A TEAM of students from the Barony campus of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has beaten 15 other teams to win the 2016 Mains of Loirston Winter Wheat Challenge trophy.

Presented at Agriscoton Wednesday, the contest is designed to encourage the next generation of farmers and agronomists by giving them their own plots of winter wheat to manage.

Competitors decide what is needed to produce the most profitable crop, agreeing on variety, seed rate, fertiliser and pest and disease treatments during the season and the crops are grown at three SRUC trial sites.

Roger Baird, a director of WN Lindsay Grain Merchants, who carried out the assessments, said: “It was great to see the students understanding the importance of cost-effective crop production and meeting relevant quality standards.”

The winning Barony team comprised of Ian Carlisle, from Dumfries; Mhari McCulloch, Newton Stewart; Ben Shoreman, Stranraer; and James Wright, Thornhill. They took part while studying for an HNC in Agriculture and Ian and Ben have since moved to SRUC’s Edinburgh and Ayr campuses to study for an HND.

Their successful entry of the Group 4, soft variety, Revelation, produced a gross margin of £826 per ha with a yield of 8.4 tonnes/ha. This was not the highest yield in the competition – a rival team achieved the highest yield of 8.9 tonnes/hectare – reinforcing that maximising profit is not necessarily about maximising yield.

Heightened disease pressure in 2016 presented challenges to the teams with most teams opting for robust fungicide programmes. Those taking part for the second year had to adapt previous strategies to respond to the season and most of them achieved this quite successfully.

Those teams with the higher gross margins tended to invest more money in an early season fungicide application which helped protect crops from disease.

Entrants, comprising of 70 teams from across four SRUC campuses, chose five different wheat varieties, including those with potential for feed, distilling and milling.

Scott Murray, SRUC lecturer and challenge co-ordinator based at SRUC’s Edinburgh Campus, commented: “The quality of the decision making has improved this year and there is little to separate the top teams. Indeed, the top three teams were only separated by just £45/ha.”

New to the Challenge this year was the introduction of precision farming technology. A hand-held crop sensor was available to introduce the teams to new techniques to assist in the calculation of fertiliser application rates.

Using red and infrared light, the sensor measures the amount and types of light reflected back from plants. The data can then be converted into information to assist with fertiliser rate decision-making.

Expert industry advice was available during the summer from Gavin Dick, of levy-funded body, AHDB Cereals, and Charlie Catto, from Frontier Agriculture, who visited the plots near Edinburgh and Aberdeenshire, respectively. They were able to pass on advice and feedback to the teams.

Dr Alex Hilton, lecturer at SRUC’s Aberdeen Campus, added: “The Challenge is a great platform to involve people from the wider agricultural industry in our teaching and we would like to thank those people for their support.”

* The annual competition is managed by SRUC on behalf of the Mains of Loirston Trust, established in 2007 by North-east farmer, the late Alexander W Allan. He was committed to advancing education in the practice and science of agriculture in Scotland.