{"id":184502,"date":"2025-11-17T01:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/184502\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T01:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:19:09","slug":"sorghum-midge-testing-scheme-joins-nvt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/184502\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorghum midge-testing scheme joins NVT"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sorghum midge is a small but destructive pest affecting grain sorghum across northern Australia. Photo: Qld DPI<\/p>\n

THE GRAINS Research and Development Corporation has secured the future of the sorghum midge resistance rating program which provides independent, crucial decision-making information to growers.<\/p>\n

Led by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, the scheme is now officially part of the National Variety Trials, ensuring its place as the only source of independent sorghum-midge ratings.<\/p>\n

Since the 1990s, QDPI has worked with industry stakeholders, including GRDC, to develop and refine a protocol to assess midge resistance in sorghum hybrids and assign official ratings to commercial lines.<\/p>\n

After years of collaboration with NVT, its official adoption into the world\u2019s largest independent grain crop variety evaluation initiative removes any funding uncertainty.<\/p>\n

GRDC manager NVT \u2013 North Laurie Fitzgerald<\/strong> said including this data in the NVT is a logical step as it is a trusted source for growers and agronomists selecting hybrids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe testing regime ensures quality assurance through independently assessed, precise and consistently applied ratings,\u201d Mr Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the only independent and industry-accepted program, so growers should always ask for NVT midge-resistance results.\u201d<\/p>\n

QDPI principal experimentalist Tracey Shatte<\/strong> said the scheme complements NVT\u2019s multi-site hybrid testing and centralised data reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage growers, agronomists and industry stakeholders to stay informed about developments in sorghum midge resistance and use NVT results to guide planting decisions,\u201d Ms Shatte said.<\/p>\n

Sorghum midge, or Stenodiplosis sorghicola, is a small but destructive pest affecting grain sorghum across northern Australia.<\/p>\n

It can cause severe crop losses and often necessitates multiple insecticide applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorghum midge lays eggs in crop heads during flowering, and in hybrids lacking resistance, infestations can be devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDPI began breeding for midge resistance in the 1970s, with the release of the first midge resistant commercial hybrid in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n

Today, resistance is present in all current commercial hybrids, though levels vary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis demonstrates that our work is having a significant and lasting impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seed companies submit pre-commercial hybrids to the midge-testing rating scheme, where DPI assesses their resistance levels.<\/p>\n

The resulting rating helps seed companies decide whether a hybrid should move to commercialisation and provides growers with insight into expected field performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMidge resistance ratings give growers greater confidence when planning sowing and making spray decisions.<\/p>\n

Knowing a hybrid\u2019s resistance level can help determine whether spraying is economically worthwhile, reducing unnecessary chemical use and input costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The integration into NVT ensures midge resistance testing continues under a nationally recognised framework, delivering reliable results to support hybrid selection.<\/p>\n

Established by GRDC in 2005, NVT has evolved into the largest co-ordinated variety trial network in the world.<\/p>\n

Each year more than 640 trials are conducted across over 300 locations nationwide, encompassing 10 different crop species, and contributing to a database that includes more than 1.5 million plot points.<\/p>\n

Source: GRDC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sorghum midge is a small but destructive pest affecting grain sorghum across northern Australia. Photo: Qld DPI THE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,12272,19,17,103942,46342,26767,103943,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-184502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-grdc","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-national-variety-trials","13":"tag-new-south-wales","14":"tag-queensland","15":"tag-sorghum","16":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115562411716645356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}