Borlaug 100 smashes yield record in Queensland field
A CROP of Borlaug 100 wheat grown at Dalby on the Darling Downs has set a new record of 8.72 tonnes per hectare in the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland (RASQ) Crop Competition. Grown by Derryck Mickelborough, the crop initially won the Irrigated Winter Crop section, and came in ahead of Peter Waetjen’s crop of Lancer wheat grown at Pampas which yielded 7.3t/ha to win top honours. The Borlaug 100 crop beat the previous RASQ yield record of 8.2t/ha set by the Bligh Family Trust of Brookstead with a crop of Crusader wheat in 2011. While Borlaug 100 is a newcomer to the RASQ winners’ circle, Lancer as a Pacific Seeds Prime Hard variety has been making appearances since the 2016 competition. Lancer took out both the champion and reserve dryland field wheat crops respectively for Peter, Ann, Adam and Luke Campbell at Goondiwindi with a 6.25t/ha yield, and Tait Farming at Millmerran with 5.86t/ha.
Strong results from low entries
Entries in the 2021 RASQ Crop Competition encompass winter crops grown in 2020, and 2019-20 summer crops. Competition coordinator Andrew Speed said this year’s entries competed in a narrowed field which reflected the tail end of the 2017-19 drought “In a normal year we might get 30-40 entries, but we only had about 20 this year,” Mr Speed said. This also includes winning crops from local show society competitions on the Darling Downs and surrounds, which proceed to the RASQ’s Toowoomba Royal Show Field Wheat and Barley competition. A requirement for all competition entries is for grain to be weighed in a weighbin. “That takes about an hour, and has to be done at a scheduled time.
“Unfortunately this year that did not happen with the barley entries so there were no prizes presented.”“With storms around everywhere at harvest, it didn’t work for barley; people chose to get their crops off as quickly as possible to avoid the risk of weather damage.”Dryland and irrigated crop entries compete only in the RASQ competition, and totalled 13 this year, with points awarded based on how each entry compared to ceiling yields recorded in previous years for each section.The winners of the RASQ Crop Competition’s dryland and irrigated sections then vie for champion and reserve champion.
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