A NEW high-yielding barley variety suited to southern parts of the WA grainbelt has officially passed stage one of the malting accreditation process, after being given its official title in Perth last week.
Barley Australia gave InterGrain variety Banks its first tick of approval on Thursday, confirming it had passed the initial stage of the evaluation process through the Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee (MBIBTC).
High-yielding spring barley variety RGT Planet also succeeded in passing stage one of the assessment after undergoing a small trial in Victoria last year.
Both Banks and RGT Planet will go through stage two of the trial process this season, before a final recommendation is made by Barley Australia in March 2019.
It comes after Banks – formerly known as IGB1305 – was given its formal name at the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) Research Updates, Perth, last week.
Named after English botanist Joseph Banks – who travelled with Captain James Cook to Australia in the 18th century – Banks is a long season, mid-to-late maturing variety with broad adaption suited to areas throughout southern Australia in the medium to high rainfall zones.
Intergrain WA marketing territory manager Kynan Jackson said Banks was a good option for growers in the Albany, Esperance and south Kwinana port zones, that had the potential to be a premium export malt variety.
“It’s a mid-long semi-dwarf variety with good powdery mildew resistance and good physical grain properties,” Mr Jackson said.
“It has good stable yield performance and another key feature is its high diastatic power, suitable for the Chinese export malt market.”
Mr Jackson said Banks had good head retention, high test weight and low straw volume, making it suitable for no-till farming systems.
The variety is rated moderately resistant to powdery mildew, and has relatively low levels of black point.
After three years within the GRDC’s National Variety Trials (NVT), he said results had been promising.
“It’s going to be competing with Bass, Flinders, Planet and Granger,” Mr Jackson said.
“From the Bass side of things it provides far better mildew resistance and is higher yielding.
“Because we’ve now launched the name, it’s visible on the NVT app and I encourage growers to have a look at that to look at regions the variety is appropriate.”
Limited commercial Banks barley crops will be planted this year, while seed is bulked up for general release in 2019.
