Edgar winter wheat

EJS

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ashford, Kent
Has anyone any experience with this wheat, it sounds pretty good for our lighter soils, also hoping to control some of the blk grass with delayed drilling and increased competition. Can't find alot of references to it, will need to speak to buyers as well - not sure of how marketable it is.
 

Oilseed

Member
Location
North Cambs
Dont know anything about the variety, but you can grow it on a warburtons contract for openfield. We grow crusoe on this contract for a min £20 max £40 premium and also lower spec needed than for normal group 1's.
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
Yes I am growing some, it is really really vigorous this spring. It looks the best variety on the farm. I saw it at the agri trails last year and it completely wiped out the black grass in its plot.

It reminds me of a turbo charged xi19, I will certainly be growing more of it even if it only yields average, but. I think it will do better.
 
Got 5ha in the ground at the minute with the view to use the harvested grain as seed to grow on as a replacement for Solstice. It was planted after pots in late oct and today looks as good as anything we have got. Its tillered out well from seed rate of 200kg/ha. Seed sample was atrocious like all bought in seed was last year but its looking ok at the moment.

Its certainly not any better with regards to weeds and if anything the field is a bit dirtier with ryegrass/blackgrass than many other fields of Solstice. It had some Atlantis so we'll see what happens. If it doesn't do any better than Solstice this year I'll plant another 5ha again for a second look and then see.

Its mate 'Crusoe' will be planted this autumn as well. Again just 5ha with the view its grown on for seed as on paper Edgar and Crusoe tick a lot of boxes for what I want out of my wheat crops.
 

franklin

New Member
It does look a nice wheat. I am going to have a good look at Cereals. I have grown quirky German milling wheats for Openfield before and not got on well with them. But aesthetically it looks a nice wheat.
 

EJS

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ashford, Kent
Thanks for replies, will have to speak to openfield, we have been growing grp3s, but Claire and scout too slow developing for a delayed drill slot. Will have to try to get to cereals this year - bit of a trek from here.
 

EJS

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ashford, Kent
That looks like it might be the problem, spoke to grain buyer and he said might be difficult if not on contract, although assuming the spec is OK, should still be able to sell at premium to feed, biscuit grade regardless of variety? That is all we do at the moment.
 

Northdowns Martin

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Snodland kent
Reviving this thread as variety has been mentioned recently. Has anyone got an experience of growing Edgar in last few years? If so would be keen to learn more about its strength and weaknesses.
 
Reviving this thread as variety has been mentioned recently. Has anyone got an experience of growing Edgar in last few years? If so would be keen to learn more about its strength and weaknesses.

We stuck with it and its now our main wheat and has slotted into Solstice's place easily as its similar. It keeps clean with a cheap fungicide program unlike Crusoe which I think is a dirty looking wheat so we are dropping it this year.

Proteins are a bit of a gamble and 12-12.5 is easy but above is a bit hit and miss. Highest we've seen is 13.5 with only 180kg N and no protein spray, but then put on 200kg N and also a protein spray and you get 12.8.

It pumps out straw with one growth reg so if you don't want straw you will need to put two growth regs on.

Its quite a hardy wheat because even where its mauled in, in wet gateways etc it looks terrible all year but then yields as well as the rest of a field.

Yield wise last year on light soil (suitable for root crops) it did 3.5t/acre and made protein. On heavy land it did 3.8t/acre and had 12.8 protein. This year on light land its done 3.8t/acre and 12.3 protein. On heavier land its done 4.4t/acre but no protein results as yet but I doubt its above 12 at that yield.

Lowest bushel seen has been 74 and highest 85 but it will average 78 easily.

We bought in some Skyfall to try as on paper it would suit us better with a wider planting window, but its just not performed really with low protein off quite a low yield compared to others, so we are going to stick with Edgar and probably drop Skyfall but definitely drop Crusoe.

So I'd say go for it as its a good wheat.
 
Last edited:

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
I had 68 ha of it as a second wheat this year.

Any bg competiveness was negated by it losing lots of tillers in the dry spring, it bounced back and grew well later developing some very long ears with several extra grain sites and despite its height, stood well and cut very nicely, 82 kg/ha nice sample

Disease wise it didn't display anything alarming although have heard some concerns regarding Fusarium but not seen any myself.

Cut it last week and compared to our other second wheats on the same soil type it's lagged 0.5 t/ha behind the Gallant, 0.8 t/ha behind Belepi and 1.4 t/ha lower than Skyfall.

I won't grow it next year as its too late for me for subsequent OSR establishment, and I'm stopping growing for Warburtons as we constantly struggle for proteins due to foliar N not being allowed, we've just scrapped in at 12.6 % this year ( min 12.5 on Warburtons contract )
It will be replaced by Skyfall.

tbh I was more impressed by the Belepi this year and it has the wider drilling window
 

Northdowns Martin

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Snodland kent
We stuck with it and its now our main wheat and has slotted into Solstice's place easily as its similar. It keeps clean with a cheap fungicide program unlike Crusoe which I think is a dirty looking wheat so we are dropping it this year.

Proteins are a bit of a gamble and 12-12.5 is easy but above is a bit hit and miss. Highest we've seen is 13.5 with only 180kg N and no protein spray, but then put on 200kg N and also a protein spray and you get 12.8.

It pumps out straw with one growth reg so if you don't want straw you will need to put two growth regs on.

Its quite a hardy wheat because even where its mauled in, in wet gateways etc it looks terrible all year but then yields as well as the rest of a field.

Yield wise last year on light soil (suitable for root crops) it did 3.5t/acre and made protein. On heavy land it did 3.8t/acre and had 12.8 protein. This year on light land its done 3.8t/acre and 12.3 protein. On heavier land its done 4.4t/acre but no protein results as yet but I doubt its above 12 at that yield.

We bought in some Skyfall to try as on paper it would suit us better with a wider planting window, but its just not performed really with low protein off quite a low yield compared to others, so we are going to stick with Edgar and probably drop Skyfall but definitely drop Crusoe.

So I'd say got for it as its a good wheat.
Thank you just what I wanted to read, mainly for my neighbour who's been talking about Edgar but may suit my lighter chalk banks and sand next year.
 

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