Rural
30 July, 2026
World-level grains research all aglow
RESIDENTS and drivers to the west of central Horsham may have wondered about the pinkish-magenta glow above them some evenings, with the light emanating from the ‘glasshouse’-style buildings at the Agriculture Victoria SmartFarm on Natimuk Road.
They aren’t just pretty lights to speculate about on social media on foggy nights – the buildings are an integral part of world-leading innovative scientific research helping develop crop genetics for the commercial seed industry that will lead to improving pest and disease resistance and building strains more suitable to local climates and soils.
Deeply involved in the work is Plant Genetics Resources research leader Dr Sally Norton, also working as the National Genebank leader for the Australian Grains Genebank.
“We house basically the history of Australian grain cropping, the current varieties that are growing around the farmers’ fields today, and most importantly, the parents of the varieties will be growing into the future to meet varying conditions,” she said.
“Part of that process is we need to import new material from overseas every year.”
She said part of the need for research was because none of the grain crops nor broadacre crops – except macadamia – originate in Australia.
“They're not Australian natives, so they're brought in every year from overseas, so that we continue to bring in new sources of diversity that the researchers and breeders use to develop into the varieties that grow in the farmers' fields today,” Dr Norton said.
“There's research happening all around the world, including in Australia, where we identify particular characteristics or traits of interest that are relevant to the Australian growing conditions.
“So researchers and breeders are constantly in conversation with international colleagues and collaborators, as the genebank is as well, to actually understand what diversity exists that isn't already in Australia.
“For instance, pest or a disease resistance might have specific genes related to that. What they're looking for the world over – not just Australia – is ... new sources or new genes that can add additional resistance, so the resistance doesn't break down.”
With chemical control methods often losing effectiveness over time, developing plants that themselves have resistance has considerable usefulness and so the work of her team underpins the Australian grain cropping industry.
“The farmers who are producing profitable crops that are resilient basically feed Australia and the world, because we have a massive export industry as well,” Dr Norton said.
The genebank she oversees provides a great resource for developing particular lines of crops but also helping to understand baseline genetic diversity and then in turn using that information with previous studies to identify resistance traits in one crop that can be used in another.
Dr Norton said at the moment they’ve done “about 75 per cent of the collection now”.
“It’s about 150,000 different seed lines we now genotype,” she said.
“Resistance traits usually have a marker in their DNA code, and (to be) actually able to line that up and identify if we've got, for instance, 15,000 bread wheats here and around the world, it's been found that there's five that have this unique resistance gene, we can screen and see if there's any material here that might have that.
“That baseline understanding we're across the genebank is really changing the way that researchers and breeders can source lines.”
But what about the pink-glowing glasshouses?
Dr Norton explained these were post-entry quarantine areas which had lighting in the far red end of the visible spectrum to make sure the plants got a consistent 16 hours of light a day (the sweet spot for yield), with it triggered to go on if the days are too overcast and gloomy – and then obviously always when night falls.
The plants under the lights have been brought in from overseas and before entering ‘hands-on’ research work, are subject to strict regulations where they have to “go through a growth cycle under compliance control”.
“If there's pests or disease material that's in there, it cannot get out of here,” Dr Norton said.
“It's controlled under a federal government quarantine approved arrangement.”
She admitted the facility had created considerable response on the town’s social media, with the talk only increasing after they added a few more of the glasshouses late last year to the original single one – or more recently when the sky had just the right kind of low cloud base.
“Saturday night Facebook was alight, and it was interesting reading the comments!” Dr Norton said.
Asked what makes a researcher in her line of work go home thinking ‘that was a good day’, her team-orientated answer was emphatic, detailed and all about what happens in a farmer’s field.
“The highlight for us is actually hearing from people who've utilised the seed from the collection here, and hearing how it's been used,” Dr Norton said.
“So whether it's through research or breeding or the identification of a particular trait – for instance, Ascochyta blight resistance in chickpea – we know there's material that's coming through the collection now that's got pretty high tolerance to that, and it's a pretty unique source.
“So to see into the future how that then carries through to a released variety is going to be really exciting.
“Knowing how material is used and which lines then go up through varieties and out to release – we sometimes get insight onto which particular lines have been used – and then you go into a grower's field and walk through and say, in my lifetime this is what's come through my hands literally out into the farmers field.
“What we're after is a resilient farming system for growers, and obviously profitable system as well. “So a highlight for me is actually hearing how the material’s being used, but also hearing the feedback of the great service delivery that my team produced. I'm talking to you today, but I've got a team around me that actually do a lot of the hands-on stuff – all the hands-on stuff, really.
“So it's hearing the positive feedback of the team and the service we provide, which is fantastic.”