Effect of sowing date on phenology and grain yield of 19 bread wheat and five durum cultivars - Tamworth 2016

This experiment reports the effect of three sowing dates on the timing of anthesis, grain yield and grain quality parameters for a range of commercially available and advanced bread wheat and durum varieties.The combination of phenology and sowing date (SD) determines the probable timing of environmental stresses (frost and heat stress) at key developmental stages, such as anthesis and during the critical post-flowering grain-fill period. The optimum flowering window is considered an agronomic compromise between avoiding excessive yield loss due to frost and ensuring that flowering occurs early enough to enable a long grain-fill period, before heat and moisture stress restrict yield potential.Variety response to SD experiments help to determine how new varieties compare in maturity and yield with existing varieties across the sowing window at a regional level. This provides data to better inform growers about varietal response to SD options and therefore to better match variety with SD. Overtime, these experiments provide greater confidence in varietalperformance estimates and flowering behaviour.