Seed
Chris Willis, EPG Seeds, Connor Steel, Agronomist with Elders Pakenham, and Matt Brown, Farm Manager at Wiltara Farms, Clyde, checked the progress of the EG Titanium wheat crop in November 2021, two months before harvest.
EG TITANIUM WHEAT PROVING PERFORMANCE
One of Australia’s first crops of EG Titanium wheat from EPG Seeds has yielded an impressive 5.5 t/ha, despite a wet finish to the season and delays at harvest. Matthew Brown, who manages Wiltara Farms at Clyde in south Gippsland, grew the 60 hectare crop of EG Titanium last season, as an opportunity crop in a paddock which would normally run Hereford and Black Angus cattle as part of the farm’s backgrounding operation. After selling most of the grain to Graincorp in Geelong, he is planning to sow another crop of EG Titanium wheat this season, aiming to produce lucrative milling grade wheat worth more than $400/tonne. For the past 15 years, Mr Brown has managed Wiltara Farms on 350 hectares at Clyde, just 50 kilometres east of Melbourne. He takes six to seven month old weaners from Wiltara’s sister property at Uarbry in central New South Wales to
the more favourable conditions at Clyde and grows them out to 400 to 450 kgs for sale into feedlots for finishing.
well in extensive field trials in central and southern cropping zones over the previous seven years.
“After growing forage sorghum over summer 2020, this block was intended for more weaners, but with a change of plans and the season shaping up well for winter, I contacted Connor Steel, our agronomist at Elders Pakenham to discuss our cropping options,’’ Mr Brown said.
“Connor and I worked together to develop the cropping program from preplant to harvesting, aiming to maximise yield potential,” Mr Brown said.
“Connor recommended Titanium wheat, a new full season variety from EPG Seeds with good early vigour and excellent disease resistance for southern growing regions, and so with plenty of seed available, we decided to give Titanium a go.” EG Titanium wheat was released in 2021 by EPG Seeds, after performing
“This covered all the essentials including soil testing and determining sowing rates, weed and disease management, and nutrition to maximise yield potential in what turned out to be an above average season where we received 440 mm of growing season rain.” Preparations began in February, when Mr Brown sprayed out the residue of the summer sorghum crop with Crucial, the new 600 g/L glyphosate formulation 59
