New (open-access) paper! I tried to figure out how to talk about pod-set in faba bean properly. Key takeaway: Interactions between pods are agronomically irrelevant except after stress that kills flowers/pods. Focus on crop growth from flowering!.

We know from theory that cereal crops should attain 95% light interception by flag leaf emergence to maximise their potential. In my post-doctoral fellowship funded by @theGRDC and @CSIRO, I'll validate, revise and/or qualify this target for southern Australia.

One for the trial perfectionists! Precision planting without a small-plot precision seeder 🤤. Phillip Porter at Livyn Seeds can (very affordably) place your seeds in dissolvable tape at the desired spacing.

Excited to unpack my PhD findings with growers! I aim to clarify what faba bean is doing so that we can make it do what we want it to do better. I'll also aim to use better sentences than that one.

Hey look what I found on Kangaroo Island

We love the jacarandas in Adelaide. I love the opportunity to show how nearly all flowering plants overproduce and cull flowers, not just faba bean 😉🤓

RT @far_australia: Great turnout at our South Australia Crop Technology Centre field day today. Morning sessions provided some great insigh….

RT @MacKillopGroup: REMINDER: THIS THURSDAY AT RENDELSHAM.Register today:

Can this be my thesis introduction?.

RT @brill_ag: Is it worth windrowing faba beans? Possibly. Much easier to pick timing compared with canola and the crop can be surprisingl….

<insert cheeky comment about molecular biology here>.

RT @robbert115: New Group 1 powerful chemistry coming to control FOP/DIM resistant grasses. It should be similarly very effective on ARG.….

Many thanks to supervisors and co-authors, including @SC_Catt, @Sara_N_Blake, @_mattdenton_ and @JasonBrand!.

A (2/2): Yield hasn't increased across the collection, and seed number went down as size went up. To get more seeds, with same or bigger size, we need to increase harvest index and/or biomass somehow. Tackling GxE is also going to be important.

A (1/2): If faba bean was a pavlova, then new varieties are cut into bigger slices (bigger seeds, if you ignore the broadbeans), stand up better (lodging resistance) and don't go mouldy (disease resistance). That's a better pavlova! And it was improved on a limited budget! 1/2

Q: How has breeding changed Australian faba bean varieties?.A: See our new paper! (and comments below)

RT @agronomistag: A picture is worth 1000 small plots?

Short answer? .Growers: Probably not. Researchers: Maybe. Everyone: Start with what happened during the critical period, then see if you need to account for additional, 'growth-independent' factors.

I shared my thoughts on whether growers should worry about faba bean 'pod-set' or 'pod retention' at the @theGRDC Adelaide Update a couple of weeks ago.

@AgrifoodUoA @theGRDC @tony_swan64 The final version is out :).