Bamford earns farmers’ seal of approval despite driest spring since 1921  

In a season dominated by near-drought conditions, five farmers from across the UK review its on-farm performance as they look ahead to autumn drilling.  

Robert Sloan, based near Berwick-upon-Tweed, grew 21.07ha of Bamford as a first wheat following vining peas, drilled on September 18th at a seed rate of 185kg/ha.   

He said: “The crop established and wintered well, enjoying the added benefit of a decent early spring. However, by late March, the taps had completely turned off, and we saw less than 0.5 inches of rain between our T1 fungicide spray and harvest.” 

Mr Sloan added that regular spraying, including consistent application of a plant growth regulator (PGR) certainly helped the Bamford crop to get through to harvest, and we were rewarded in the first week of August with average yields of 12.96t/ha off the combine, cut at moisture levels of 14.6%.  

“With a bushel weight of 81.6kg/hl, a protein content of 9.77% and a Hagberg of 289, we were obviously delighted given the prolonged dry period. In view of its performance, I will be increasing my area of Bamford to 60ha this autumn,” he concluded. 

‘Bamford reinvigorated the sector’

Peter Wilson, a consultant and agronomist at Ceres Rural who farms near Needham Market in Suffolk, drilled 50ha of Bamford on the 16th of October into a sandy, clay loam soil at a seed rate of 400 seeds m².  

He said: “Prior to Bamford’s arrival on the RL, we’d given up on Group 3 after a run of disappointing years. There’s no doubt it’s reinvigorated the sector, but we were initially cautious and, actually, stepped short of growing it during its first year on the RL to see how it fared.“ 

After establishing well, the wheat raced through its early growth stages before wintering well and kicking on again in late February, Mr Wilson said.  

“With plenty of sunshine and little or no disease pressure in early spring, the crop looked fantastic, but as spring turned to summer, there was still no break in the dry weather.  

“By early July the crop was starting to look stressed, and on July 20th I decided to harvest. Average yield through the combine was 9.2t/ha. Still a remarkable result and ahead of our five-year farm average, but with just a little more rain during May, I’m certain we’d have smashed that five-year average.  

“With a specific weight of 80.4kg/hl and 11.2% protein, the crop made specification, and I’ve since been offered a premium, but to fall short of a game-changing yield was still a choker. We actually grew Bamford alongside Group 4 hard wheat Champion, with the other variety delivering just over 8t/ha, a respectable result given the conditions. However, I do see a much bigger yield out there for Bamford in crop26,” the farmer continued.

READ MORE: Bamford and Blackstone make perfect pair for winter wheat rotation

‘Resilient crop’

Fourth-generation farmer Scott Campbell, of Campbells Farming at Kirkton of Kinellar in Aberdeenshire, grew 68.5ha of Bamford. 

He explained: “60ha was grown for Invergordon Distillery or a range of feed intakes depending on final spec, with a further 8.5ha grown as a seed crop for Agrii. We drilled on September 10th, a week earlier than we ideally wanted, given that Bamford is such a tall, rangy crop, however, it raced away with the aid of an early application of digestate.

“All went well through early spring and into our T1 spray, but by T3 the ground was bone dry. The only upside to the dry weather was that we didn’t have to compromise our key spray timings – a rare occurrence this far north.” 

Mr Campbell added that the season was essentially the reverse of the non-stop rain from last year. 

“I feel we’ve now been able to fully assess Bamford across both weather extremes. Fortunately, it has been equally resilient and genuinely appears to have no major weaknesses if managed correctly. Cutting on 6th August, average yields were 11t/ha, about 0.5t/ha above our five-year average – a solid performance overall. With an eye on a distilling premium, high bushel weights are the key, and Bamford didn’t disappoint with 81kg/hl.  

“On the back of these results I can confirm that Bamford will be our only commercial soft wheat for crop26,” he concluded. 

READ MORE: Bamford crop wins best wheat in RNAS cereal growing competition

‘Potential to yield much higher given more luck with weather’

Combining between July 17th and 19th, Tim Booth, who achieved an average yield of 10t/ha on his 40ha crop of Bamford, confirmed that Bamford is living up to its reputation as an ultra-consistent, high-yielding and straightforward variety for JN Booth and Sons, near Swineshead, in East Lincolnshire.  

Mr Booth added: “The 10t/ha average does Bamford a disservice, with our best fields achieving over 12t/ha. But, like almost everyone else, we had massive variations on yields, with some fields simply not able to cope with near-drought conditions.  

 “Still, with a final bushel weight of 79kg/hl, a 295 Hagberg and protein levels of 10.7% I can’t be too disappointed. The other major plus for us was that, despite the recent yellow rust warnings around the Yr15 gene, we saw no yellow rust in Bamford this year. For autumn we will be increasing our Bamford area to 70ha”.  

For Hampshire farmer Olly Stratford, crop25 presented an opportunity to try Bamford for the first time. Olly, who works for EC Drummond Agriculture Limited, a contract farming company, drilled 32ha of the Group 3 winter wheat at Southwood Farm, near Basingstoke, on the 3rd/4th of October and was initially impressed with its establishment and rapid, early growth.  

He said: “Hindsight is a powerful tool, and our approach was to apply a full fungicide programme on the basis that we’d receive some rain between our T1 of Univoq in late March and our final T3 ear wash applied on June 9th.  

“As things transpired, we recorded only 82mm of rain between early March and July 18th when we cut; the overriding issue was very few consecutive days of rain, so the ground was able to dry out between the showers. Final yields were extremely variable given we simply didn’t get enough moisture, and despite our best fields of Bamford achieving 8.97 t/ha – way ahead of our final average of 7.32t/ha across all our winter wheats – it was a disappointing harvest. 

“Overall, I’d say that Bamford performed with great credit and has the potential to yield much higher given more luck with the weather. We will be going with it again this autumn,” he concluded. 

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