Feed and milling wheat yields

[Beefsmith]

Are people getting much difference in yields between the two types? I’ve got seed breeders telling me 0.5t/ac is easily achievable in favour of feed wheats over milling?

 

[teslacoils]

No difference here. I used to prefer milling for the potential premium. But now all feed because premium = hassle.

 

[Flat 10]

Was does recommended list say? I can't see any percentages that would translate to 0.5t/ha let alone 0.5t/ac unless on farm performance is very very different

 

[yellow belly]

Now grow gp3 milling

gp1 too hard and costly to meet the spec

 

[Farmer-George]

We’re virtually all softs now. Cost no more to grow than feed, has a sensible premium in most years and has some of the highest yielding varieties on the list.

we’re a mix of Group 3 and 4 softs. Like the agronomy profiles of some of the varieties and makes storage easy.

never found group 1 was worth the extra inputs

 

[Brisel]

There are milling wheat growers and feed wheat growers hoping for a premium. Heavy land in the East and Midlands can grow consistently high protein milling grades with a good yield and little penalty over a feed type.

IMO it's better to think of margin rather than just yield. You'd want to regularly be achieving a £15/t premium for milling to justify the extra inputs required and accept that some years the weather prevents you meeting the spec so you want a higher premium to see you through the bad years when you have an expensive heap of feed. Varieties like Skyfall changed the game somewhat - feed wheat costs, a reasonable septoria score, good quality and an early maturity date though it has fallen over to yellow rust now. Lots of feed growers were getting useful premiums from this when demand was good and a decent yield when the premium wasn't there.

Group 3 soft milling wheats fell out of favour when no new good varieties came through the Recommended List system & premiums fell. We used to have a great export market when the likes of Consort, Claire, Robigus etc were at the top of the RL yields table. These growers jumped into Group 1 & 2 varieties when they superseded the Gp 3s and many have gone back to Gp 4s when these had the highest yields in the List and the milling market was oversupplied.

 

[teslacoils]

As I move towards contactor combining, and capped central store drying, the milling premium allows a certain flexibility in getting the stuff cut and away.

 

[Lincsman]

There are a few milling varieties can can out yield the more average feeds on the list, (skyfall was the highest of most in its early days) its more down to the farm and soil type.