For as long as he can remember Jordan Bathgate has been interested in food production and he is turning that interest into an honours research project supported by a Graham Centre Honours scholarship.
"As a child I grew vegetables in my parents suburban backyard," he said.
"I qualified as a diesel mechanic but then decided agronomy and food production was my real interest."
Mr Bathgate is studying a bachelor degree in Agricultural Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
His interest in his honours project was piqued during a field trip to the Australian Grain Technologies Research Farm (AGT) near Collingullie.
"The wheat breeder Dr Russell Eastwood was showing us the trials involving deep and shallow sown wheat and it looked very interesting," Mr Bathgate said.
"Russell said this was an area of research that interested him, and I thought it could be a challenging and worthwhile project."
Mr Bathgate is examining the value of two traits, seedling vigour and coleoptile length for deep sown wheat crops.Trials were sown at 100mm with a control sown at 40mm.
"The coleoptile is the pointed protective sheath that encases the emerging shoot as it grows from the seed to the soil surface," Mr Bathgate explained.
To facilitate his research, he has the use of a pool of breeding wheat from AGT which include some traditional varieties and some lines from Dr Greg Rebetzke at CSIRO that haven't yet been commercially released.
He is examining the relationship between seedling vigour and coleoptile length.
"The focus is on the role these traits have regarding seedling performance from deep sowing. It's hoped the results will assist plant breeders and ultimately help growers make informed sowing decisions," he said.
Due to restrictions, Mr Bathgate had to conduct part of his research at home.
"I was able to complete my controlled environment pot trials and since COVID-19 movement restrictions were introduced, I've been working from home to evaluate the coleoptile length of the seedlings," he said.
"With the restrictions beginning to ease, the next phase of the research has begun, which includes field trials of selected lines to determine seed establishment rates and the impact of plant vigour and coleoptile length in deep sown treatments."
The research is supervised by Dr Sergio Moroni (CSU) and Dr Felicity Harris, NSW DPI) and is a collaboration with Dr Russell Eastwood and Dr Greg Rebetzke.
