WHILE early sowing of wheat has lost favour with growers and is frowned upon by many growers and agronomists due to ever increasing black-grass levels on farm, there remains a place for early-sown varieties.

Those without black-grass problems still have the opportunity to benefit from, drilling crops early, according to Ron Granger, the technical arable manager for seed breeders, Limagrain UK.

“Although growers in the main have moved away from the extreme early drilling scenario of early to mid-August as practiced by many a decade ago, earlier drilling – which is now considered to be before mid-September – does have benefits, notably in taking advantage of mild autumn weather to establish crops before the weather closes in for the winter."

Early drilling does have significant risk, he added and is a major test for crop management and variety suitability. “Early-sown crops will be taller and carry a higher risk of lodging, and disease susceptibility will certainly be higher. It is thought that a variety’s ratings for both lodging and disease susceptibility can be reduced be one point on the AHDB Recommended List.”

Most commercial varieties currently available are products of breeding programmes and varietal testing that is targeted at traditional sowing dates in October. Although the AHDB does produce data on earlier sowing dates, this is quite limited, he pointed out.

“Limagrain evaluates lines in more depth to ensure they meet the specifications required for early drilling and this is done through additional plot and field trials both internally and externally with partners, to ensure a variety is fit for purpose," he pointed out. “This work is carried out over several seasons as it is not in the interest of a breeder to push a variety into such a high risk situation without it being fully evaluated.”

So, for a variety to be deemed suitable for the earlier drilling slot, it should ideally have a number of key agronomic characteristics, said Mr Granger. That includes good straw strength, to cope with a greater biomass and a prostrate winter habit, which is essential to prevent the crop becoming too erect and over proud through the winter.

High tillering ability is also necessary, he added, as seeding rates are reduced significantly at sowing time – winter wheat plants are very adaptable and plants sown early with a high tillering capacity will produce many tillers, this also ensures better standing ability.

Good disease resistance should be also considered of high importance as the lusher growth carries greater risk of foliar disease. Root and stem disease, noticeably eyespot, is again considerably greater even in a first wheat situation.

Also, fungicide programmes for earlier drilled wheats will have to be adjusted to take into account both the possibility of greater disease pressure, he said. "More importantly, timings of application must be considered, as earlier drilled crops will certainly move quicker through the growth stages compared to crops drilled later at the more traditional sowing dates."

he argued that varieties with good specific weights should only be considered for the earlier drilling period. "High ear numbers from early sowings can reduce specific weights, so it’s important to ensure that thick crop canopies are managed by either delayed nitrogen timings or good PGR programmes to establish targeted ear numbers for optimal yield," he pointed out

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Variety recommendations for early drilling

Revelation:

• It appears to be performing well in the early drilled situation both in trials and more importantly on farm. The variety has become a large commercial variety based on the security it offers growers regarding its agronomic characteristics and the impressive results it gave in the high disease pressure seasons of 2012 and 2014.

• It has good straw strength and has good disease resistance profile – one of the best on the present AHDB recommended list. It has very good rust and Septoria tritici resistance and the real ‘bonus’ of eyespot resistance based on the Pch1 gene from Rendezvous.

• It has a slow primordial development and would appear to be lower tillering with a more pronounced upright habit in the spring.

• It is a late maturing variety and the opportunity for earlier drilling is important as this will bring the maturity date forward, an important benefit especially for growers in the north.

Zulu:

• This has performed well in early drilled situations on farms in the north, producing high tiller numbers with a prostrate winter habit and an earlier plant development in the spring.

• The variety also has good ear fertility.

• Drilling should be targeted from mid-September onwards.