Cereals 2006 : Boosting wheat yields

Barn-busting new hard feed variety Oakley could bring new levels of yield to winter wheats, according to breeder CPB Twyford.

A cross between Robigus and Access, it yielded 110% of controls in National List trials, which if repeated in RL trials would put it 3% ahead of current yield leaders Alchemy and Glasgow.

“It has all the benefits of both [parent] varieties,” the firm’s Simon Francis said.

“It is within a shake of Robigus’s septoria resistance, while yellow rust resistance is better [rated 6].”

The variety also had orange wheat blossom midge resistance, and was shorter and stiffer than Robigus, but maintained the latter’s excellent tiller retention, he added.

The firm also had a second hard feed wheat variety in RL trials – Humber.

“It is an early sower,” Mr Francis said.

“NL yields are at the Alchemy level, but that doesn’t show what it can do as an early driller.

We think it can produce even higher yields.”