InterGrain Pty Ltd was formed in October 2007 when the Western Australian State Government, through the Western Australian Agriculture Authority (WAAA), and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) transferred the wheat breeding program from the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) to InterGrain. In 2009/10, WAAA and GRDC agreed to expand the InterGrain business and transferred the barley breeding program from DAFWA to InterGrain.

In August 2010, Monsanto joined InterGrain as an additional shareholder with the purchase of 19.9% equity share. The involvement of Monsanto is based on a collaboration which involves:

• Exchange of germplasm
• Access to high throughput molecular technologies; and
• Access to new biotech traits in the long term.

This new financial investment and the collaboration agreement will ensure that InterGrain maintains its position as a leading cereal breeding business through the delivery of improved varieties to Australian grain growers.

Our Capability

InterGrain has a strong team of experienced cereal breeders who have been responsible for the development of all InterGrain's current dominant varieties in both wheat and barley. InterGrain has a well developed structure for managing all aspects of successful breeding programs. It has excellent seed storage and processing facilities at Wongan Hills which include temperature controlled long term storage areas that provides excellent protection from weevil and other grain insect infestation without the use of fumigants and contact insecticides. The company also has a robotic system for seed packaging.

Through its own in-house capability and the strategic contracting of commercial trial operators, it has a highly flexible capacity for undertaking trial programs throughout Australia that provides thorough testing of breeding lines in a diverse range of environments to allow efficient selection of improved varieties (see map). It uses state of the art spatial and cluster analysis to assist in the efficient selection of improved breeding lines.

InterGrain’s capability has been significantly increased with the access to the high throughput genotyping capability and new biotech traits through the collaboration with Monsanto.

InterGrain has collaborative links with a number of research organisations to provide access to the latest technologies in molecular markers, biotechnology, physiology, plant pathology and biometrics. These organisations include the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG), CSIRO, Murdoch University, University of WA, and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA).