United Kingdom
December 1, 2022
Another good autumn has seen many growers complete their winter wheat drilling programmes in good time.
As always, some will have delayed drilling due to serious grassweed problems, while others will have pencilled in areas after roots, maize or a cover crop.
But, when the weather closes in, growers will face long delays before they can get back on the land, and might be considering which varieties to sow first and which can be safely delayed, or even switching to varieties that are better suited to the latter end of the drilling window.
Tom Dummett, RAGT’s cereal and oilseed rape product manager, says two varieties in particular in the current RAGT line-up, Skyfall and RGT Bairstow, perform well when sown in the new year.
Skyfall
Growers considering switching to a spring cereal could still choose Skyfall as a potentially more profitable alternative.
“Skyfall has a very low vernalisation requirement and is very vigorous, helping it to withstand less-than-ideal conditions,” says Tom.
“It is one of just five varieties with an end-of February advisory sowing limit on the Recommended List, but RAGT backs the variety to the end of the first week of March.”
In RAGT glasshouse tests after 28 days below 5°C all Skyfall plants successfully carried ears while the percentage of other varieties in ear ranged from 0% to 50%.
After just two weeks of vernalisation, 79% of Skyfall plants produced ears, while the rest failed.
“Yields are unlikely to exceed 6-7t/ha when drilled late February/early March, but at current wheat prices with a level of inputs that reflects expectations without compromising performance, Skyfall will still produce a good margin even if it doesn’t make milling specification,” Tom explains.
Late-sowing success
RAGT Growers Club member Richard Darlington sowed 12ha of Skyfall at Sykes Farm near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire in early March 2021 after late-lifted potatoes on a short term let left ‘a bit of a mess’.
The end result confirmed his policy of choosing the variety for its flexible drilling date, particularly useful after crops like maize this far west where autumns can deliver a sizeable percentage of the farm’s annual 60in of rain.
“I wouldn’t do it out of choice, but it’s there as back up if we need it,” says Richard. “The late-drilled Skyfall wasn’t that far behind the autumn-sown crop, mostly yielding around 3t/ha, but 3.5t/ha on the best field. You don’t have to apply the same level of inputs as to the early sown crops, so it tends to balance out in the end.”
RGT Bairstow
RAGT also recommends RGT Bairstow for late drilling. Like Skyfall, its advisory latest safe sowing date on the Recommended List is end of February, albeit on more limited data, and the company backs it until the end of the first week of March.
RGT Bairstow is the equal highest yielding soft wheat with UK-wide recommendation on the Recommended List. It is also the highest yielding UK-wide soft wheat in the AHDB’s latest five-year (2018-2022) report on wheats sown after 1 November.
“RGT Bairstow has a very low vernalisation requirement, similar to Skyfall. It can be sown from late September and on into to the first week of March while you wouldn’t set out to do the latter, it does provide plenty of room to manoeuvre if you get caught out in a wet autumn,” Tom explains.
“In addition, RGT Bairstow’s ripening date is also only about +1.5 compared with Skyfall, so won’t hold up harvest unduly even when late sown.’
RAGT late drilling advice:
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Maintain seed rates – plan for 400 seeds towards the end of February to provide optimum ear number potential
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Plan a sensible inputs programme for realistic crop prospects.
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Late-sown crops develop rapidly – plan inputs accordingly.
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