- Location
- Essex Coast
Five years ago I mixed up 4 varieties to make a blend, 25% each of JB Diego, Conqueror, Gator and Panorama. Produces a group 4 wheat which nearly always gives a bit of a premium. I have done several variety trials for KWS who wanted to see if their wheats behaved differently in a no-till system. Without fail, my blend out yields all their new varieties and in one trial it had the highest protein as well. I have been saving and re-drilling seed every year and now don't use anything else, it is far better for me than any new varieties that the breeders can produce.
The origional idea was to slow the spread of air born disease through a crop, all 4 have completely different parentage and so should not be succeptable to the same races of disease. The blend still gets diseases, but I honestly believe they are much slower to multiply which allows me to be a bit more relaxed about spraying, a more wait and see approach, rather than preventative. T timings have been abandoned and so this year some wheat has only had one fungicide and a couple of fields have not had any at all yet.
I had assumed the 4 would have interbreed by now and so tried to stop paying royalties, 25% on each at the start. RSPB wouldn't have it and asked for a sample to do a DNA test. Their result came back the the 4 were all still pure and had not interbreed at all, although the conqueror has increased to 35% and Gator dripped to 15. I would like to get my own independent DNA test done as I find this result a little strange, particularly when you consider that if variety mixing became widespread, RSPB would loose a serious amount of income.
The origional idea was to slow the spread of air born disease through a crop, all 4 have completely different parentage and so should not be succeptable to the same races of disease. The blend still gets diseases, but I honestly believe they are much slower to multiply which allows me to be a bit more relaxed about spraying, a more wait and see approach, rather than preventative. T timings have been abandoned and so this year some wheat has only had one fungicide and a couple of fields have not had any at all yet.
I had assumed the 4 would have interbreed by now and so tried to stop paying royalties, 25% on each at the start. RSPB wouldn't have it and asked for a sample to do a DNA test. Their result came back the the 4 were all still pure and had not interbreed at all, although the conqueror has increased to 35% and Gator dripped to 15. I would like to get my own independent DNA test done as I find this result a little strange, particularly when you consider that if variety mixing became widespread, RSPB would loose a serious amount of income.