Gauntlet is a mid-late season Australian Hard (AH) wheat variety bred from popular New South Wales wheat varieties Sunvale and Kukri.
Rob Hart of Hart Bros Seeds, one of Viterra’s seed shed partners for the variety, said he was excited about Gauntlet’s improved disease profiles compared to Sunvale.
“Gauntlet shows good resistance to all current wheat rusts and yellow leaf spot disease, which will make it suitable for wheat on wheat rotations,” he said.
Gauntlet has good grain size and performs equally well in irrigation and dry land cropping, Viterra said. When grown on irrigation, Gauntlet has shown yields in excess of seven tonnes per hectare.
“It’s excellent test weight and consistently high protein compliments the variety’s yield potential,” Hart said.
Target areas for Gauntlet are traditional wheat growing regions of southern and central New South Wales and northern Victoria.
Gauntlet is suited to the main season planting windows and is similar in season length to other well-known varieties, such as Janz and Lang.
Viterra is the commercial partner for the variety, which was developed by Longreach Plant Breeders and launched to growers at the Hart Bros Seeds Field Day in Junee, New South Wales.
Josh Gavenlock, Viterra’s crop protection product and seed product line manager, said this was the second Longreach variety Viterra had launched and the company looked forward to continuing to partner with Longreach Plant Breeders to release new lines in the future.
“Viterra is committed to supporting the development and commercialization of improved seed varieties in Australia for the benefit of Australian growers,” Gavenlock said. “We will continue to work with industry participants to review and evaluate new wheat lines for release into the market.”
