Plant breeding company Nuseed have doubled their team to offer further support to canola growers in the Western Australian agricultural region.
Hugh Trenorden has a strong track record of experience in the canola industry locally and nationally and joined the business earlier this season in the role of regional sales manager west.
Nuseed has also recently welcomed Callum Pestell and Pippa Reilly both formerly of Elders.
Mr Pestell previously a sales agronomist at Elders Merredin takes over the area sales manager north position from Michael Hickey, who is now working in a market development manager role assisting growers and advisers to maximise the performance and profitability of growing seed products.
Ms Reilly was working in a sales role with Elders at Koorda and is now looking forward to supporting Nuseed grower clients and industry advisers throughout WA in a newly created customer sales representative position.
Andrew Royce will continue to support WA's southern region as area sales manager south, where he plays a key role in supporting the strong uptake of Nuseed's hybrid canola seed varieties.
Mr Trenorden says growers across the state are recognising the promising value of growing varieties from the company's HyTTec and TruFlex canola ranges, which have resulted in strong demand for these high quality, pedigree seed varieties.
"We want to assist growers of our seed products with all the information, tools and support required to help them succeed and maximise their production and returns," Mr Trenorden added.
Seasonal conditions have been variable throughout WA and were generally more difficult in northern areas, however via Nuseed's domestic and global seed innovation centres, it is anticipated good supplies of varieties will be available next season.
"We have a particularly strong emphasis on quality assurance with our seed products and they are currently going through our stringent quality control process to ensure the highest quality canola seed possible is supplied to growers."
Mr Trenorden says the arrival of the new, early to mid-maturing TruFlex variety, Nuseed Hunter TF for this season has pleased growers.
It shows a strong performance with excellent shattering tolerance and good seed supply is expected for 2024 plantings.
Ms Reilly has a strong passion for agriculture and her family's mixed farm at Wyalkatchem has already been checking the performance of Nuseed canola varieties and Hunter has been a highlight, including in on farm trials alongside industry-standard varieties.
"I have visited growers mainly through the central wheatbelt region and they were impressed by its reliability, with incredible yield and oil results despite the dry conditions.
“It also showed excellent harvestability and as a new variety, it performed above and beyond their expectations," she said.
Ms Reilly said she is looking forward to developing relationships with growers, advisers and end users across the industry to help build wider understanding and trust in the Nuseed canola range, and to better support planting decisions.
Mr Pestell is also looking to hit the ground running after following an interest in plant biology that culminated in an Agricultural Science degree from the University of WA and his agronomy work in the eastern wheatbelt in recent years.
He is excited by the growth in agriculture and the opportunity to support some of the hardest working growers in the world through service and technical development.
He said Nuseed's canola range offered adaptability to all areas and with good technical packages to suit those goals.
