Aaron Natoli

The aim of a five-year Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) research project now underway is to identify the genes that make canola heat tolerant. Field trials for this research were planted in New South Wales and Western Australia in 2020. The long-term objective of the research is to provide heat-tolerant germplasm to plant breeders. And your next question is, so what? Why would that be important? As climate variability emerges as one of the biggest threats to food security, heat stress had been identified as a major issue. This is also an increasing global concern, with average temperatures projected to rise in coming decades. Dr Sheng Chen, lead researcher at The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Institute of Agriculture continues. “Plant breeders may then incorporate this germplasm into new commercial varieties, and help the industry maintain productivity as mean temperatures rise.” “Canola is particularly sensitive to high temperature stress. [...]

Did you enjoy yesterday story about wine? ? Cheers! No seriously, put the glass down. Would you like some more wine...facts...that is? Well, here is the vintage for you and some extra "cool" facts about wine. Did you know that temperature influences the flavour of wine! Temperature affects the sugar-acid balance of grapes, thus the cooler an area is, the higher the acidity giving the wine improved balance. In comparison, warmer regions lead to higher baume (that is the scale of how dense the wine is) and higher alcohol content. Grapes grown in warmer regions ripen faster and are sweeter in flavour. Have you noticed this when tasting wine? Let us know what you think! ?

We received a question in our DM’s about brix testing. So, just what is brix testing? According to bionutrient.org, “Brix is a scale based on the amount that light bends when it passes through a liquid. Thus, if one were to place one's hand in a pond and measure the amount it appeared to bend, and then place it in the ocean, it would appear to bend a different amount. That differential light bending is the best tool currently available to consumers to determine the value of crops that are purchased or produced. The brix chart is the scale that anyone can use to determine poor, average, good or excellent in a foodstuff. So how does Brix relate to quality? Centuries of wine making and work with other fruits and vegetables always show direct relations between high Brix and high quality, expressed most simply and directly as superior taste. So [...]