United Kingdom
September 8, 2022
A strong performance from newly recommended Group 4 wheat RGT Stokes suggests the variety will attract plenty of interest in Scotland, according to Fife grower Alan Steven.
His first season growing the variety backs up Recommended List data that show RGT Stokes performs particularly well in the north and west of the UK. The variety is also rated good for distilling.
“It’s got a fit for the market,” says Alan, a director at Beley Farms Limited,
Hillhead Farm, near St Andrews, where he farms with his brother John and cousins, growing potatoes, field-scale vegetables and cereals.
“A lot of folk will be interested if this year is anything to go by,” he adds. “Stokes has good Septoria and yellow rust scores, so it will hold on well in wetter year. Spray windows get hammered up here, so it really helps having that resistance.”
One 12ha seed crop was grown on medium loam soil after seed potatoes, which had been dug in good conditions. It was sown at the end of October after ploughing at about 210 kg/ha.
“RGT Stokes does suit earlier sowing as well. We don’t have a blackgrass problem so we can drill early, an advantage this far north,” says Alan.
“We don’t go too heavy when buying in new seed – we tend to stretch it a bit, we use Vibrance Duo seed dressing and we hope for better vigour and tillering.”
A robust fungicide programme was used particularly at T1 and T2 to protect the crop, which stayed clean through the season. “We need to be growing healthy seed with good vigour – it needs to be fully better than farm saved, so we need to look after it.”
Despite being later sown last autumn, the Stokes didn’t run late to harvest. “It was ready at the same time as my cousin’s soft wheat, even though it’s supposed to be later to ripen.”
The field was cut on 26th August. “Most came off at 16-17% - you’re highly delighted if you’re cutting at that sort of moisture up here,” says Alan. He predicts the crop will average close to 10t/ha, based on combine meter readings, edging the farm’s other soft wheat.
“That’s a very good yield especially given the season, which has been very different to what we’re used to. It’s been very dry, but we have had odd showers of rain.”
Photo of RGT Stokes after November storm.
A further 6ha of RGT Stokes – a mix of loam and sandy land – was drilled after a pass with the Sumo Trio deep-tine/disc combination. The crop had a tough start after November storms battered plants with salt air off the sea, but it recovered well.
“It looked a great crop of wheat until the end of June when the lighter bits waned away,” says Alan. “It still averaged around 7.5t/ha and had a slightly better bushel weight, above 80kg/hl, but the other field had more heads and grains, hence the better yield.
“It’ll be interesting to see how RGT Stokes performs in a wetter year, but so far it’s looking very good.”
* For more grower harvest reports on RAGT varieties, please go to www.ragtseeds.co.uk/news
Topics
Species
