At the time of writing in early July, crops are making rapid progress towards harvest and by the time you are reading this article the combines will be about to roll, if they haven’t started already. The hot, dry weather has hastened harvest and it will be interesting to see what effect this has on yields – time will tell. So as one harvest gets underway it is time to think about the next one and make those all important decisions on next years variety choice.

Winter wheat

Variety choice in winter wheat was covered in some detail in last months article but just to re-iterate here are the main points.

Feed wheat

It looks as though feed wheat will once again be the dominant type grown for harvest 2011. Oakley is the most popular variety and is still the highest yielding variety. Despite its high susceptibility to yellow rust most growers seem content to continue with this variety so provided it yields up to expectations this harvest it seems sensible to carry on with Oakley for at least another year. There isn’t a higher yielding alternative, although it will be disappearing from Recommended List trials at the end of this year because of its high susceptibility to yellow rust. Conqueror was added to the List because of Oakley’s demise but it is no higher yielding and is also fairly susceptible to yellow rust; there is not a lot of seed available either.

Alternatives to Oakley would be JB Diego, Duxford or Viscount. They are all a little lower yielding than Oakley but would be useful additional varieties to grow alongside Oakley, particularly Diego or Duxford in the second wheat slot or Viscount for a possible small premium since it is a soft endosperm variety that can be included in the export/biscuit market. Grafton is another good partner for Oakley and is particularly useful for early drilling where its slow development speed and short stiff straw are useful characteristics.

There are six new feed varieties coming up for recommendation at the end of this year. Only one of them – KWS Santiago – has a similar yield to Oakley but its mediocre disease resistance levels, including a rating of 4 for Septoria tritici, may not inspire growers. Of the other candidate varieties some, such as Gravitas and Stigg, have excellent disease resistance but their lower yield potential compared to Oakley may be seen as a disadvantage.

Biscuit/distilling wheat

There is plenty of interest in the soft Group 3 varieties, possibly because of the expanding market for these types with the opening of the bioethanol plant on Teesside and the potential for further plants on Humberside. Claire is eminently suitable for this new market as well as the traditional ones of biscuit flour, distilling, export and feed. Its yield potential is now rather low however although it is still reasonably popular with growers. Robigus, which did replace Claire on most farms, has now been dropped by the majority of growers and seed supply is fading away. Scout is a useful replacement and like Claire it can be drilled early. With good disease resistance and stiff straw it is proving popular on farm. The new variety Invicta is well up on everyone’s ‘new variety’ list. With a yield potential six percent up on Claire and good all round disease resistance it is likely to be one of the new varieties that many growers will be trying this autumn. Another new variety that may attract some grower interest is Warrior. Although it is slightly lower yielding than Invicta it does have outstanding disease resistance and would be particularly useful for growing on outlying areas or where spraying opportunities are limited.

Breadmaking wheat

Of  the Group 1 varieties Solstice is the most widely grown variety of this type and the millers are pleased with its availability and bread making potential. They are also looking forward to the arrival of Gallant in larger quantities as an addition to or possible replacement for Solstice. Although they haven’t seen the variety in commercial quantities yet they view its bread making quality as at least as good, if not better, than that of Solstice. However it may be best to wait and see how it yields from this years harvest first because last years trials yields were about two percent below those of Solstice, having previously been around four percent higher. There are no new candidate varieties coming forward with possible potential to make Group 1 quality so let’s hope that Gallant does well this year.

When it comes to the Group 2 varieties Cordiale remains the millers first choice but for the grower its yield is well down on the high yields of the feed wheat’s so a reasonable premium is necessary to compensate although its early maturity is a distinct advantage. The millers speak fairly highly of KWS Sterling and Panorama and feel they could use both of these varieties in the bread making grist provided they come up to specification. For the grower this would mean ensuring that the protein content was up to the twelve-and-a-half percent level required and this may mean the use of additional nitrogen to attain these levels in these high yielding varieties. However both of these varieties would be good replacements for the likes of Einstein or Battalion that are now looking a little lacking in yield. Panorama also does well when grown as a second wheat.

Winter oilseed rape

Castille and Excalibur have both been popular varieties for several years and they look set to retain this popularity for next year. Although they are both now a little deficient in gross output compared to some of the other varieties on the Recommended List they have given reliable and consistent on-farm performances – a characteristic sought by growers. They are also relatively short, rapidly developing varieties with early maturity; many of the higher output varieties are tall bulky types with later development and maturity.

Many growers drilled DK Cabernet last autumn, no doubt attracted by its gross output figure some nine percent above that of Castille. Cabernet is taller than Castille with later flowering and maturity and many crops were just at the most vulnerable stage of development this spring when the very severe late frosts struck. According to reports, the main flowering stem was badly affected, resulting in pod abortion. This has caused some growers to question its future in their cropping plans.  Other growers have had no problems. It would appear that this was probably a case of the affected crops being at a vulnerable developmental stage when the frosts struck – an unfortunate combination of circumstances. The answer would be to wait and see how Cabernet performs on-farm and in trials this year; oilseed rape is a remarkably adaptable crop and has tremendous compensation powers so lets hope Cabernet comes through with some excellent outputs in the affected crops.

Other varieties well worth considering this autumn that also give high gross outputs would be the hybrids PR46W21 and Dimension or the conventional variety Fashion.

Of the new Recommended List candidate varieties only one is attracting much attention amongst growers and that is Sesame, a conventional variety that has given a gross output in its first two years of limited trials almost 20 percent above that of Castille. Sesame is another relatively tall, late flowering, late maturing variety so may not be the ideal plant model for a lot of growers but that very high gross output cannot be ignored. Seed supply for this autumn will be in very short supply, if in fact not sold out, so it may be best to wait and see how it performs in trials this year and consider it for sowing in autumn 2011.

Winter barley

Winter barley has seen a drop in popularity with poor grain prices and lack of premiums for malting samples. Hence those growers who have persevered with the crop appear to be sticking with what they are already growing. i.e. Flagon, Cassata or Pearl for malting and Saffron, Carat or the new variety KWS Cassia for feed.

Cassata is the most popular and only malting barley variety currently available to grow on land infected with barley yellow mosaic virus since Flagon and Pearl are both susceptible. There are two new varieties – Winsome and Purdey – both of which have recently been provisionally approved for malting, but their seed availability for this autumn is low and so it would be best to wait a year before taking these into consideration. 

For a two-row feed variety KWS Cassia is proving to be a popular choice since it combines a high yield with stiff straw, reasonable disease resistance – including barley mosaic virus resistance – and good grain quality. Although Carat is lower yielding than many of the other feed varieties available it is still popular among growers because of its short stiff straw, early maturity and bold grain. Carat also has resistance to barley yellow mosaic virus, as does the very high yielding Retriever but its grain quality is poor. Saffron is a good all-round feed barley with a high yield, stiff straw and bold grain, although it lacks resistance to mosaic virus.

Of the six-row varieties Sequel and the hybrid Volume remain the principal choices. They both give a bold grain sample with Volume being much higher yielding.

Looking ahead

Having made your provisional choice of varieties for sowing this autumn it may pay to wait for the results from this years trials to see if your original thoughts have been confirmed. It won’t be too long now before harvest will be upon us and I will be commenting on the performance of all the varieties you may be considering in the next few issues.