Getting a new milling wheat variety to match the consistency of the one grown by Stephen Craggs for the past eight years is not going to be an easy task.

Mr Craggs – who won the 2013 Nabim/HGCA Milling Wheat Challenge – admits that he is in no hurry to replace Solstice, a wheat variety that sells very well and produces the gross margins to match.

However, he does acknowledge that he may have to put more emphasis on disease resistance and minimise the risk associated with growing just one variety.

See also: Skyfall is ready and licensed to drill

For this reason, he is trying a small area of the newly recommended provisional Group 1 variety Skyfall this year, treating it in exactly the same way as the rest of his milling wheat, so that he can get a meaningful comparison.

“Disease pressure is very high. The warm, wet conditions have created a septoria epidemic and we’re using a very robust fungicide programme, applied at three-week intervals to match leaf emergence timings,” he said.

View from the North East

 Mr Craggs, who farms near Sedgefield, County Durham, has been growing Solstice on a continuous wheat basis since 2006, in the less-than-ideal conditions found in the North East.

As the variety has proved itself and been in demand from the millers, he had no hesitation in putting 680ha in the ground last autumn.

However, alongside it is a block of Skyfall from plant breeder RAGT, drilled on 6 October at a seed rate of 185kg/ha and being grown in the second-wheat position.

“So far, so good. It came out of the winter a deeper green than Solstice and it is noticeably shorter. That’s a good thing for us, as it can be difficult to keep crops standing in this area. It means that I can push it a bit harder – we’re growing it for the grain, not the straw,” he said.

Skyfall is also clearer of disease at this stage of the season, with resistance scores of 6 for yellow rust and septoria and an 8 for brown rust according to the HGCA Recommended List.

“That’s not surprising, but it is of interest. My reason for looking at new varieties is to see whether I can produce more from less, reducing input use and making our wheat production more sustainable,” he said.

In a change to his current practice, Mr Craggs plans to have a greater spread of varieties this autumn, but will wait to see how Skyfall has performed before finalising his cropping plans.

View from the South East

 In Essex, Christopher Padfield (pictured) and his farm manager Mark Tubby are also committed to producing quality wheats.

The extra yield on offer from Skyfall is one of its main attractions, says Mr Padfield, who has put 24ha of the new variety in the ground, growing it with his other milling varieties – Solstice, Gallant and Sterling.

His search for a Solstice replacement began at last year’s Cereals Event, having grown the variety successfully for 10 years. A discussion with ADM Milling persuaded him that Skyfall was a contender, so the variety was drilled on October 10 in the second wheat position.

“We are always looking for high-yielding, quality varieties. We are also aware of the need for better genetic disease resistance, so that we are less reliant on fungicides.”

To date, the new variety is looking good and was very quick to grow away in the spring.

“It’s greener than the others and quite a bit shorter,” he said

Mr Tubby added that Skyfall is cleaner, although a robust fungicide programme has been used across all varieties.

The presence of the Pch1 eyespot resistance gene in Skyfall gives more flexibility with spraying and helps where the variety is being grown as a second wheat.

“RAGT maintains that the gene also helps to give a 0.5-1% protein lift,” he said.

Skyfall also has orange wheat blossom midge resistance. “That takes the pressure off in early June, when we have to monitor for the pest,” Mr Tubby said.

He anticipates that it will be harvested after Gallant, but before Solstice. “Early maturity is an advantage in any wheat variety, especially where we are following it with oilseed rape,” he added.