United Kingdom
August 19, 2022
Sam Morris says RGT Saki has done “incredibly well” on the heavy clays at Top Farm, Croydon, Cambridgeshire this harvest.
The variety was drilled in mid October. The best field, 40ha grown as a second wheat, averaged 11.3t/ha. “That’s over the combine weigher but its accurate within a couple of percent – whichever way you look at it, it’s a great result,” says Sam.
Overall yields of RGT Saki across 125ha averaged more than 10t/ha, including a block of around 50ha where nitrogen levels were trimmed a bit hard.
“Saki appears to have done incredibly well given the season – better than I expected. It’s turned out to be a really good variety.
“We treated all the varieties with the same fungicides, especially with the slight unknown over Septoria. We used a four-spray programme and put on good rates of modern chemistry at the key T1 and T2 timings. I felt we needed to protect what was there, particularly given where prices were.
“Saki is also resistant to orange wheat blossom midge, which is important to us. There’s no effective chemistry left to control it, and we’ve already spent the money on the crop by then. A bad midge year can be disastrous.”
Sam will grow RGT Saki again next year. “The variety has had another strong year – it seems to have been very consistent across two very different seasons, which gives me quite a bit of confidence.”
Michael Brown has also reported a very strong set of results for RGT Saki at T Brown & Son’s Bottom Farm, Covington in south Cambridgeshire.
The variety produced the best field of second wheat, averaging 11.8t/ha, and 10.5t/ha as a fifth wheat on chalky boulder clays.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of difference between all the wheats to be fair,” says Michael. “Overall, we averaged 11.2t/ha across 215ha, which given the lack of rain and the early start to harvest, was far better than we expected and well ahead of our 9.8t/ha average. So we’ve had a good harvest, as have a lot of people in this part of the world.”
The 50ha of RGT Saki was drilled in mid-October and emerged well. “I did cut seed rates back last autumn – I had put them up in the past to compete against blackgrass, but the crops didn’t finish well,” says Michael. “I think there were too many ears. Now we aim for around 300-320 seeds/sq m.”
Fertiliser rates were generally unchanged from the 220kg/ha standard rate. “We paid a relatively low price for the year, although I did cut back where wheats looked a bit forward in the spring.
“In the main they ended up around 10.8%, which is where we want to be. We try to get soft wheat premiums where we can, as we are well served with mills.”
Robust rates of fungicides were used at T1 onwards. “My fungicide programme is aimed at protection, rather than relying on curative activity,” says Michael.
“I don’t have any particular concerns over RGT Saki - it received the same as all our varieties – no T0, Ascra Xpro at T1, Revystar at T2 and Amistar/tebuconazole at T3.”
RGT Saki’s performance this season has secured its place on the farm. “It yielded very well as a second wheat, and is slightly later to combine, which helps spread harvest. Two to three years ago all our wheats were fit at the same time and suffered serious shedding, so having the spread of maturity is an obvious benefit.”
RGT Saki has performed exceptionally well as first and second wheat on fertile silty loams at PC Tinsley’s Hurn Hall Farm, near Holbeach in Lincolnshire.
“We really like the variety,” says managing director Mark Tinsley. “Last year it was our best performing wheat in what was poor season for us, averaging 10t/ha.
“This season 21ha of first wheat grown commercially produced 13.5t/ha, and similar sized area of second wheat did 11.75t/ha. A further 21ha grown for seed, planted at a lower seed rate, did 12.5t/ha.”
Yields were helped by enough rainfall at critical times, plenty of sunshine and a good start in the autumn.
The variety was mostly drilled in late October into good conditions. No T0 was applied as the crop remained clean, reflecting its strong yellow rust resistance.
“At T1 we applied Revystar at 1 litre/ha, followed at T2 with Univoq at 1.5 litres/ha. At T3 we put on Prosario at 0.8 litres/ha,” says Mark. “The Saki stayed clean throughout – we saw no yellow rust and there was very low pressure from Septoria.”
Mark is sowing the variety again this autumn. “We will probably grow it as a second wheat. It has done very well for us in this slot, and has yielded consistently well across some very different seasons.”
RGT Saki
- Very high-yielding Group 4 soft
- Consistent yields across seasons, regions and rotational positions
- Solid disease profile – especially to the rusts
- Highest untreated yield within soft Group 4s
- Juvenile resistance to yellow rust
- Short variety, good straw strength
- Orange wheat blossom midge resistant
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