A move away from “dirty” winter wheat varieties is on the cards in southern England this autumn as growers look for top yields for minimum cost.

Group 1 and 2 milling varieties dominate the southern counties from Kent to Hampshire, with some Group 3 biscuit wheats grown on the chalk down land.

Peter Cowlrick, Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC) agronomist with CCC Ltd covering Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, says 50-60% of its wheat area consists of Group 1 and 2 varieties.

This autumn he expects that area to hit 70-75% with the introduction of three new high-yielding milling wheats in recent seasons.

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Crusoe, Skyfall and Trinity offer growers high output, combined with strong disease resistance making them easier and, perhaps more importantly, cheaper to manage.

“The millers like Gallant and Solstice, but their disease packages leave you feeling vulnerable, there’s not a lot [of diseases] they don’t get.

“These varieties are high risk, so Gallant will disappear from our portfolio this autumn and Solstice too, save for a very small area where it continues to perform well on lighter soils,” explains Mr Cowlrick.

The three recent Recommended List additions will fill the gap and Mr Cowlrick says seasoned Group 1 growers will opt for Crusoe over Skyfall or Trinity.

With market acceptance critical for milling wheats, Crusoe will be a “banker” variety for millers, as they have more experience using its flour in their grists.

He adds that the market remains undecided on the other two, so that might dictate premiums on offer and there’s also the challenge in protein dilution.

“Skyfall has looked very good this year, but it needs 40-50kg more nitrogen over Crusoe and that is a hefty expenditure, so the premium needs to justify that extra cost. It may also be more vulnerable to sprouting in a wet harvest,” explains Mr Cowlrick.

“Also, watch the brown rust in Crusoe. If there is a hole in the fungicide programme, you could get problems, but it’s easy to manage with strobilurins.”

South West

Heading into Dorset and the West Country, wheat crops grown for feed dominate the wheat area, with many more feed compounders than millers.

Pearce Seeds distributes seed from Sussex to Cornwall and its general manager, Paul Taylor, says variety choice has different drivers the further west you travel.

The company’s 80ha of trials using farm inputs provide local data on which to base planting decisions in the wetter and warmer climate growers are accustomed to.

“The Recommended List for wheat is very much skewed to the arable areas east of the A1, where yellow rust and straw height are key considerations, but for us it’s septoria,” says Mr Taylor.

The company sold high quantities of Skyfall and Crusoe last year for feed purposes, with growers attracted by rounded disease profiles and good yield potential.

However, Syngenta’s new hard Group 4 wheat Reflection looks set to take a chunk of that area according to Mr Taylor, with the variety offering 109% of controls in the western region on the Recommended List.

“Compared with the other feeds such as Santiago, Kielder and Evolution, it’s earlier with good agronomic features and a good specific weight,” he explains.

He adds that it is not a variety for livestock farmers, with a 5 for septoria. “It’s more for your out-and-out arable grower that can pay attention to disease management.”

For the livestock farmers that are looking for an easy-to-manage type, Mr Taylor says German-bred Anapolis would fit the bill.

Although not on the Recommended List, it has a good 6 for septoria and 8 for yellow rust in local trials.

“You could say that Reflection is the racehorse and Anapolis is more the carthorse that requires a little less looking after,” he adds.

Potential premium

Mr Taylor also sees new Group 2 Lili gaining ground, with growers making enquiries about the high-yielder as a like-for-like with Einstein – a once popular choice in the West Country.

It allows growers to push it hard for feed yields, but has the potential to hit 11.5% protein for a £10/t premium on the export market for blending, although its slightly lower protein may prevent it taking area from Cordiale further east.

Mr Taylor adds that biscuit wheats Britannia and Zulu could also gain traction this autumn, attracting back the Group 3 growers who dropped Invicta.

“Britannia in our trials yields is up there with the top feed wheats, with good septoria resistance and grain quality.

“There is a question on its straw strength. On lighter land as a later-drilled second wheat, that would be easy to manage,” he adds.

Explosive hybrid barley to gain ground

Hybrid winter barleys are set to take a bigger chunk of the market in the West Country, with Syngenta’s new variety Bazooka offering step up in yield.

While in Peter Cowlrick’s area growers have favoured a move back to more profitable second milling wheats such as Cordiale, West Country producers remain committed to the crop.

Pearce Seeds general manager Paul Taylor (pictured) is encouraging customers to grow hybrids and expects them to take 50% of the area this autumn, although high-yielding two-row conventionals remain attractive for some.

“In our own trials in 2013-14, we did see a significant advantage in growing hybrid varieties, with Volume at 109% and Tower and Glacier at 99%. For us, it’s a no-brainer,” he adds.

He adds that Volume has sold well in recent seasons and will continue to do so, but one to look out for is new hybrid Bazooka, which yields 2% above its older stable mate.

“Hybrids are bombproof, very forgiving in bad seed-beds and scavenge nitrogen well, so appeal to both livestock and more focused arable growers.

“It has a 9 for [wet weather disease] rhynchosporium, which is very important in this part of the world. It really has a place, particularly now the seed price has come down,” says Mr Taylor.

Careful choice cuts OSR costs

Recent feedback from his clients has signalled to Peter Cowlrick (pictured) that cost of production is the key factor when choosing an oilseed rape variety this autumn.

In a high-risk area for turnip yellows virus (TuYV) carrying aphids and light leaf spot on the rise, varieties with solid, in-built resistance to these problems will feature heavily going forward.

Where tight oilseed rape rotations are a feature, varieties with tolerance to the soil-borne disease verticillium wilt will also be favourable to minimise yield loss.

“We have been fortunate in this part of the world not to have had high flea beetle pressure. We have virus, but we’re just unsure of its impact yet this year.

“If [TuYV-resistant] Amelie performs well this harvest, it could take 30-50% of our area as it can cut the need for insecticides that cost about £15/ha each and you might need two sprays in a high aphid-pressure season,” he explains.

With light leaf spot becoming an increasing problem, Mr Cowlrick believes that picking the varieties with robust scores for the disease will also be crucial for trimming inputs.

It is an expensive disease to control and Mr Cowlrick warns it’s almost uncontrollable in a bad year such as 2014, where pods became infected in a number of varieties.

“If you have a variety with a score of 8, you might get away without spraying in the autumn, which is reassuring for growers looking to minimise spend.

“We need to start looking at in-built resistance for light leaf spot to give us some flexibility. If phoma comes in, it can be controlled with effective fungicide chemistry at less expense,” he says.

With this in mind, candidates Nikita (8), Barbados (8) and Elgar (7) all catch Mr Cowlrick’s eye for their light leaf spot resistance and he urges growers to keep an eye on how they perform this year.

He is also estimating conventional varieties accounting for 75-80% of their area this season as growers look to cut establishment costs.

“We don’t see a huge advantage from hybrids in trials and with seed costs at about £70-80/ha, they are double that of conventional types at £35-40/ha.

“You can also plant them at higher seed rates, which in theory dilutes the flea beetle pressure for individual plants and is worth consideration,” he adds.