United Kingdom
July 20, 2010
Having grown high-quality seed crops since 1976, Robert More (photo) knows a thing or two about producing and getting the best out of them on his 400-hectare East Norfolk farm, which is situated in beautiful Broadland countryside a few miles inland from Great Yarmouth.
Whilst the higher premiums paid to successful growers of seed crops are crucial for the profitability of his farming business, Mr More says that getting an “early look” at how the latest varieties perform on his farm is equally enticing.
Manor Farm, Tunstall produces 340 hectares of arable crops, divided between the ‘uplands’ which comprise mainly good quality, moisture retentive medium sandy loam soils, together with arable marshes alongside the River Bure, which feature a mix of silts, blue and brown clays and organic soils. Cropping includes winter wheat, 20 per cent of it continuous, plus winter barley, oilseed rape, linseed and, until recently, vining peas. The business also produces and delivers 5000-tonnes of sugar beet each season into British Sugar’s factory at nearby Cantley, while about 60 hectares of marshland is let for grazing.
“I really enjoy getting an early look at the new varieties, which comes with growing seed crops,” explains Mr More. “I’m still learning about the science of it all, but our land is well suited to producing the quality required for seed crops, which also provide a good discipline in terms of keeping the farm clean. Most of all, it gives us a price premium, which is now more vital than ever.”
One of the very latest varieties to be produced on Mr More’s farm is Invicta, a soft endospermed winter wheat which combines very high yield potential with excellent agronomic characters, sound all-round disease resistance and good standing ability. Added to the HGCA Recommended List for 2010/2011, the variety has been classified as a Group 3 by the National Association of British and Irish Millers (nabim), delivers very good grain quality and is suitable for the biscuit, distilling, animal feed and export markets.
Having grown 10 hectares of Invicta winter wheat for seed during the 2008-2009 harvest season ahead of the variety gaining full Recommended List status at the end of last year, Mr More currently has another 10ha seed crop in the ground which will soon to be harvested. Given its performance to date, he reckons that Invicta will be his benchmark variety for winter wheat seed and commercial crops this autumn, taking up to a 50 per cent share of his available wheat land.
“Invicta is a new variety to us but has performed well on this farm and we know its yield potential is up there,” says Mr More. “Its quality looks good, it seems a consistent Group 3 performer and with its end-use options I think it will stay there and become a key variety.”
Invicta was drilled following vining peas during the second week of October, as Mr More has found that his best yields have originated from mid-October drilling. Low seed rates of 105kg/ha were used, something Mr More applies to all new varieties on the farm.
“With a good, fine, unploughed tilth and the residual nitrogen created by the peas, a low seed rate should produce plants that grow strongly, spread themselves over the ground and tiller prolifically in the spring. Bill Angus, Nickerson’s Senior Wheat Breeder, has always been very honest about seed rates and advocated cutting them back to levels which best suit our land.”
Much like the wheats which Mr More grows for commercial markets, his Invicta seed crops received a full herbicide programme in the autumn, as shown in the accompanying table, followed by Atlantis (mesosulfuron + iodosulfuron) in the spring. Of the programme, he states:
“We tend to go with a peri-emergence herbicide spray in the autumn on seed crops, rather than pre-emergence, to ensure seed safety and reduce the likelihood of any germination damage. Similarly with fungicide treatments, although Invicta has good all-round disease resistance we tend to be more cautious with high-value seed crops just to be sure. Until you really get to know a variety, its strengths and weaknesses it’s an act of faith and not applying sufficient fungicides would be foolhardy.
“Invicta was given a comprehensive fungicide programme from T0 right through to a T3 ear spray and the crop stayed clear of disease including yellow rust and septoria. That said, I wouldn’t grow a highly yellow rust-susceptible variety like Oakley because I remember in the late seventies we had a lot of damage in crops from yellow rust.
“The standing power of Invicta is also good, but again it was a new variety and grown on fertile land so we applied two PGR treatments, which is another example of taking a little bit more trouble to get things right with a seed crop.”
Last autumn the variety was drilled into very dry conditions but the herbicides worked and the crop came out of a long, cold winter and spring looking very well. And that was on exposed land with a variable soil type. With no base treatment following vining peas, a ‘standard’ 180kg nitrogen/ha was applied during the season.
“The variety yielded a healthy 10.13 tonnes/ha, meeting Mr More’s expectations and being in line with the average yield for the farm’s seed/commercial winter wheat crops during 2009 and slightly above the farm’s five-year average yield of 9.8 tonnes/ha. The specific weight of 78.9kg/hl was impressive, although Mr More concedes that it was generally a good year for specific weights across most varieties.
This season Invicta is being grown as a second wheat where, in trials, the variety again comes with a reputation for consistently high yields. He comments:
“We’ve not varied the management too much for this season, apart from a little more nitrogen and seed rates up to 140kg/ha as you would expect for a second wheat. This summer, rainfall levels here have been very low and all wheat varieties are now beginning to show a bit of drought stress,” Mr More explains. However, he points out that the farm’s close proximity to the East coast often brings in sea mists during late summer and this added moisture ‘helps cereal crops to finish’.
“In this part of the country, farmers generally either grow quality crops for a very high premium or go for the volume of a straightforward feed variety. The fact that grain merchant Gleadell is pushing exports from this harvest through a terminal at Great Yarmouth will dramatically increase the marketing options for growers in this area. It’s early days for Invicta, but I am hopeful that its high yield and potential end-market options of biscuit, distilling, feed and potentially export will secure the Group 3 premium.”
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