IT'S one of those bitter-sweet 'wins' that has the potential for disaster as much as success, but winning 3.tonnes of wheat seed in a competition has paid off for one Lincolnshire farmer.

After winning a Limagrain competition for the seed, David Robinson took the opportunity to try soft Group 4 wheat, LG Sundance, this season. With the crop looking full of promise, he is now focussed on keeping it healthy and upright to realise its full potential.

He farms 165ha of mainly Grade 1 silt land in partnership with his father and mother at Brothertoft, just west of Boston. With milling quality difficult to achieve on such fertile soils, feed wheats usually make up his variety line up.

Recently, the family has moved away from disease-susceptible types such as KWS Santiago, JB Diego and Reflection, in favour of varieties with better resistances to key diseases such as septoria and yellow rust.

Mr Robinson said he was already looking at LG Sundance with interest, as it has the highest septoria resistance score of 7.4 on the AHDB Recommended List, combined with a yellow rust score of 9. That would fit well alongside his other choices, Graham and Evolution.

A lucky visit to the Limagrain stand at Cereals 2017 saw him enter and win a prize draw for some LG Sundance seed and so the seed was drilled across two fields totalling 23ha last autumn in mid-October.

“It went in behind potatoes and combining peas and established well. It is looking really good this spring and, if anything, is a little too thick for our best land,” explained Mr Robinson.

So far, the crop has had a 240 litres/ha application of Omex liquid fertiliser (Nitroflo 26+S), delivering about 80kg of nitrogen and a second split later in the spring will be carefully tailored to crop requirement to reduce lodging risk.

He is also planning a robust split plant growth regulator (PGR) programme to encourage rooting, strengthen stem cell walls and shorten stems, to ensure a standing crop at harvest.

Limagrain’s arable technical manager, Ron Granger, told The SF that this is a crucial part of LG Sundance’s husbandry, as it produces a heavy crop canopy, with large leaves and ears.

“That isn’t just for LG Sundance either. I would always advocate a split PGR programme on any variety to reduce lodging risk at harvest and the season of 2017 was a real eye opener regarding lodging pressure and variety interaction,” he added.

“Earlier applied PGRs will encourage rooting and that will be particularly important this spring, as the mild, wet conditions will have resulted in shallow-rooted crops,” said Mr Granger.

This advice is backed up by trials, where LG Sundance was tested under different PGR programmes, including untreated, a single PGR and a split two-spray PGR programme on seed rates of 300 seeds/m2 and 400 seed/m2.

The results are summarised in the graph and show that the variety responded well to a split PGR programme at GS30 and GS31, based on chlormequat and trinexypac-ethyl.

Mr Granger added that this season, where early applications might be delayed by adverse weather, crops may require a late or third PGR application to achieve the required growth regulation.

While the variety has strong resistance to septoria and yellow rust, it is slightly weaker on the stem-based disease eyespot, so it will get products with good activity on that disease, ideally at T1.

Mr Granger advised that any fungicide programme should include a good T3 ear spray, especially as LG Sundance is a later maturing variety.

* Limagrain will be running a similar competition at this year’s Cereals Event, to win 20ha of seed of the new high yielding wheat, LG Skyscraper.