Director's welcome

Welcome to the I.A. Watson Grains Research Centre; the northern arm of the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI). The Centre is the located on the Newell Highway just north of Narrabri and is owned by the grain growers of NSW who administer the site through a board of trustees. The University of Sydney leases the site and conducts plant breeding and affiliated research here.

Most of the site of 430 ha is irrigable and is ideally suited to large scale field experimentation. We do not attempt to duplicate the excellent greenhouse and laboratory faculties at the PBI Cobbitty. However, with excellent transport links to Sydney the two nodes of the PBI complement each other and staff and students move between the sites as needed. The University’s wheat breeding program was commercialized in 2001 and the germplasm absorbed by Australian Grain Technologies (AGT). AGT continue to use the site for their northern wheat breeding program as do other wheat breeding companies. In addition, plant breeding programs managed by the University include Indian mustard for biodiesel and field peas for animal feed. Research and pre-breeding foci include drought tolerance, adaptation to conservation agriculture, resistance to crown rot and specialty quality traits in wheat, triticale for grain and forage and heat and drought tolerance in chickpea.

Our aim is to provide the essential research that underpins grain production in the northern Australian grains region. In the process we are training the next generation of plant breeders, pathologists and agronomists who in turn will work to maintain the viability of the grains industry here and internationally.