GRAIN OF TRUTHApril 2018 | Issue 215

www.luisettiseeds.co.nz

LUISETTI20 Ashley StreetPO Box 77Rangiora 7440

P: 03-313-7176F: 03-313-7555E: rangiora@luisettiseeds.co.nz

188 Dobson StreetPO Box 380Ashburton 7740

P: 03-308-9103F: 03-308-2078E: ashburton@luisettiseeds.co.nz

AGRONOMISTS

Andrew Johnston Phone 027 433 4876

Craig Direen Phone 027 404 0540

John McCaw Phone 027 280 4082

Jono Young Phone 027 466 0030

Kerry Thomas Phone 027 439 6104

Michael Stanley Phone 027 569 6967

Peter Ayers Phone 027 522 5628

Shane King Phone 027 441 1106

Ruapuna is a consistent, robust, high yielding winter feed wheat with a good disease resistance package.

Ruapuna is an easy to grow short-medium height wheat with very stiff straw requir ing less growth regulator input. It can be sown from mid-March until the end of June.

Ruapuna has excellent resistance to both seedling and adult stripe rust, combined with good tolerance to powdery mildew and fusarium. It wil l require some protection

from septoria and leaf rust in high pressure seasons.

Ruapuna has solid “block l ike” heads with large grains resulting in low screenings and high test weight. This cultivar also offers superior grain protein.

Ruapuna is a reliable choice for both irrigated and dryland situations.

Ruapuna seed is available for immediate delivery from Rangiora and Ashburton in 40 or 500 kg bags. See your Luisetti Seeds Agronomist for more details.

St Andrews, South Canterbury, FAR Cultivar Performance Results (Dryland) 2017

Cultivar Yield (t/ha) % of site mean

Ruapuna (CRWT227) 12.9 107

Ignite (KWW59) 12.8 106

Graham (CM159) 12.8 106

Wakanui 12.7 105

Torch 12.6 105

Inferno 12.6 105

Empress 12.6 104

Reflection 12.2 102

Resolution 12.0 100

Conqueror 12.0 99

Claire 11.7 97

Starfire 11.6 97

Richmond 11.4 95

Gator 11.3 94

Excede 10.7 89

CRWT233 10.6 89

Mean 12.0 100

LSD 5% 0.5

CV% 3.2

Nitrogen is a very important nutrient for milling wheat. All plant tissues (grain, spikes, leaves, stems and roots) contain nitrogen. Usually this nitrogen is in the form of amino acids within the proteins. These proteins are used to form both the physical structure of spikes, leaves, stems and roots and also used for the funct ional metabolism of the plant. For example, in leaves these proteins are crucial for photosynthesis (turning sunlight into plant biomass). Plant tissues can also act as a reservoir, storing nitrogen until grain fill. Some of this nitrogen resource can then be remobilised into the growing grain where it is used to synthesize storage proteins. Wheat storage proteins (part icular ly glutenins and gliadins) are what give milling wheat its quality (ability to make a good loaf of bread). Therefore the type of protein and the overall grain protein content (GPC) are essential to producing a good functional wheat flour.

Nitrogen is, hence, necessary for the healthy growth, maximum yield and quality of a wheat crop. Nitrogen fertiliser is an important farm input cost and has implications as an environmental pollutant. Improving the nitrogen eff ic iency of wheat cultivars is an important way to reduce input costs, improve yield and quality whilst reducing environmental impact.

Nitrogen efficiency can be broadly broken down into two processes; 1) Total uptake of nitrogen from the soil and 2) Remobilisation of nitrogen stored in the vegetative tissues (stems and leaves) of the plant into the grain to produce storage proteins.

The ideal wheat cultivar would have an efficient root system that takes up as much of the available nitrogen from the soil as possible during plant growth and then, prior to harvest, would move

most of that n i t rogen into the gra in . The nitrogen in the developing grain would then be used to make only superior storage proteins that will make high quality flour. In reality there is no perfect cultivar, so it is about identifying cultivars which do some of these steps well and making breeding crosses and selections which can help produce new wheat cult ivars that are more nitrogen efficient.

However, there is a negative correlation between yield and grain protein content which means, generally, higher grain yield results in lower grain protein. This is due to competition within the plant for energy resources and dilution of nitrogen by the increase in carbohydrate (wheat grains are 70% starch). So really it is about finding ways to increase the GPC in combination with grain yield.

At Plant & Food Research a series of experiments are currently running, the results of which will help better understand the nitrogen efficiency in the Luisetti Seeds/Plant & Food Research wheat breeding programme. A set of 41 different wheat cultivars are being tested for the nitrogen content of various plant tissues at flowering (spike, stem, top two leaves, rest of leaves) and at harvest (grain, chaff, stem, leaves). We want to use this information to understand which cultivars have better nitrogen uptake, storage and remobilisation during the course of a crop cycle. We are also interested in determining where in the plant the nitrogen is being stored at flowering and where it is being left behind at harvest.

Init ial results are available from sampling at f lowering time and suggest that total plant biomass is the most important factor contributing to levels of plant nitrogen at flowering. A plant with more dry weight per spike will have more total

Table 1: Tissue partitioning of total plant nitrogen at flowering from 41 wheat cultivars

2016-17 growing season.

Tissue Average Minimum Maximum

Spike 22.0% 15.1% 31.7%

Stem 48.5% 36.9% 65.6%

Top two leaves 20.2% 7.5% 31.6%

Rest of leaves 9.3% 6.3% 15.3%

Figure 1: Comparison between total plant dry-weight per spike with total plant nitrogen per spike.

Nitro

gen

per S

pike

(gra

ms)

Dry Weight per Spike (grams)

0.06-

0.05-

0.04-

0.03-1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Nitrogen Use Efficiency in New Zealand Wheat

Notes:1. Data from an independent field trial conducted by New Zealand Arable at Yaldhurst2. Oats sown at 110 kg per ha3. Values are means of four replicates, 100 = 1090 kg DM/ha, LSD = 12.6%

Intimidator Oats will produce high yields of dry matter, quickly. They will tolerate being sown into cooler ground and utilise water and nutrient resources efficiently.

Intimidators offer a substantial dry matter yield advantage over rivals, Milton and Coronet, while not sacrificing feed value.

Intimidator Oats have thicker stems and wider leaves compared to existing forage oat cultivars and offer enhanced frost tolerance. Intimidators are a particularly good option for late autumn sowing offering significant growth in declining autumn temperatures.

Intimidators can be strip grazed in the winter or saved for silage or baleage in the spring. Intimidators are capable of growing 4500 kg/DM/ha in 60/65 days. Made into silage, they are particularly suitable for feeding as a beet supplement.

Sowing a late winter crop of Intimidator is a sustainable choice for farmers looking to reduce nitrogen losses from winterfeed crops. Wi th enhanced dry matter product ion and higher protein levels, Intimidator Oats “mop up” more nitrogen than competing oat varieties.

Intimidator Oats are available now from Luisetti Seeds, Rangiora and Ashburton packed in 50 or 500 kg bags.

Great Option for Winter Greenfeed

Kg D

M/h

a13000

11000

9000

7000

5000

Intimidator Milton Coronet

Relative total dry matter yields of three forage oat cultivators

Intimidator oats, sown in late May at Livingston, North Otago.Photo taken October

nitrogen resource available to move into the grain. Interestingly, at flowering time, wheat cultivars which flower later in the season seem to have a greater proport ion of their plant nitrogen beginning to be remobilised from their leaves and into their stems and spikes. This suggests that these wheat cultivars are responding to

environmental triggers for this process rather than this activity being linked to plant developmental stages such as flowering.

The next stage of this project is to look at the harvest samples and perform an analysis of how efficient each wheat cultivar is for remobilising their stored nitrogen into effective grain protein.

Luisetti Family and Staff feature in Rangiora Bridge Club

Anniversary Pairs Tournament

Every year the Rangiora Bridge Club holds an Anniversary Pairs Tournament open to all current and ex members of the club. This year, four current and ex staff members of Luisetti Seeds played in the tournament and left the trophy table depleted with their combined efforts.

Richard Luisetti, who has been playing Bridge for 32 years, partnered with his wife’s aunt, Helen Dunn, won the overall competition.

Nikki Luisetti, partnered with Richard Peter won the intermediate pairs section of the tournament. Nikki is the wife of Vincent Luisetti and, very occasionally, fills in at reception for Luisetti Seeds. Nikki has been playing Bridge for 18 years and is a past president of the club.

The Anniversary Pairs Tournament was won by Gaynor Hurford in 2009. Gaynor works in the accounts department at Luisetti Seeds and has been playing bridge for 40 years.

Robin Hassall, Company Secretary for Luisetti Seeds from 1979 to 2006, also played at the tournament. Robin has been playing Bridge for 48 years and, together with Gaynor, they are both life members of the Rangiora Bridge Club for their service as Treasurer and other associated roles.

Although Margaret Luisetti (wife of Max, mother of Edward and Vincent) did not play in the tournament, she has been a member of the Rangiora Bridge Club and an avid bridge player for over 50 years.

Bridge requires concentration, skill and intelligence – all attributes which you will find amongst Luisetti Seeds staff (so they tell us!).

Margaret Luisetti, Robin Hassall, Nikki Luisetti, Gaynor Hurford