High organic yielders not conventional ones
High organic yielders not conventional ones
MORE evidence that the best yielding varieties for organic production differ from those for conventional systems comes from latest Elm Farm Research Centre and NIAB harvest results.
For the second year running biscuit wheat Claire was top performer with 4.95t/ha (2t/acre) in EFRC trials in Berks, Suffolk and Wilts.
Of the breadmakers, Spark, no longer on the recommended list, delivered only 0.27t/ha less, marginally shading Shamrock and outyielding Hereward by 0.25t/ha.
That contrasts with results from the Arable Research Centres Glos organic trials (Arable, Sept 21) where Spark performed relatively poorly, notes Elm Farms James Welsh.
Feed variety Deben, outyielded by Aardvark in Elm Farm work, and breadmaker Malacca also did much better in the ARC experiments. "We dont yet know the precise reasons for these effects," says Dr Welsh. Most notable was the 4.31t/ha (1.74t/acre) from a re-sown home-saved mixture of Hereward, Malacca and Shamrock.
Besides supporting the theory that many mixtures do better than their components average through better disease resistance, it also gave 0.14t/ha (0.06t/acre) more than the first-generation mixture. That suggests some adaptation to individual sites, he says.
In NIABs second year of organic trials, on four farms in Kent, Staffs, Suffolk and Wilts, results were varied and real differences hard to pinpoint. "Nevertheless, some interesting trends are apparent," says cereals specialist Richard Fenwick.
Hereward, Petrus and Shamrock were the top three, with Hereward outyielding Malacca and the feed types Exsept, Claire and Aardvark in that order. Deben was disappointing after being highest yielder last year. *