A WHEAT type that appears to be less prone to stem frost.
It sounds too good to be true, but that's what Cordering farmer Ray Harrington has found after growing red wheat for the past four years.
Mr Harrington, along with his nephew Tim Harrington who has overseen the day-to-day running of the farm for almost a decade, had not grown any type of wheat for many years.
But after being approached by Bunge to give a couple of red varieties a try, the pair decided to have a punt and seeded 40 hectares in 2018 to RGT Accroc (winter wheat) and LRPB Beaufort (spring wheat).
"My first reaction was absolutely not as I had grown white wheat for many years and could never get it to yield within at least half a tonne of barley," Mr Harrington said.
"When Tim took over the management, he started to grow wheat again for about three years and I never said anything, but eventually he took it out too, so we both reached the same conclusion.
"However Bunge had some good data and a market for it, plus it gave us an extra rotation option which is something we're always looking for as barley-on-barley is not ideal, so we figured we would give the red wheat a crack and just see how it went."
Within the first season the Harringtons could see the merits of the red wheat and were very encouraged by it, with Accroc and Beaufort out-yielding their previous white wheat varieties by 20 to 30 per cent.
Last year the two red wheat varieties averaged more than four tonnes per hectare, with that expected to push even higher this year after receiving more than 850 millimetres of rain.
With the red wheat fitting well into the rotation and between 400ha and 500ha of it planted this year, the Harringtons have also introduced another variety, RGT Zanzibar, into the mix.
"The flowering of the Beaufort and the Accroc are nearly three to four weeks apart, which gives us a little bit of insurance," Mr Harrington said.
"With Accroc being a winter wheat, it also gives us an early sowing opportunity - season permitting - which spreads our seeding program out.
"We went close to frost with the Beaufort as it was in full flower, but the Accroc was still in boot, so it spread the frost risk."
While the different flowering windows of the two varieties are a definite bonus, it's a trait of their stem and flag leaf that has Mr Harrington most excited.
"Stem frost on standard white wheat happens because the flag leaf is so wide and wraps around the stem, acting like a funnel," he said.
"That funnel is about 3mm wide which fills up with rain when you get a shower the night before a frost, which then freezes and snaps the stem."
When the major frost event of the season came through in September, Mr Harrington went out to check the wheat after 3mm of rain late in the afternoon the day before and looked at about 100 plants.
He only found one with any water sitting in it.
"One wonders if that is an attribute of the red wheat - that it doesn't hold the water in that funnel because the flag leaf doesn't wrap around in the same way," Mr Harrington said.
"It's just an observation I've made and I've got a 50pc chance of being right, but we did have a frost event come through here and none of the red wheat was stem frosted."
With the red wheat fitting well into the new look rotation and allowing for a lupin, canola, red wheat, barley swing, the Harringtons will be keeping it in the program.
"We will probably go back to just two varieties next year and will choose which ones after we see how they all go at harvest," Mr Harrington said.
"All of that grain will go straight to Bunge and we're getting a special red wheat price from them that we're more than happy with."
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