United Kingdom
August 26, 2022
Being a fan of Relay and Kielder winter wheats, both of which have done well on the farm in the past, Stephen Mason took little persuading when it came to growing RGT Lantern last autumn, and he’s had no regrets since.
Stephen grew 60ha of this high-yielding Group 4 hard wheat, a Kielder/Relay cross, at East Farm, Langton North Yorkshire, following a recommendation from RAGT’s managing director Lee Bennett.
This was on the back of strong results in official and independent trials across the country, including an excellent performance as a second wheat in AHDB trials in 2019/20.
Stephen, a partner in the family farm growing combinable crops and grass across 1200ha, says: “RGT Lantern has Kielder and Relay as parents. Both did very well for us, and Relay was a very good second wheat too, so we were hopeful that we’d get on well with it.”
He drilled 60ha of RGT Lantern last autumn into well-bodied land as a second wheat. “We like to get crops drilled early up here, which was another reason for growing it.
“Fortunately we’re better off than a lot of people when it comes to blackgrass, and I hope it stays that way – we’d struggle to make time for stale seedbeds. But the fact Lantern will compete against the blackgrass we do get can’t be a bad thing.”
The variety looked good through the season. Like all the farm’s wheats, fungicide spend was a bit above normal given the high grain price and nitrogen, bought “at the right money”, was pushed even where chicken muck had been applied, to maximise yield and quality.
“But we started harvest on the 7 August, which was early for us – we usually start a week or two later, so we didn’t know what to expect,” says Stephen.
He needn’t have worried. His RGT Lantern yielded 10-11t/ha across the 60ha, with an expected average near the middle of that range. This was despite a low moisture content of 11-12% which saw the team combining until the early hours to minimise the impact.
“We aim for 10t/ha as an average across all our wheats, so we were very pleased,” says Stephen. “Quality was good – we got a specific weight of 76kg/hl and I’ve been told the Hagbergs and proteins were all OK.”
Needless to say, he will be sowing RGT Lantern as a second wheat again this autumn.
A package that’s hard to beat
Growers wanting a specialist second wheat this autumn should look no further than RGT Lantern, says RAGT’s Lee Bennett.
“Choosing the right variety is the first step to achieving good gross margins in what can be a tricky slot,” he says.
RGT Lantern has the pedigree that many growers require, he adds. “Unusually, it has Relay as a parent, which many growers favoured as a very reliable performer with excellent second wheat credentials.
“It’s no surprise therefore that RGT Lantern is one of the best second wheats available to UK farmers. It’s like Relay on steroids. It is also a very classy first wheat, yielding as well as many widely grown, fully recommended Group 4 heavyweights.”
The variety can be drilled early if required. It establishes well and tillers strongly, and its semi-prostrate autumn growth habit means it competes well against blackgrass and other weeds.
RGT Lantern did not get onto the Recommended List, as it was deemed not to have enough yield advantage over existing varieties. However, in official trials in 2020 it came top for yield in the second wheat slot.
“Add in RGT Lantern’s good early vigour, short stiff straw, excellent lodging resistance and orange wheat blossom resistance and you have a package that is still very hard to beat,” says Lee.
* Go to www.ragtseeds.co.uk/news to see how a range of RAGT varieties are faring this harvest.
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