One Shropshire grower’s attempt at a top wheat yield looks to be going well as he starts irrigating his crop. David Jones makes a second visit to see how the challenge to capture his brother’s world wheat record crown is now progressing

Richard Solari is optimistic his thick, green wheat crop will turn in a top yield to rival his brother’s world record crop, with a little help from irrigation.

His lush carpet of wheat ears looked remarkably clean of disease in a high-risk year for rust and septoria six weeks before harvest on his light-land Shropshire farm.

He is eager to push his winter wheat crop for yield and close the gap or even pip his brother Mike’s record wheat yield grown four years ago in New Zealand.

See also Brothers battle for top world wheat yields

After a wet May, Richard is finally turning to irrigation to make sure his wheat crop has all the water it needs to turn in a bumper yield as his farm has a relatively light 650mm (26in) annual rainfall for western England.

“The crops look fantastic, and after twice the average rain in May we are now turning to irrigation,” Mr Solari tells the Farmers Weekly.

His highest ever wheat yield was 14.1t/ha in 2011 and this season he is hoping to close in on his brother’s 15.6t/ha world record.

His secret weapon is irrigation, which he had planned to start in May on his sandy loam soils before the deluge of rain forced him to delay switching on the water until this month.

His well-drained soil was dry down to 225mm (9in) deep before hitting moisture, so he started putting on 25mm (1in) on his chosen 24ha field on 20 June and it will take a week for the irrigator to cover the area.

“If it stays dry we will have to do this every five to six days. If it does not rain we will continue with irrigation,” he adds.

With overcast weather, the crop will use 4mm of water a day, and if sunny, 6mm a day. He believes 25mm a week should be enough given the water resources already in the soil.

It is likely the irrigation schedule will continue until mid-July, with a first half of August harvest date predicted. In comparison, irrigation started on his Maris Piper potatoes on 19 May to help control scab.

His chosen wheat variety is the yellow rust-susceptible Oakley, and although this was the worst ever season for this foliar disease, the crop was relatively clean after a full fungicide programme.

The variety has done him proud, managing 14.1t/ha in the bumper harvest year of 2011, and has performed well on his 480ha arable farm at Heath House Farm, Beckbury, near Shifnal, some 10 miles west of Wolverhampton.

Walking through the crop in late June, the top two leaves of the Oakley were virtually free of disease with the lower leaves showing some clear signs of septoria.

His policy is to push the crop hard with 340kg/ha of nitrogen applied in a four way–split, and keep it clean with a six–spray fungicide programme as he aims for a potential yield of about 15t/ha.

His brother Mike grew his record crop in 2010 on his farm near the southern tip of South Island in New Zealand, helped by a favourable climate of strong sunlight and regular rainfall on his fertile river silt soils.

He used 450kg/ha of nitrogen on his record crop, and with the preceding crop of peas leaving 85kg/ha, it gave 535kg/ha of available nitrogen to the crop. This season, his average wheat yield was a more modest 13t/ha.

Back in the UK, Richard’s agronomist Neil Buchanan, from distributor Agrovista, says yellow rust came into the crop early this season, and they had to stay on top of the disease with robust rates of fungicides.

“I’ve grown Oakley for seven to eight years but I’ve never seen yellow rust as bad as this,” he says.

Mr Buchanan advises an azole-based fungicide in early March as a T-1 spray, and followed this with another azole-based spray at T0 in late March to keep on top of yellow rust.

He was prompted to use a strobilurin-morpholine mix as an extra spray between T0 and T1 to keep rust out of the crop as he could not afford to wait until leaf three had emerged at T1.

The T1 and T2 sprays were based around SDHIs, while a T3 head spray was a mix of the azoles tebuconazole and prochloraz.

It was also a bad year for septoria due to the wet May, and Mr Buchanan had to spend to keep the disease under control.

“We needed to keep the spray intervals tight for septoria control and needed robust rust control to stop the disease rampaging away,” he says.

The programme also contained a “little and often” plant growth regulator approach and trace element additions with guidance from fertiliser group Yara and backed up with tissue analysis.

“We were pleased with the results. All we need now is some sunshine,” Mr Buchanan adds.

Ian Matts, company agronomist at Yara UK, says Yara N Tester readings conducted when the wheat was flowering indicated that the nitrogen programme had done its job and now it was down to the hours of sunlight the crop received to determine final yield.