Winter wheat is expected to show a small rise this autumn as it is still the most profitable combinable crop, despite a sharp rise in cost inflation of fertiliser and fuel.

Although wheat seed sales are currently progressing slowly, Will Compson, UK country manager at KWS, says he expects a small increase on the 1.9m ha wheat in the ground.

“Wheat will be the go-to crop in terms of gross margin, and there is the potential to see an increase in the area this autumn,” he told a briefing at Cereals 2022 in Cambridgeshire.

See also: Cereals 2022: Options to manage wheat disease in dry springs

Official Defra figures put the UK 2021 harvested winter wheat crop area at 1.79m ha, and the AHDB Early Bird Survey put the current crop in the ground at 1.81m ha, but KWS sees it higher at 1.9m ha.

Top positions

KWS is a major wheat breeder and sees two of its varieties filling the top two positions this autumn, with Extase being the number one wheat variety for the second year running with a 15% market share.

The group sees its new feed wheat Dawsum taking second place, with more than a 10% share of the market helped by its good specific weight, high yield and good disease resistance – ahead of varieties such as Gleam and Skyscraper.

Mr Compson sees specific weight becoming more important to help with marketability of grain, and Dawsum has the second highest specific weight after Costello on the AHDB Recommended List.

The third big wheat variety KWS is actively marketing this autumn is Group 2 milling variety Palladium. This is expected to take 3% of the market, and has a higher protein content than Extase at 13.1%.

These three KWS varieties – Extase, Dawsum and Palladium – have three of the highest untreated fungicide yields on the Recommended List. This may become more important as growers look to trim fungicide spend due to inflationary pressures.