Arable
‘Uncomplicated’ Group 4 wheat has strong market potential
• Elation has inherent disease resistance • Boasts good untreated yield performance • Responds well to nutrition programme
N
ew Group 4 winter wheat Elation is ticking all the key boxes as a fi rst and second wheat for Cambridgesh- ire grower Michael Brown, of T Brown and Son (Covington) Lim- ited.
Growing reliable and uncom- plicated Group 4 wheats has been the fulcrum of the 600ha family farming business run by Mr Brown at Covington, near Huntingdon – and increasingly so since he stopped growing oil- seed rape.
Combinable crops “I gave up oilseed rape four years ago, says Mr Brown. “The input costs and additional time simply did not stack up. Together with the recent loss of neonicotinoids in our area combined with my re- luctance to spray insecticides its doubtful I will go back to rape an- ytime soon.” Farming just over 560ha of cropped land, BASIS qualifi ed Mr Brown currently grows win- ter wheat and spring barley as his main combinable crops – along- side spring beans and herbage seed as his key breaks in the ro- tation.
Wheat varieties are select- ed on the basis of fl exible drill-
ing dates, a solid overall disease profi le and good untreated yield scores. Mr Brown says he gen- erally won’t not touch anything with scores in the 60s or 70s. At 82, Elation’s score was a key at- traction alongside its good dis- ease resistance.
Good premium “As a business, we go for max- imum yield with high output Group 4s,” says Mr Brown, who was offered a chance to grow Ela- tion for seed after approaching breeder Elsoms Seeds in 2016 with a with a spare fi eld in a dou- ble break crop. With a good premium, he was pleased to achieve 9.8t/ha in the fi rst year – slightly less than the farm’s fi ve-year average of just over 10.6t/ha despite the diffi - cult autumn of 2016, he explains. “That fi rst attempt proved useful in learning more about the variety and seeing what I could achieve with it as a fi rst wheat on a medium heavy land made up of chalky boulder clay.”
Mr Brown opted to grow Ela- tion again – this time as a sec- ond wheat with Latitude-dressed seed to insure against take-all. He drilled 34ha on 13 October 2017 on a variable rate using a
Keeping the crop greener for longer boosts output
Horsch Sprinter drill with new Dutch opener coulters to see if it would improve crop establish- ment.
Serious about yield A pre-emergence spray of Crys- tal + Hurricane followed and the crop tillered well. It continued to look good despite this year’s cold
spring that delayed the start of the farm’s fungicide programme until early April.
Opting for all-liquid fertil-
iser, Mr Brown applied 50kg/ha of 35N-7SO3 fertiliser in early March, followed by 85kg/ha in late March and 70kg/ha in early May. “Good crop nutrition com- bined with a robust fungicide pro-
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18 ANGLIA FARMER • AUGUST 2018
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