Australia
September 10, 2012

HSR Seeds new flint corn variety Amadeus is performing strongly both in the field and in the factory, with all signs positive for a full commercial release next season.

HSR Seeds area sales manager Arthur Salisbury said performance was what new varieties were all about and “performance” was the key word that growers and millers kept using in relation to Amadeus.

“A farmer selecting a maize variety aimed at the processing and specialty markets firstly wants it to produce well and then to reliably meet the customer’s quality specifications. They want to know that what they are growing is highly sought after because it performs well in the mill and that’s exactly where Amadeus is placed now after several years of trials,” Mr Salisbury said.

“This variety offers good yields and a strong suite of disease resistance, which is immediately obvious in its clean leaves over the growing season. Yet even better seem its market prospects, with just one more season of large-volume processing trials to go and very positive results so far.”

Defiance Maize Products at Warwick in Queensland has been testing Amadeus over the past four years through various trials and according to Defiance’s Rodney Walker, Amadeus is looking like the “universal hybrid” he is after.

“We want a large grain with a hard endosperm the will give us high extraction for flaking and this variety certainly delivers that; we are getting around 52% grits, which is well up on other hybrids, and around 68% overall for human consumption,” Mr Walker said.

“We have three or four varieties on processing trials at any one time, so when one gets through it must be working well for us. If this year’s trials continue the high performance we’ve seen so far and it is finally approved, we would want to see Amadeus in production for many years.”

Two growers who have been growing Amadeus for the Defiance test program are John Foley and Stewart Free, both on the Darling Downs, and both agree that the ability to reliably meet the quality specification is a big plus for the variety.

“I’ve sown this variety over four years now and I’ve been growing maize for 50 years, so when I say it’s the nicest variety I’ve seen I mean it. It yields as well as other varieties and has good disease resistance; you can just see it growing well,” Mr Foley said.

“It also has great standability; I know because I’ve only recently finished harvesting a paddock that was ready a month earlier but I couldn’t get onto it, yet it was completely fine.”

Stewart Free similarly said Amadeus was a stable and strong variety.

“Easy thrashing, no cracked grain, large and even seed size and no grading needed – a reliable crop that makes money,” Mr Free said.

“I wished I’d added more fertiliser to last year’s crop, but on dry land I still got 2.8 tonnes to the acre up to 3.5 tonnes, so I’m happy. This year some of the crop will be under irrigation to push it further.”

HSR Seeds has limited supplies of Amadeus available for sowing this season so would encourage early inquiry from interested growers, with full technical details available on the company website: www.hsrseeds.com.au/amadeus.aspx. HRS Seeds is happy to discuss trial results in full with interested growers.

Website: http://www.hsrseeds.com.au/

Published: September 10, 2012