Setting the scene around Dalby district saw CSD’s John Marshall on hand to give the low-down on a variety that will replace Sicot 70BRF, noting how 08/09 had been “a very close to average season” for the varietry to demonstrate its credentials.

“There were no prolonged periods of hot or cold weather,” he said.

And as far as temperatures were concerned, there were only 15 days above 35C, also no nights above 25 degrees.

The enormous variability across the rainfall across the Darling Downs translated to a very wet November but below average rainfalls during December and January.

Average falls in February were followed by a very dry March – a critical aspect as far as the crop was concerned with “heaps of rain” falling in early April.

One of the key aspects of the well-attended evening event was the critical focus on the Sicot 71BRF which saw CSD’s James Quinn pull together a lot of relevant information on the newcomer, also the variety Sicot 70RRF.

“After CSIRO gave them a fair bit of praise, we pretty much threw everything we had at them, as far as our trials were concerned,” he said.

As a result the trials covered everything from fully irrigated to semi-irrigated, dryland, from Emerald in the north through to Hillston in the south.

“So we tried to learn as much as we possibly could from our trial programme, to try and fully understand the varieties.

“They look to be a fairly robust and have performed extremely well,” Mr Quinn said.

CSD says its trials saw 71BRF turn in a 4 per cent yield advantage over 70BRF.

As well, CSIRO small plot trials largely replicated these findings with 71BRF out-yielding 70BRF by five percent and 71BR by three percent.

Interestingly, 71BRF exhibited a fibre quality package which, on average, was 2/32nds longer than that of 71BR, with the robustness of this fibre length tested in dryland conditions where it did not fall under base grade in any of CSD’s trials.