Hamish Gairdner was spot on with his wheat this harvest, meeting the quality sought by breadmakers by boosting his nitrogen fertiliser and using more applications.

All 320ha of winter wheat on his north Oxfordshire estate hit the millers’ needs, resulting in an average protein of over 13% for the first time in three years following an overhaul of his fertiliser regime.

See also: Wheat market swings to milling varieties

This is his second harvest of growing 100% breadmaking wheats, and his success in hitting the millers’ specification could earn him a £15/t premium over feed wheat.

Under his new strategy, solid nitrogen levels rose to 300kg/ha, split four ways rather than three, plus a new liquid product on the wheat ear. This all worked a treat, with  average yields nearly touching 11t/ha.

“Increasing our base level of nitrogen and the extra split has helped us reach a higher yield and protein, and meet the millers’ specifications,” he tells Farmers Weekly.

10-year survey

Only 48% of milling wheat grown nationwide reach the breadmakers’ specification of 13% grain protein, according to a 10-year survey by the AHDB, prompting efforts to improve this success rate and cut imports of milling wheat.

The same survey showed it was easier to hit other key targets as 66% of milling wheat crops managed a specific weight of 76kg/hl, and 77% had a minimum Hagberg of 250.

With a generally good-quality harvest, the notoriously volatile milling premium, currently about £15/t, is likely to narrow, but this is not deterring Mr Gairdner.

Financial sense

“Even if the premium was only £10/t it will work financially for us to grow milling wheats,” he says.

Traditionally, the estate had grown 50:50 bread and feed wheats, but when the switch to 100% bread wheats was made for the 2014 harvest, protein levels dropped below 12%.

This prompted a rethink at the 800ha Wills Estate, which Mr Gairdner manages at Edgcote, some six miles north-east of Banbury, with his nutrition expert Edward Downing.

Variable rates of nitrogen, phosphate and potash and also seeds were already in use on his arable soils, which range from limestone brash to medium clay, but the new focus was on the total amounts used for heavy-yielding milling wheat crops.

As a result, treated urea nitrogen levels rose to 300kg/ha from 240kg/ha previously, with an extra split, meaning four passes with the fertiliser spreader, while a new liquid nitrogen product replaced a liquid urea spray for a late-season application.

L-R: Jon Miller (Frontier), Hamish Gairdner (farmer) and Edward Downing (Frontier)

Mr Downing, national crop nutrition technical manager with agronomy and distribution group Frontier, explains feed wheat naturally produces a protein of about 11%, so something extra is needed for breadmaking wheats.

“A flat rate of 240kg/ha would be fine for a feed wheat to produce 11% protein grain, but we are looking for an extra 2% protein for a milling wheat,” he says.

The move to a four-way split will give growers more flexibility and the ability to react to the season, so they can be “braver with the final split”.

He suggests the final split at the flag leaf to booting stage should be about 50kg/ha, but can be adapted to the potential yield of the crop and so can be cut for those wheat crops set to produce a low yield.

A move was made away from a liquid urea application of 30-40kg/ha on the wheat ear at the milky ripe grain stage, as the uptake of this nitrogen was estimated to be only 30%, there was a chance of  scorching the crop and it was not very rain-fast.

A new product called Multi-N, which is made for Frontier, was applied instead of the liquid urea. This supplies 10kg/ha of nitrogen as well as sulphur, showed better uptake and had less chance of scorch with the lower rate.

The total nitrogen rate of 310kg/ha used on the wheat produced a grain protein of 13.5%, specific weight of 80.6kg/hl, while the Hagberg was a respectable 230 to 250.

The estate has moved from older varieties such as Solstice and Gallant towards new varieties this harvest, when there was a 50:50 split between Skyfall and Crusoe.

Top yield

The Crusoe slightly outyielded the Skyfall, with the top yield on the farm almost touching 13t/ha, while the Crusoe came in at a higher protein of 13.8%, compared with Skyfall at 13.2%.

Mr Downing adds the season helped protein levels as the nitrogen uptake by the crop was delayed due to cold dry weather in the early spring, and this would have left plenty of nitrogen for the later grain-filling process.

With a big national wheat harvest of more than 16m tonnes and a big proportion of that in milling wheat varieties, there will be plenty of what the millers want, and the harvest premium of £20/t has shrunk to about £15/t currently.

“There is enough wheat around for the millers to use, and the current premium of £15/t is likely to come under pressure,” says Frontier farm trader Jon Miller.

However, Mr Gairdner is committed to breadmaking wheats and is adapting his rotation to one or two wheats, oilseed rape and is now looking to replace spring beans with a two-year grass ley.

This move to a grass break is to feed a nearby anaerobic digester and will help with blackgrass control and also make sure there is an early entry for his winter wheat.

Milling wheats at Wills Estate, Edgcote, Oxfordshire

Milling wheat specifications at Wills Estate, harvest 2015