Multi variety drilling

Rob Holmes

Moderator
BASIS
Was watching one of the Cereals webinars the other day and one talked briefly about mixing 3 varieties at drilling to reduce disease pressure.
I assume you can only do it for feed varieties as quality wheats would need to be segregated
Does anyone do it?
Is it successful in reducing disease, and spray?
What variety traits do you look for suitability to mix together?
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
I once mixed the remnants of 12 different varieties to finish the far endrig of a trials site.
I thought I was being 'progressive', but it brought out the worst in each variety, it was f'ugly to look at, it's yield was atrocious and I've never felt the need to repeat the experiment.
Having said that, the organic work being done with multi year reproduction of blends is interesting.
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Nothing new, what is interesting is if you keep growing it on every year you end up with the perfect blend for your farm/system, as the high yielding parts get more dominant, but as you say only good for basic feed.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
I always think that if only 1/3 of plants were smothered in rust or septoria I would have to spray whole lot, so what's the point...
I suppose what I mean is, you would have to tailor inputs to the lowest denominator.
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
I always think that if only 1/3 of plants were smothered in rust or septoria I would have to spray whole lot, so what's the point...
I suppose what I mean is, you would have to tailor inputs to the lowest denominator.
Fungicides have their limitations. I have been threatening to do some mixed variety drilling for a few years but not yet tried it. I would likely still use the same fungicide program but if with more diverse genetics in the crop disease progression might be slower and might provide a wider optimum spray window, particularly important when relying on contractor availability and sketchy weather?
 

AF Salers

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
York, UK
What’s not to like, it works a treat, as @Warp Land Farmer says. Reduced disease pressure, including significant reduction in Septoria, reduced fungicide, increased diversity in field including rooting. Mixed group 4’s have gone away as biscuit wheat when enough premium to cover transport.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
I discussed this last year with our agronomist, regarding gp3 wheats, for the reasons above we didn't bother, because we didnt think it would save any money in practice.
Though I entirely accept that it would perhaps have less disease pressure if spray timings were compromised.
 

Nick.

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Kenilworth
What’s not to like, it works a treat, as @Warp Land Farmer says. Reduced disease pressure, including significant reduction in Septoria, reduced fungicide, increased diversity in field including rooting. Mixed group 4’s have gone away as biscuit wheat when enough premium to cover transport.
What varieties are you mixing ?
I tried this half heartedly after going to a farm walk at Simon Chiles some years ago.
maybe it’s worth another look.
 

DanniAgro

Member
At Cereals, one of the webinars featured Julian Gold, who I think uses only mixtures. He says that he has carefully balanced different features of the varieties to ensure a synergistic whole, and this is what people have tried to do in past articles in the farming press. Perhaps it's why you don't get good results when you do it haphazardly?
 

AF Salers

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
York, UK
It does take some doing, there is a lot to balance, and ideally you want each variety to come from different parent varieties, but this increasingly difficult as breeding is so tight now with few totally new lines coming through
 
Location
North Notts
Try and mix 2nd wheat if I can . Only ever done 2 on and kind of acreage. Once mixed Oakley with reflection and didn’t need and special treatment for yellow rust, while the Oakley drilled on it’s own did. If I had more time to mess about I’d mix the lot. All feed wheats

thinking about mixing wheat and triticale next year
 

Gadget

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Sutton Coldfield
I seem to recall a trial that found the seed was better not mixed really well, resulting in patches of mainly one variety rather than an even mix.
we did this in the 70's and early 80's, unfortunately we did everything so never really had a comparison.
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
I do it as a first wheat got nelson skyfall crusoe all fss on 4th planting now had no fungicide yet this year will have a bit next week as skyfall has a touch of yellow rust others are clean will grab some pics later
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
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nelson
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crusoe
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Skyfall
 
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