Trials
Our program assists Australian grain growers in varietal decision making by providing comparative information of commercially available grain varieties, including:
- yield performance
- disease resistance ratings
- grain quality.
We have more than 650 trials sown at over 300 locations, for 10 crop species, across Australia each year. Our database includes more than 1.5 million plot points and is the largest independent co-ordinated trial network in the world.
Our trials are managed in accordance with the NVT Protocols to provide consistent quality across the nation.
Site locations
Our program is not a yield potential trial, but a comparative performance trial. Sites are chosen following consultation with stakeholders including:
- agronomists
- growers
- NAC Committees (NVT Advisory Committee)
- GRDC Regional Panels
- breeder groups
- statisticians
- market production intelligence.
Some key considerations in trial site selection include:
- suitability of soil type
- representation and prevalence of existing crops
- representation of environments within a region
- avoidance of clustering of trials resulting in duplication and obsolete trials.
We select sites to ensure there’s adequate representation of all environments and conditions. This provides consistency over several years to allow for accurate comparison of varieties and increase the reliability of the MET analysis.
Regions with large uniform environments covering vast areas may have a smaller trial density compared to regions with less uniform environments. To make best use of resources, our program is careful to avoid clustering of trials in locations where environments are similar, resulting in data that does not provide additional value of the data set.
Trials can move between neighbouring properties from year-to-year and a 25-kilometre shift is allowed. However, trials are more likely to be successful if they’re in the same environment, due to factors such as pre-trial planning issues and reliable and well understood trial manager/property owner relationships.
Management
Our trials are managed by contracted providers who sow, maintain and harvest the trials in accordance with the NVT Protocols. This ensures our trials are delivered to high standards and there are no limiting factors like nutrition or disease, as this gives us an accurate indication of genetic varietal performance.
Every four years we go to tender for new trial provider management.
Variety inclusion
Cultivars are nominated annually by commercial and private genetic breeding programs for inclusion in our program.
To be accepted, cultivars need to meet our acceptance criteria (within our NVT Protocols) and be reviewed by our team to ensure the criteria is met.
Commercial varieties are selected depending on:
- uptake
- timing of release
- delivery percentages across a state
- feedback from the NVT Advisory Committees.
Each of the varieties entered, whether commercially available or advanced genetic lines, are subjected to a rigorous nomination process for inclusion. We work with the breeders each year to ensure all relevant lines are included.
Unreleased varieties
Unreleased varieties are trialled to collect data based on multiple years and environments and provide confidence in its long-term performance prior to release. Data on unreleased varieties may be influenced by a single season’s conditions, like drought.
Since 2022, breeders have been able to nominate as many breeding lines as they wish and for as many years as they wish, but contribute the marginal cost of testing those lines. GRDC continues to cover the costs of testing all commercial varieties and testing of advanced breeder lines for two years if they are successfully released.
Each variety will have two years of independent data before it is available to growers. Once a variety is released, it will remain in the trial longer, depending on its adoption by growers in that area.