Australia: AWB seeds launch new malting barley called ‘Buloke’

The Australian Wheat Board (AWB) announced on October 10 that a new export quality malting barley ‘Buloke’ is being launched by AWB seeds on October 11 offering extremely high yields in low to medium rainfall districts.

AWB Seeds Manager Denis McGrath says Buloke is best suited to regions in south eastern Australia with between 325mm – 450mm annual rainfall, and offers early to mid season maturity and excellent foliar leaf disease resistance.

“Buloke has been bred by Victorian Department of Primary Industries breeder David Moody as part of the Malting Barley Quality Improvement Program,” Mr McGrath said. “It has is a tall, semi erect variety with growth habits that are similar to Barque but slower than the Sloop varieties.”

In Victoria, Buloke flowers at approximately the same time as Schooner, and about 3-4 days later than SloopSA. Limited data suggests Buloke is a few days later flowering than Schooner in central NSW.

“Buloke has reasonable straw strength, moderately good head retention and is tolerant to pre harvest sprouting similar to Gairdner,” Mr McGrath said. “Longterm (2002-2004) yield data indicates Buloke is the highest yielding malt barley variety in the Murray Mallee and Victorian Mallee. “Compared to current malting varieties grown in its area of adaptation, Buloke offers improved diastase and fermentability levels and higher malt extraction.

“It is ideally suited for export malting barley grain markets in China or as export malt to Japan, South Korea, the Phillipines, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries in the South East Asian region.

“However it is not suited to the domestic brewing industry, due to the relatively high production in Australia of low alcohol beer which is difficult to produce with highly fermentable malt,” Mr McGrath said.

Buloke is named after the shire of Buloke, which spans an area of the southern Mallee and northern Wimmera of Victoria.

More information on Buloke and other seed varieties can be found at the AWB Seeds website – awbseeds.com.au