VIGOROUS EARLY GROWTH OF SRA23A A POSITIVE FOR WEED CONTROL AND WATER USE

SRA23A FACTS

SRA23A has been planted into five demonstration trials by Burdekin Productivity Services.

As with other varieties, yields dropped off in ratoons.

It has good early, mid, and late sugar and average lodging tolerance.

SRA23A was first released in 2019.

Resistant to smut, leaf scald, and mosaic. It can be a trashy variety.

In final assessment trials (FATs), it had yields and CCS that were average compared with the standard commercial varieties in the district.

More than 2000 tonnes of approved seed is available in 2022.

VIGOROUS EARLY

GROWTH OF SRA23A A POSITIVE FOR WEED CONTROL AND WATER USE

SRA’s District Manager Burdekin Terry Granshaw is a regular at local shed meetings

where discussion often turns to varieties, and SRA23A is a popular topic.

“It’s early days yet but what a number of growers are really happy with is the way that it strikes out of the ground,” Terry said.

“It seems to come out of the soil very quickly compared to some of the other varieties, especially some of our standards. They are very happy with that.

“What they’ve been telling me is that after only a couple of months it will be 200 to 300 millimetres higher than their other varieties.

“Because it covers in quite quickly and grows so quickly, that’s an advantage for growers for weed control and water use."

Terry said most growers with SRA23A are propagating it out from their approved seed source and planting their crop for next year.

Only a small amount has been processed through the mills.

“We’re comparing hundreds of tonnes to thousands and thousands of tonnes of other varieties through the mills but certainly there are good signs.

“Growers seem to understand why it was released through the Regional Variety Committee.

“It’s a variety that is as good as our standards we have now. It’s not higher yielding but it does have a good smut rating, so from a biosecurity perspective, that’s exactly what we want.

“I think it's going to be one of those varieties that every grower should probably have a little bit of.”