Felicity Harris

Dr Felicity Harris

Crop Scientist

Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Biography

Felicity grew up on a farm at Junee in southern NSW and completed her undergraduate degree at Charles Sturt, studying management of dual-purpose wheat for her Honours in 2004. Felicity was the research coordinator for local farming systems group FarmLink from 2005-2008, before commencing her PhD at Charles Sturt. Her PhD focused on better understanding the relationship between crop development and early vigour in wheat, specifically the influence of genes controlling flowering behaviour. In 2015, she was appointed as a Research Scientist at NSW Department of Primary Industries at Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. Her research focuses on understanding the drivers of phenology in wheat, barley and oats and using management to adjust timing of crop development to optimise yield and adaptation across variable environments. Felicity is passionate about research engagement with grain growers and delivering outcomes for industry. She was awarded the Australian Society of Agronomy Young Agronomist of the Year in 2017 and GRDC Emerging Leader award in 2019. Felicity joined the School of Agricultural, Environment and Veterinary Sciences in 2022 as Senior Lecturer in Crop Science.

Research
  • Understanding stability of flowering behaviour in early sown winter wheats
  • Advancing understanding of genetics of oat phenology for Australian farming systems
  • Enhancing frost tolerance and/or avoidance through agronomic manipulation
  • Improved understanding of phenology responses of new cereal cultivars
  • Crop adaptation for future climates
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent Publications

  • Celestina, C., Hunt, J., Kuchel, H., Harris, F., Porker, K., Biddulph, B., Bloomfield, M., McCallum, M., Graham, R., Matthews, P., Aisthorpe, D., Al-Yaseri, G., Hyles, J., Trevaskis, B., Wang, E., Zhao, Z., Zheng, B., Huth, N., & Brown, H. (2023). A cultivar phenology classification scheme for wheat and barley. European Journal of Agronomy, 143, 126732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2022.126732
  • Cann, D. J., Hunt, J. R., Porker, K. D., Harris, F. AJ., Rattey, A., & Hyles, J. (2023). The role of phenology in environmental adaptation of winter wheat. European Journal of Agronomy, 143, 126686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2022.126686
  • Green, T., Moroni, J. S., Pratley, J., Harris, F., Rebetzke, G. J., & Mullan, D. (2023). Winter sown 100 day wheats for a changing Australian climate. In GRDC Update Papers https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/grdc-update-papers/tab-content/grdc-update-papers/2023/02/winter-sown-100-day-wheats-for-a-changing-australian-climate
  • Trevaskis, B., Harris, F., Bovill, W. D., Rattey, A. R., Khoo, K. H. P., Boden, S. A., & Hyles, J. (2022). Advancing understanding of oat phenology for crop adaptation. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, [955623]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.955623
  • Cann, D. J., Hunt, J. R., Rattey, A., Harris, F. A. J., & Porker, K. D. (2022). Indirect early generation selection for yield in winter wheat. Field Crops Research, 282, 108505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2022.108505