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Top quality performance secures a bright future for RAGT's bread wheat RGT Illustrious
United Kingdom Essex grower Phil Cottis has earmarked a decent slice of his milling wheat area for RGT Illustrious this autumn after a highly successful result on a small test area last season.
Due to the dry climate in this area only Group 1 breadmaking wheats are grown. “We are on the east coast periphery, so we only get about 20 inches of rain a year,” says Phil. “We can’t obtain massive barn-filling yields with feed wheats – we never see them. But we can get a reasonable quality milling wheat when a lot of the UK can’t.” Phil first saw RGT Illustrious in merchant trials a few years ago. “I liked the look of it and the sound of it – it was marketed as a Hereward replacement. We grew that variety for 30 years, albeit on a smaller area more recently, right through to harvest 2021. “We grew some Illustrious as a potential replacement, but for whatever reason it didn’t do that well. Last year, we decided to look again – it seems to consistently produce good protein levels, which we thought might provide an opportunity to trim increasingly expensive nitrogen applications.” The 2.8ha of Illustrious was grown on heavy land following peas and drilled on 10 October after low disturbance cultivations. It yielded 9t/ha at 12.8% moisture, a whisker above the farm average. Grain quality was excellent, with a Hagberg of 354, protein at 14%, and a specific weight of 80.4kg/hl. The results were similar to the farm’s other milling wheats – Skyfall, Crusoe and Zyatt, although the increase in protein level was noticeable. “If we can get protein more easily, then we’ll go for it,” says Phil. “It might mean we can apply less nitrogen later on. “A lot of our wheat was 13-13.5% protein. We apply about 200kg N/ha in three splits, plus liquid 18% N at the cheesy ripe stage, so 200-250kg N/ha in total depending on soil type and how the crop looks.” This autumn Phil has earmarked 65ha of heavy land after beans for RGT Illustrious, which should suit the variety well. “I have heard that Illustrious can be a shy tillerer, so thought I’d ring RAGT to find out more. “Tom Dummett at RAGT advised me to increase seed number by about 10%. I wouldn’t say our crop looked thin, but it wasn’t what I call a knife-buncher in front of the combine. “Whether we would have had more of an advantage by increasing the seed rate I don’t know. But we will put it up this year to 204kg/ha, compared with other varieties at 185-190/kg/ha.” Phil is looking forward to seeing how his RGT Illustrious performs over a larger area. “The variety has pretty reasonable Septoria resistance and an 8 for yellow rust, a disease that can be a problem here. Its brown rust score is also OK. “Illustrious also hangs on well at harvest, so we can leave it until later and concentrate on the other varieties. Provided it continues to yield well and produce the quality we need, it should suit us well.” RGT Illustrious
* Go to www.ragtseeds.co.uk/news for more harvest news on RGT Illustrious and other RAGT varieties.
More news from: RAGT Seeds Limited Website: http://www.ragt.co.uk Published: September 23, 2022 |
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Phil and his son Richard grow 600ha of first and second wheats plus breaks across a range of soils from Lambourne Hall Canewdon, near Rochford, Essex.