AGT harvests its 120,000 trials plots

Luckily, AGT has a team of dedicated staff based in Northam, a network of farmer co-operators and a few choice contractors which make it possible to get the job done in about six weeks and ideally before Christmas, all going according to plan.

Now breeding wheat, barley, lupins and canola, the vast majority of AGT's trials are managed by teams within the breeding company, with just a few sites the responsibility of contractors from Living Farm and Kalyx.

"Being a plant breeding company, we keep samples for the next year for pure seed," said AGT wheat breeder Dion Bennett.

"Our teams are the ones cleaning and packing trials and they have a want for seeding purity which is really essential for running a successful breeding program."

All of the trials are run on farmer's properties, with AGT utilising a network of about a dozen co-operators who have all been long-term supporters of the breeder's work, which is imperative as plant breeding is a long term game.

AGT goes back to those same co-operators every year, works in with their rotations and fits its trial plots into their paddocks.

It takes a level of commitment to host those trials as often the plots are in the middle of a paddock where those farmers could otherwise drive straight, but instead have to manage themselves and their staff to drive around it and not impact the work being done.

While AGT's relationship with those co-operators is important, the farmers also have to be interested in the research and understand the long-term value in it.

Dr Bennett said it would be virtually impossible to do what they do without access to relevant paddocks.

"The co-operators have been selected because they farm in regions which are informative for the breeding program," he said.

"When we run trials there, they produce a certain type of environment that we're after to expose the germplasm to and get selection on.

"Without that network of co-operators in the key regions we want to be running yield trials, it would be really difficult to run a breeding program."

In order to harvest its trial plots, the AGT team uses miniature plot harvesters, which are basically the same as a full-size header but scaled right down to a 1.2 metre front.

The grain harvested off each plot is captured before moving onto the next one, that way the weight and therefore yield of every plot can be calculated accurately.

The mini-harvesters are also completely cleaned out between each plot, which takes about 30 seconds each time.

From there, it is a matter of taking the samples back to Northam where grain size and hectolitre weight is measured, and the data generated for selection to advance them to the next generation.

Those samples are also sent to the quality lab to go through milling, baking and noodle making testing.

"It's a huge logistical operation but we always keep one eye on the horizon and make sure we are a bit flexible in what we're doing," Dr Bennett said.

"Just like farmers, we have to deal with machinery breakdowns and weather interruptions, but we now have the experience in our team to be able to roll with that.

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"If we can see some weather coming, we try to plan around it and go in a different direction or we plan to have a few fatigue management days and sit out that weather before getting back into it with a fresh week or two up our sleeves."

The team has never missed its Christmas deadline and is hoping to finish the week beforehand.

After that, from the first week of January, attention will turn to the next season and the team will start packing trials to get ready for seeding in May.