Arable Typhoon untreated.
Established favourites to find favour again ‘Old’ favourites like Extase, Skyscraper, Graham and Gleam will continue to hold a firm place in the market, visitors to Bayer’s Long Sutton open day in July were told. Limagrain’s Ron Granger took growers through the extensive variety trials and noted that few of the new candidate varieties offered much above what we already have. With no new Group 1 candidates, he said “it’s as you were”, but did highlight renewed interest in Crusoe. In his view, it is a variety that has stood the test with millers needing high protein wheat – but you’ve got to keep the brown rust out he warned. Despite three candidate varieties, it was a similar picture in the Group 2 category. Mr Granger felt there was little to challenge Extase. “It’s got a good disease package with bold grain and good specific weight. If you can get additional protein content then there’s opportunities for an additional bonus of a bread making premium,” he noted. He also likes the look of Palladium – having similar septoria and yellow rust scores to Extase, but without its eyespot susceptibility. It also looks good for protein and is better suited to an earlier drilling date in his view. At 8.4, Mayflower has a better septoria rating than both and gets a 9 for yellow rust. It also has good specific weight but at 97% is 4% behind Extase. However, he expects some millers may be interested, so again a possible premium opportunity. For those targeting biscuit and distilling markets, Astronomer is still the stand out variety in his view. “It’s a great package with good scores for septoria and the rusts, good yield, high specific weight and, although a taller variety, is stiff strawed.”
Possible partner New to the list is Rashid and he considers it a possible partner to
Astronomer. It has a similar disease profile with good grain quality, straw strength and OWBM resistance, but a later maturity. Illuminate is his other choice, especially for the North. “Illuminate is a good fit as it can be drilled earlier and like Astronomer has a 7 rating for sprouting resistance giving growers security at harvest time. But its lower yellow rust and septoria ratings mean it will need more managing.” In the Group 4 category, he expects Gleam and Graham to remain popular again next season. He noted they are both consistent performers. For those looking to replace them possibly, he described Dawsum as Costello but with 4% better yield. It meets his criteria of a good ‘all-round’ package with good disease resilience, stiff straw, bold grain with good specific weight.
Good all-round package With its high yield performance Champion is certainly worth considering but its straw strength will need managing. However, it does have a great disease resistance package to offer. Those requiring a good all-round package may also want to consider Typhoon. With good scores for rusts and septoria it too has a strong disease resistance. It is one of the later developers so ‘sits and tillers’; again, one for those looking for varieties for the earlier drilling situation or the regen path. For those with a black-grass issue, Cranium is worth a look. “Its spring vigour is a good weapon to compete and smoother black grass,” Mr Granger noted. But a challenger to the highest
yielding varieties on the AHDB RL is on the horizon. He described Redwald as “Sundance on steroids” and thinks it will go on to match Champion for yield. A possible weakness is eyespot, with limited data of a (2) suggesting it may be susceptible. He acknowledges that azole such as prothioconazole offers effective control but he advised those in eyespot areas should look for varieties with the Pch1 gene.
Beyond gross output Alongside his specific variety selections, the overriding message from Mr Granger was to think beyond gross output. He said varietal decisions need to be made on ‘all-round’ agronomics to give more consistent performance, particularly in more challenging seasons. When it comes to blends, Mr Granger is still to be convinced. He said that putting the ideal blend together was a difficult task and that some blends could actually add complications for management on farm. “Warrior yellow rust is a soup of different strains. A susceptible variety in a blend of resistant varieties could break genetics quicker, especially if the disease is not eradicated totally and allowed to bubble along in the crop. For those interested in blends, I would suggest selecting varieties with good but different disease resistant profiles – in that way it should help protect genetics,” he advised. Bayer’s Ben Giles agreed, and told visitors that any blend is likely to delay disease development rather than thwart it. “It might slow the disease development with strong rust varieties proving a physical barrier to spore movement through the blend
or resilient septoria varieties slowing spread from splash borne events. This might buy a bit of time. But if your G1 blend includes Zyatt and you base your programme around Crusoe, you could be in trouble,” he warned. Mr Granger’s point about an allround package was echoed by Bayer’s commercial technical manager, Ella Crawford. She explained that, although Long Sutton is a prone yellow rust site, septoria and eyespot pressure also played a part in the early season. She noted that the most effective programmes were those that included actives with good protection against both septoria and yellow rust at the T1 timing. Also of note was the performance of folpet. At Bayer’s Callow site there was little visible benefit from the addition of the multisite at T1 on septoria infection, but at Long Sutton the inclusion of folpet appeared to help, plots retaining more green leaf area. Ms Crawford believes this is probably down to the fact that the dry April many eastern counties experienced helped suppress septoria pressure, meaning T1 applications were applied to clean leaf 3s. “It probably helped boost protection when the rain did arrive in May,” she said. However, there is a cost and she pointed out that T1 plots treated with 1.2-litres/ha of Ascra (prothioconazole + bixafen + fluopyram) had performed just as well, and it was probably the more economic option. “When harvested we’ll assess yield results to compare the cost versus benefit of each treatment,” she noted. FG
Ascra 1.2-litres at T1 on Firefly.
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