Transcript: The Knead for wheat quality research
I'm here in a laboratory in Horsham working for the Department of Environment and Primary Industries as part of the AGFACE program. The AGFACE program is looking at growing crops under elevated carbon dioxide conditions. The levels that we are looking at are predicted for 2050, and we're looking to see if we can adapt to these conditions in the future.
Our part of the project is looking at wheat quality. What we are looking at is dough quality in particular of the wheat that is grown out at the trial sites. We're hoping that we will still produce wheat under an elevated carbon dioxide environment that still has the same milling characteristics, colour characteristics, dough strength and elasticity, which relates to a good quality loaf of bread. We're hoping we still produce loaves of bread that look good like this, rather than undesirable like this one here.
This is unique research and we're hoping that it will provide vital information to Australian farmers to help them to adapt, continue to supply quality wheat to the rest of the world, now and well into the future.
The AGFACE is a joint project with the University of Melbourne and is partially funded by the Grains Research Development Corporation.