum crop growth model available within the APSIM platform. With enhanced genomic prediction capability that can better deal with the effects of genotype-by-environment interactions sorghum breeders will be able to expand their uses of genomic prediction technology and accelerate the development of hybrids with improved yield potential and yield stability.

In turn, the availability of hybrids with improved yield stability will give farmers improved options for dealing with the challenging variable sorghum production environments of Australia.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: Understanding P dynamics and bioavailability in alkaline clay soils aligned to UQ00082.

This investment will use the large amount of current data on phosphorous utilisation to develop an interpretative framework that quantifies the key process interactions and how they influence phosphorous use efficiency and crop growth/yield across different environments. Identified gaps in current knowledge will be the subject of targeted experimentation with a focus on deriving algorithms to link environmental variables with crop phosphorous acquisition and grain yields.

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Understanding sorghum root growth and function in cold soils aligned to UOQ1808-001RTX

This investment aims to improve grower and adviser knowledge of the effects of establishing winter grown sorghum including the impact of  cold soils on root growth and function, water use patterns, water use efficiency, yield, profit and risk implications.

The project will also explore the impact of ratooning a winter sown sorghum crop into a second harvest including impacts on yield, profit and risk on the sorghum crop and subsequent winter sown crops.

Synchrotron Postdoctoral Fellow no. 1: Soil - root interactions using intact field soil cores.

Research on root morphology, distribution and function are complicated by the difficulties associated with taking root measurements without causing root damage or impacting the validity of experiments.

This investment will develop methods based on Synchroton technologies to examine root distribution and growth in large intact soil cores collected from current field trials.

Synchrotron Postdoctoral Fellow no. 3: Soil - organic matter fractionation using intact soil cores

Soil organic matter is an important contributor to soil health and crop production. This investment will develop Synchrotron methods to examine how changes in organic matter within the soil (for example, due to cropping frequency or incorporation of green manures) are related to differences in soil properties and root distribution.

LMA Project C – An improved model of Late Maturity alpha-Amylase (LMA) field risk in Australian wheat.

The susceptibility of new wheat varieties to the Late Maturity alpha-Amylase (LMA) defect is a key concern for breeding programs developing high-quality milling grade wheat in Australia. A capacity to characterise and quantify actual LMA risk at field scale remains a crucial outstanding industry issue.

The overarching aim of this project is to develop a LMA risk model from measured data collated for: field trials with four times of sowing, for 24 genotypes, at 6 locations, for two seasons across the Australian wheat belt. Detailed research field trials linked directly with an LMA simulation modelling approach will be valuable to better quantify LMA triggers at field scale and assist with modelling actual LMA risk across the Australian wheat belt.

This will be achieved through targeted time-of-sowing field trials, which will include early sowing dates to capture the required weather and crop development data needed for

1. characterising the environmental conditions that may trigger LMA in a wide range of Australian germplasm under Australian field conditions, and
2. developing a process based LMA risk model incorporating detailed phenology and environmental conditions to predict actual field risk at a shire level.

Results of these developments will allow:

1. better quantification of the actual risk of LMA incidence at field scale,
2. generation of seasonal diagnostic data to identify likely LMA hotspot regions, and
3. better management of breeding systems to support genetic gain for yield while managing LMA risk.

Machine learning applied to high-throughput feature extraction from imagery to map spatial variability

This project uses Machine Learning to develop high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) of crop canopy features. Plant images from the many project partners train machine learning models for this. The model training is done using the Weiner supercomputer at UQ. These models will be part of edge-computing units, which can take and process images offline.

These can be mounted on farm machinery and UAVs, or at the side of the paddock. This investment also works with the GRDC ‘CropPhen’ investment.

CropPhen: Remote mapping of grain crop type and phenology

This project aims to develop a software-based tool to remotely map crop type (wheat, barley, chickpea, lentils, sorghum and mungbean) and development stage at the sub-paddock scale.

The project will combine remote sensing, crop simulation modelling, machine learning and field validation datasets to develop an approach that captures data on crop type and developmental stage every five days at a 10-metre spatial resolution using satellite imagery. Knowing the likely area of crop emergence and phenological stage will provide growers and advisers with information that will assist them optimise management decisions.

AgAsk: A Machine Learning Generated Question-Answering Conversational Agent for Data-driven Growing Decisions

AgAsk, a machine learning question-answering system, will interpret natural language questions and provide contextualised access to insights into agricultural research. Text information that is currently locked away in GRDC project reports and scientific publications will be searched and synthesised by AgAsk into succinct and relevant answers to growers' questions. The resulting app will provide growers access to evidence-based information, leveraging the inherent value of previous GRDC project outcomes and insights.

INVITA - A technology and analytics platform for improving variety selection

The INVITA AU project, leveraged off a similar existing initiative in Europe, will develop a platform for improving variety selection by accessing and developing enabling technologies and analytics solutions that will be deployed within National Varietal Trials to support more profitable selection decisions by Australian growers.

The project aims to:

1. support improved grower decision making by better accounting for environmental variability and its impacts on experimental treatments across trial sites and seasons;
2. improve site-specific trial plot estimates by better-quantifying and adjusting for site variability;
3. increase the speed and accuracy of trial result release and publication; and
4. inform continuous improvement of related trial programs by providing quantitative feedback on trial quality.

The project should stimulate yield improvements in wheat, barley, canola, and sorghum, as a consequence of better variety/breeding selection and improved agronomic management.

Screening of diverse barley germplasm for rapid discovery and utilisation of novel disease resistance in barley novel using R-HapSelect: A haplotype-based toolkit.

The three barley pathogens, that cause spot form of net blotch (SFNB), net form of net blotch (NFNB), and Scald are genetically and pathogenically diverse. They reproduce sexually, rapidly develop new virulences and overcome genetic resistance making it important to identify new sources of resistance. The objective of this project is to use R-HapSelect, a haplotype-based toolkit, to rapidly identify new resistances to these three pathogens to increase the number of NFNB, SFNB and Scald resistance genes available to breeders. The project also aims to determine the optimal combinations of resistant genes to provide long lasting durable of resistance in barley cultivars.

US00080 - 2016.02.01G A national approach to improving heat tolerance in wheat through more efficient carbon allocation

Heat damage which predominantly arises from heat shock or longer-term temperatures above optimum during the reproductive and grain filling stages, is one of the most regular and limiting constraints to Australian wheat production.

This project examines the mechanistic bases of heat tolerance to build capacity in:

1. a fundamental understanding of the processes that truncate grain filling after heat events;
2. processes underlying heat-induced changes in day and night respiration; and
3. morphological and physiological traits that ameliorate heat damage.

Physiological and molecular traits will be identified that enable yield maintenance after heat events, which will inform wheat breeding and development of high throughput phenotyping. Three PhD students will be involved in this work to maintain and build capacity in this area for the future.

US00084 - Innovative crop weed control for northern region cropping systems

Herbicide resistant weeds have major impact on grower profitability. In the northern cropping zone, problematic weeds of significance include annual ryegrass, wild oat, sow thistle, African turnip weed, wild mustard and fleabane (in winter cropping) and barnyard grass, Feathertop Rhodes grass, fleabane, liverseed grass and windmill grass (in summer cropping systems).

This investment will establish the extent of herbicide resistance in these dominant weed species, characterise specific weed biology and identify the occurrence and in-crop population densities of these weed species across the GRDC Northern Region. The investment will also explore integrated weed management options including herbicide innovation, crop competition, strategic weed control and engineering weed control solutions.

Australian Cereal Rust Control Program - Continued monitoring of cereal rust pathogens in Australia

Rusts are a common fungal disease of plants, including many of Australia's cereal and horticultural crops. They are prevalent in most wheat growing areas around the world, threatening global wheat yields. Rusts are highly adaptable and evolve to overcome resistance.

This project builds on longstanding work focussed on reducing the impact of rust diseases in cereals, particularly in areas of high disease risk, by ensuring genetic diversity and enabling rapid response to sudden pathogen changes. Samples of rusted cereals will be sourced from across Australia and analysed in greenhouse tests to determine virulence on important rust resistance genes. Improvements in sequencing technologies and concurrent reductions in cost mean that it is now possible to decode rust genomes to develop powerful diagnostic tools and unravel the molecular bases of host: pathogen interactions, leading to improved rust control.

Australian Cereal Rust Control Program (ACRCP) - University of Sydney: Delivering genetic tools and knowledge required to breed wheat and barley with resistance to leaf rust, stripe rust and stem rust

Wheat and barley rusts have the potential to cause significant production losses in Australia. Although fungicides control rusts, they do not provide complete control in highly susceptible cultivars. Genetic resistance therefore remains the foundation of integrated rust control.

This project exploits and builds on the previous achievements and investments by continuing and expanding efforts to find new rust resistance genes to achieve durable control: to leaf rust, stem rust and stripe rust in wheat and to the exotic stripe rust pathogen in barley.

The work will allow:

• breeders with access to and utilising closely linked molecular markers for cloned genes conferring APR to develop new varieties with improved rust resistance
• breeders and pre-breeders using new knowledge and understanding of the value of single and multiple APR genes across different genetic backgrounds and environments to generate new varieties with durable resistance
• breeders access to germplasm and marker resources for exotic rust types to ensure preparedness of the industry in the event of an incursion.

Capturing global diversity and international genetic gains of wheat and barley

The CIMMYT Australia ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE) program coordinates the importation, quarantine, multiplication, distribution and evaluation of wheat and barley lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The CAIGE shipments from CIMMYT and ICARDA comprise germplasm that has been selected to better meet Australian requirements. Germplasm is imported every other year from each Centre and all the lines imported and quarantined are evaluated in national CAIGE yield trials and disease nurseries in Australia.

The aim is to select the best genetic material available, provide this germplasm and supporting data to the breeding programs to ultimately ensure growers have better varieties. Moreover, CAIGE tries to select lines with improved disease resistance and stress tolerance.

SoilWaterNow: Soil water nowcasting for the grains industry

This project will deliver a scientific framework to nowcast plant available water (PAW) at any point in time, within and across paddocks and at multiple depths in the soil profile so that growers can have access to innovative products for monitoring, managing and forecasting PAW on-farm.

The project will test, develop and refine data-driven, data assimilation, hybrid soil water balance model and ensemble-based approaches (ie different analytical frameworks) to predicting PAW.

Machine learning to map soil constraint variability and predict crop yield

This project will use a variety of Machine Learning techniques to bring together previously underutilised on-farm, satellite, and weather data and better predict expected crop outcomes. Tools to map fine-scale 3D-variability of agronomically important soil properties (such as depth to chemical/physical barriers and plant-available water-content) and to forecast crop yield variability in-season will be developed, improving management and profitability.

Adapted barley germplasm with waterlogging tolerance for the Southern and Western regions

High winter rainfall, combined with poor soil structure regularly causes severe waterlogging damage to crop growth, whereby winter waterlogging becomes the main limitation to grain production, particularly in the high rainfall zone of south eastern Australia. Compared to wheat, barley is more susceptible to waterlogging.

The most economical way of reducing the damage caused by waterlogging is to introduce waterlogging tolerance into current barley varieties. To achieve this target, both sources of tolerance and a reliable trait evaluation method are crucial. The understanding of the genetic behaviour of waterlogging tolerance is also needed to make the selection more efficient within breeding programs.

This project will generate near-isogenic lines for:

1. further fine mapping of the genes for waterlogging tolerance originated from the wild barley and identifying better markers for breeders;
2. conducting field validation trials to demonstrate that the wild trait provides effective waterlogging tolerance without deleteriously impacting yield performance;
3. quantifying waterlogging tolerance benefits to introgressed lines and their non-waterlogging field performance (i.e. yield drag); and
4. any effect of the waterlogging gene on micro-malting performance of the introgressed lines.

Optimising farm scale returns from irrigated grains: maximising dollar return per megalitre of water

This investment will assist growers, advisers and the grains sector more broadly make informed decisions that maximise the economic return per megalitre of water from irrigating crops. The investment will generate an economic calculator that enables sensitivity analysis to quantify economic impacts of changes in water, commodity and input price and irrigation method at the whole farm scale, allowing growers to evaluate multiple cost: benefit scenarios concurrently.

WaterCan Profit overview

Simple methods for contrasting profitability

Whole farm optimiser

Irrigation investment

Scenario analysis of water price, grain price and seasonal climate outlook

Improving The Adaptation And Profitability Of High Value Pulses (Chickpea And Lentil) Across Australian Agroecological Zones

The fit between a crop variety and its local environment has a critical impact on productivity. To develop a range of varieties that provide optimal adaption to local conditions across current production regions and potential expansion zones requires a better understanding of how environment and crop genetics interact to determine this optimal adaptation.

This project will develop a national strategy to address these needs, generating new information and leveraging insights from world-leading research and breeding programs internationally. It will systematically characterize genetic and physiological variation in the phenology (timing of the growth cycle) of Australia's two major high-value pulse crops - chickpea and lentil. Work will combine intensive research in controlled conditions with extensive field trials across Australian production environments, to identify existing and novel variation for phenology. It will document the contribution of this variation to yield in diverse locations, generating detailed performance data and developing genetic markers and models that will guide the development and deployment of new varieties.

Synchrotron Postdoctoral Fellow no. 2: Soil - nutrient availability mapping under field conditions using intact soil cores

Depletion of phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) in soil sublayers is a significant issue for crop production. Decreased availability of P&K, and the variable effect of deep placement of P&K fertilisers, is likely due to transformation of P fertilisers to forms with low availability. The only current technique that can directly measure this transformation of fertilisers (such as P) within soils is synchrotron-based XAS.

This investment will develop Synchrotron methods to measure nutrient availability in large intact soil cores taken from field experiments. The work will enable more efficient fertiliser placement within the rooting zone and improve plant growth in the presence of (sub)soil constraints by allowing root growth to be related to crop performance and soil properties.

Economics of ameliorating soil constraints in the northern region: Soil constraint management and amelioration

This project will work with grain growers, grower groups and consultants to identify the best management options for the range of constrained soils across the different cropping systems in the GRDC's Northern Region. It will develop a decision framework that will improve the long-term profitability of grain production on such soils. Soil sodicity (in both surface and subsoils) can significantly reduce grain production through reduced infiltration of rainwater, poor crop establishment and limitations to root growth and functions which subsequently restrict the crops' access to soil water and nutrients. Acidity, salinity and compaction further constrain such environments' yield potential, which is why this project focuses on sodicity as the major constraint with the others as compounding and interacting factors.

Specifically, this project will develop and demonstrate improved management strategies for these soils in the northern grain growing regions of Australia.

Economics of ameliorating soil constraints in the northern region: Economics of adoption

This project aims to deliver an economic assessment framework and tool for growers and advisers to evaluate the economics of amelioration options for soil constraints at the paddock and farm scale. It will integrate existing tools and data from two separate but related projects in supporting the building of the new economic assessment framework. In doing so, this suite of investments will provide growers in the GRDC Northern Region with the technical and economic knowledge and tools to identify and manage soil constraints to achieve improved farm profitability.

Increasing profit from N, P and K fertiliser inputs into the evolving cropping sequences in the Western Region

This project aims to give GRDC's Western Region grain growers increased confidence in decision making around fertilisers with a focus on nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). As a result an improved N decision support model will be delivered. The work will include modelling of economic responses to N, P and K management strategies, update nutrient decision guidelines and disseminate findings broadly to GRDC's Western Region grain growers.

Post Doctoral Fellowship -Maximising crops and minimising weeds with smart phase farming

The overall objective of this Post-Doctoral Fellowship is to reduce the adverse impact of weeds on grain yield as well as their associated control costs through the use and appropriate management of annual pasture phases. On many Australian farms, profitability and durability would greatly benefit from phase farming, in which a multi-year cropping phase is disrupted by a multi-year pasture phase that builds nitrogen, rapidly exhausts weed seed banks and decimates soil-borne crop pathogens.

This project will compare the paddock management practices of growers using pasture phases with growers that have little rotational diversity and correlating paddock management practices with the weed seed bank size in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Seedbank evaluation on these selected farms will quantify the effectiveness of disruptive pasture phases in achieving low weed seed banks.

Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Exploiting the Potential of a Novel Fungal Biofertiliser

Majority of agricultural crops establish mutually beneficial associations with AM fungi, which benefit the host plants directly via enhanced uptake of nutrients that might be physically or chemically inaccessible to root systems, or indirectly via conferring resistance to host plants against biotic/abiotic stresses. The great potential of AM fungi in the agronomic context, however, is constrained by the obligate biotrophic nature of these fungi (i.e. they can grow only in the presence of a live host) that results in high cost of inoculum production; moreover, application of P fertilisers generally results in decreased (or completely inhibited) AM colonisation of roots.

Kariman et al. (2014) described a novel symbiosis between jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) and the Australian native fungus (Austroboletus occidentalis) in which root colonisation does not occur, but host plants get significant growth and Phosphorus (P) nutritional benefits due to enhanced nutrient solubilisation and mobilisation in soil.

This investment will characterise the potential of the native symbiotic fungus as a biofertiliser for three major grain crops (canola, wheat and barley), with a particular focus on improvement of crop yield and P nutrition.

Program 3: Towards Effective Control of Blackleg of Canola: Identification of novel sources of blackleg resistance genes

The use of genetic resistance is a major strategy for minimising blackleg disease in canola. It is necessary to identify novel sources of resistance to blackleg disease for incorporation into Australian breeding programs.

The outcome of this work will be new genetic material and markers for blackleg resistance being available to canola breeding companies, thereby ensuring protection against blackleg disease and the long term sustainability of the canola industry in Australia.

Improving canola heat tolerance - a coordinated multidisciplinary approach

Extended period of high temperature stress and short periods of heat shock are major threat to canola grain and oil yield in canola growing regions in Australia.

This project looks specifically at the genetics of heat tolerance in canola and will build on the outputs of previous GRDC research. Selected germplasm from preliminary screening in controlled-environment rooms will be validated for heat tolerance in the field, using portable heat chambers and in irrigated field trials across the canola growing regions of Australia. Given the lack of genetic variation for heat tolerance in the Australian cultivated canola gene pool, this investment will also focus on exploiting potential new genetic variability for tolerance to high-temperature within the large number of Brassica napus lines recently resynthesised from ancestral species as well as landraces from China.

Using machine learning to increase genetic gain in canola blackleg resistance breeding

This project will extend current research into deep learning and the genomics of disease resistance and apply findings to improve the blackleg resistance of Australian canola cultivars. Neural networks are a series of algorithms that mimic the operations of a human brain to recognise relationships between vast amounts of data.

In this project, neural networks will be trained to associate canola blackleg resistance phenotypes with gene expression, whole genome sequence, and single-nucleotide polymorphism data from a range of different data sources. The neural networks will identify non-additive genetic effects of blackleg resistance that cannot be easily identified using standard multivariate statistical models.

Deep Learning for early detection and classification of crop disease and stress

This project will utilise deep learning for the detection, identification, and evaluation of crop stress factors using a variety of available remote sensing data. This will reduce the need to manually examine crops for visible indicators of stress or disease, enable earlier detection, and provide information regarding the causes of crop stress.

Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative - Phase 6

The evolution of herbicide resistance in agricultural weeds is a major concern to the productivity of Australian cropping systems. This project supports developing better weed management strategies to mitigate and manage herbicide resistant weeds through advancement in the understanding of herbicide resistance in key Australian grain cropping weeds at the biochemical, physiological and molecular level.

The investment is part of a new phase of the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) that has a renewed national focus, clear development of strategic work priorities, greater emphasis in validating laboratory findings through modelling and field testing and clarity in responsibility of communication outputs, including the use of established channels.