Nick Casswell has been harvesting Naturastar wheat, a new variety for organic production, with good quality but problems along the way.

So far 15% of the wheat on his farm near Spalding, Lincolnshire is cut. “It‘s gone quite well.”

Hagberg numbers were 293, specific weight 76.8 kg/hl, moisture just below 14% and protein a pleasing 15.2%. “The protein content is almost freaky.”
 
Mr Casswell is hoping millers have no reservations over the variety and will make the quality standards required for milling wheat.

“This new variety has considerable potential – I’ll be very pleased if it makes milling quality. I‘ll be getting good returns at £200 per tonne, even though yields are a bit low.”

Yields were disappointing at 4.32 t/ha (35 cwt). “We could have done with better yields.”

Naturastar grew vigorously and looked healthy. “The crop looked desperately well, perhaps too well. It got too big and then parts of it fell over, but it wasn‘t too hard to harvest,” he said.

Mr Casswell drilled the Naturastar late, around mid November to reduce risks of lodging.

He also drilled at a seed rate of just 157 kg/ha (10 stone/acre). “We gave it a phenomenally low seed rate.”

Orange blossom midge was a particular problem in the crop and he believes it was one of the main causes for lower yields.

“There was nothing we could do, we had to just take it on the chin – we got hammered by it.”

Overall Mr Casswell said he‘s happy with the variety and is intending to grow it again.