UQ licenses Mexican wheat variety to bolster Australian market

A high-yield Mexican wheat variety identified by University of Queensland researchers is now available to Australian wheat farmers. The wheat variety, originally from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico, was evaluated by Associate Professor Mark Dieters in UQ's School of Agriculture and Food Sciences. It has been licensed to Seed Exchange Australia (SEA) by UQ's commercialisation company, UniQuest, for sale under the name SEA Condamine. Associate Professor Dieters said trials showed SEA Condamine was well suited to wheat growing regions in Central and South West Queensland and was also suitable for northern NSW and south-eastern Queensland. "SEA Condamine has demonstrated excellent adaptation to the wheat growing regions of Central Queensland, with grain yield exceeding some popular varieties by as much as 10 to 20 per cent in 2016 to 2018 national variety trials," he said. "This represents a significant improvement in yield potential compared to other main season wheat varieties. "It is also demonstrating very good yield potential in the marginal environments of South West Queensland.