[Level Up] [Doc Top] [Doc End] [Next Item] [Home Page]

CSIRO CORPORATE MEDIA RELEASE 95/52

RURAL RESEARCH

Australia needs better malting barley to compete internationally

Australia is the world's largest exporter of malting barley, supplying 43 percent of the world demand during 1993 and 1994.

Australia is also a significant exporter of malt to the world's brewers, providing nine percent of the world demand.

The continued success of our malting barely and malt exports is under threat.

Scientists at the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant Science are using genetic engineering to breed new barley varieties with better processing qualities and disease resistance.

Full details of this story in the winter issue of Rural Research.

For more information please contact:

Outsmarting the Fox- scientists hopeful

Foxes may get more than they bargain for if a new vaccine being developed by scientists at the CRC for Biological Control of Vertebrate Pest Populations is successful. The scientists are planning to bait foxes - not to kill them - but to make them infertile. They hope that concentrating on the birth rate of foxes rather than the death rate will provide a long-term solution to controlling this pest.

Full details of this story in the winter issue of Rural Research.

For more information please contact:

The winter issue of Rural Research includes the latest in genetic engineering research for agriculture

• Long term research offers hope for wool industry - transgenic sheep hold the potential to produce more wool and have resistance to fly strike
• Controlling flowering time - Scientists are unlocking the mysteries that control flowering in some plants
• Increasing tropical livestock production - Reducing the lignin content of tropical grasses and increasing the number of fibre-digesting enzymes in the rumen of sheep and cattle would help animals gain weight faster and increase returns to the grazing industries.
• Beating the bollworm - a lethal virus offers hope to control this major pest of cotton and horticultural crops

These stories and more in CSIRO's Rural Research magazine.

For more information please contact:

[Level Up] [Doc Top] [Doc End] [Next Item] [Home Page]