The organisers of the National Variety Trials have urged people not to jump to conclusions about the performance of the genetically modified canola varieties that were trialled last year, saying it is still to early to judge their merit.
Four Roundup Ready (RR) cultivars were grown alongside 22 non-GM canola varieties in five trials conducted last year as part of an experiment designed to allow comparisons between the different herbicide tolerance types.
The RR GM canola trials were conducted at five locations: three trial sites in Victoria, located near Wunghnu, Lake Bolac and Horsham; and two trial sites in NSW located near Forbes and Wagga Wagga.
"As a result of the dry season and frosts only two trials, Horsham and Forbes, were successful," NVT manager, Alan Bedggood said today.
"The trial at Forbes had a site mean yield of 1.00 tonne per hectare and the trial at Horsham had a site mean yield of 0.65t/ha.
"Drawing conclusions from one year of trials at only two sites is fraught with danger of drawing the wrong conclusions.
"There is a high degree of variability of results between trial sites and seasons."
Mr Bedggood cited as an example the result showing the highest yielding variety in one trial did not top any other trials in that state.
"When choosing a variety, growers should make decisions based on data from multiple sites and multiple seasons. For GM canola, this data is not yet available," Mr Bedggood said.
* The National Variety Trials are funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and are conducted by the Australian Crop Accreditation System Limited.
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