The Agriculture and Horticulture and Development Board (AHDB) is reporting that a number of variety-based trial results for feed and bread wheat are now available.
Autumn and winter were mild, with adequate, but not excessive, rainfall. The mild and dry spring led to rapid crop development with low levels of early disease.
By May, wetter conditions provided more favourable conditions for disease. In fact, all the major foliar diseases – septoria, yellow and brown rust and mildew – started to appear in untreated trials, but not to excessive levels.
Through June, many trials looked in good condition. However, the hot July weather combined with low rainfall, especially in the east of England, led to early senescence. This will have limited yield potential.
Varieties have responded as expected to disease. Once again, varieties with Cougar in their parentages showed higher levels of disease than would be expected from their three-year ratings.
Stem rust in wheat
One surprise was the appearance of stem rust in a small number of trials. After decades without being seen, stem rust has made sporadic appearances over the last few years in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe.
Though a potentially devastating disease, this year’s outbreaks were on a small scale and did not spread through trials.
The origin of these outbreaks is likely to be winds bringing dust and spores north from Africa, where the disease is more common. Most UK varieties are thought to be susceptible to stem rust, but it can be controlled with azole fungicides.
Yields
The harvest results, now available, feature one third of the treated AHDB Recommended Lists (RL) winter wheat trials. Yields remain encouraging, with very high yields in some trials. This reflects what is being seen in some commercial crops.
The average yield of control varieties in these trials stands at 12.57t/ha, 1.53t/ha ahead of the five-year average (11.04t/ha).
The latest trial set includes results from a trial in Norfolk, where the controls yielded 15.33t/ha.
Yields are represented as a percentage of the control varieties. The 2022 controls are Skyfall, KWS Siskin, KWS Barrel, LG Skyscraper and Gleam. The yield average from these varieties is represented as 100%.
So far, newly recommended group 4 (hard) variety Champion continues to lead the way at 107%, just ahead of fellow group 4 hard varieties SY Insitor (105%), and Gleam and Graham (104%).
LG Skyscraper (103%) is the highest yielding of the soft group 4s alongside newly recommended RGT Bairstow (103%).
In the quality bread wheats, the top-yielding United Kingdom Flour Millers (UKFM) Group 1 bread-wheat variety is KWS Zyatt (101%), well ahead of RGT Illustrious (97%), Skyfall (96%) and Crusoe (95%).
In the UKFM Group 2s, KWS Extase is highest yielding (102%), just ahead of newly recommended variety KWS Palladium on 101%. Newly recommended Mayflower is on 97%.
In the soft UKFM Group 3 biscuit wheats, Merit (East region) has performed well in these eastern and southern trials (102%). Behind Merit, newly recommended KWS Brium and KWS Guium (100%) are next highest yielding.
Of the other newly recommended varieties, UKFM Group 3 RGT Rashid looks below par at 97%, as does hard group 4 feed variety LG Typhoon on 98%.
However, there are still many trials to report. Hard group 4 feed KWS Dawsum and soft group 4 feed RGT Bairstow are on 103%.
Looking at the five-year averages, the soft feed variety LG Redwald (107%) is the leading variety, with potential UKFM soft Group 3 Gefion on 104%, alongside three feed varieties Mindful and Oxford (hard) and KWS Webbum (soft) on 104%.
