United Kingdom
September 20, 2022
Good Septoria resistance, high yield, versatility and suited to local markets – there’s a lot to like about RGT Stokes.
RGT Stokes was one of the standout varieties during the past season at McCreath, Simpson & Prentice’s variety demonstration trials near Duns in the Scottish Borders, according to the company’s assistant seed manager Laura Beaty.
“The variety looked pretty clean through the season, and as we got into early summer it held on well and was by far the cleanest of the soft wheats in our trials.
“I think it is the best option at the moment for a soft wheat grower when it comes to disease control, particularly Septoria, which is the eyecatcher. It has the best Septoria resistance of the Group 4 soft wheats and also remained a lot cleaner than Astronomer, which on paper it is on a par with in the north.
“In addition, RGT Stokes is also the highest yielding soft wheat on the Recommended List in the north. We don’t take our variety trials to yield, but from what we can see it would certainly perform as well if not better than the alternatives. Our seed grower, Alan Steven, got on very well with it.” *
These are two compelling reasons for growing the variety in the north, Laura adds – but there are more.
“RGT Stokes is versatile; it can be drilled early but equally it can still be sown later, for example after potatoes – it opens up the options.
“It is slightly later maturing than some others at harvest, but for those growing bigger areas of wheat that helps manage the harvest workload, and it won’t clash with spring barley harvest. It also spreads the risk depending on the season.”
The variety also has a very good spirit yield, which means it is well suited to the Scottish market, where the majority of growers are growing soft distilling varieties. “RGT Stokes would sit very well in this sector,” says Laura. “But it also has enough merits, not least its top yield, to be considered as a feed variety in its own right.”
One “weakness” that has been levelled at the variety is straw height, says Laura. “But its treated straw strength is higher than Skyscraper, so if you can manage that variety you can manage Stokes. It is tall, but not quite as tall as Skyscraper, and we wouldn’t consider it to be a weak point.”
Laura expects good sales of RGT Stokes this autumn, both for sowing this season and for the overwintered market. “It is suitable for early drilling so think it will do well with our dedicated customer base looking for overwintered seed for early delivery in July.
“I think it has a good future on farm. It looks very promising and has a lot to commend it, and I would like to think it has a few years ahead of it. Varieties can take a while to get going, but can hang on for a long time – we’ve only just waved goodbye to Elation and Jackal, which have held their place as good distilling wheats for several years.
“We are also selling RGT Bairstow, which we may see going further south as well. It is not as suited to early drilling, so later drillers should get a good result with it.
“These are both good varieties and have both sold well this autumn – I think we will end up selling out on RGT Bairstow, which has sold really well for a new variety, and Stokes isn’t a million miles behind it.”
* See www.ragtseeds.co.uk/news
RGT Stokes
- Very high yielding in all regions
- Excels in West and North
- Best S tritici resistance score of soft Group 4s
- Suitable for early drilling, but can be drilled late
- High alcohol yield – rated good for distilling
- Good second wheat
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