Leading Australian cereal breeding company InterGrain offers grain growers quicker and easier access to its new varieties, plus greater choice of seed suppliers and quantities, via farmer to farmer seed trading.
The first commercial breeding company to offer the service, InterGrain has a long standing connection to the scheme, with CEO Tresslyn Walmsley a key driver of its 2002 introduction by the WA Department of Agriculture when she was its Grains Commercialisation Officer.
“Since InterGrain was formed thirteen years ago, with the State Government a majority shareholder, which it still is today, we have always advocated initiatives that make doing business easier, faster and outcome driven for our valued grain grower clients,” she said.
“Made possible by our end point royalty system, farmer to farmer trading is unique to Australia and a source of some envy with international growers.
“In other countries the process is often referred to as ‘brown bagging’ and isn’t permitted by seed companies which need to capture their return on investment via upfront payment, usually at the seed sale point.
“When we engage with international seed businesses and researchers, they are often surprised when I explain I prefer to call it ‘golden bagging’, as it encourages rapid grower adoption of a new varieties, which is what InterGrain is all about,” Ms Walmsley said.
InterGrain wheat varieties approved for farmer to farmer trade include Devil, Vixen and RockStar. Key approved InterGrain barley varieties are Rosalind, LaTrobe and Buff.
Ms Walmsley urged growers to take advantage of the system by asking around their local network if wanting to access such InterGrain varieties.
“If you can’t source seed that way, contact us and we will try to put you in touch with a fellow farmer and this should make for a win-win for both parties.
“Similarly, we are very keen for growers with surplus seed of InterGrain varieties to contact us before they deliver it to grain accumulators so we can assist them with selling it as seed.”
To further improve access to its varieties, InterGrain offers its Seedclub service where selected seed processors have the rights to produce, sell and distribute seed of new and future cereal varieties to growers and agricultural resellers.
Seedclub members are conveniently located at Moora, Coorow, Kellerberrin and Esperance.
Ms Walmsley said sustainable and profitable grain growing in 2020 and beyond was fundamentally about making informed and appropriate variety choices up-front to minimise risk and maximise returns at the business end of the season.
“This mindset is hard wired into every variety InterGrain releases,” Ms Walmsley concluded.
