Sartorialâs resilience powers it to top spot in wheat variety trial
Sartorial achieved a treated yield of 11.55t/ha, beating 22 other recommended and candidate varieties in the trial.
The nearest competitor was 0.19t/ha adrift and 18 varieties yielded significantly less than Sartorial, with the best managing just 11.01t/ha and the worst 9.04t/ha. All yields were corrected to 15% moisture content.
Agrovista technical seed specialist Stuart Cree said: “Early development is one of Sartorial’s strengths. The trial was drilled on 3 October and, although crop establishment was generally good, it was still noticeable that Sartorial grew away better than many other varieties.”
The variety, a KWS Santiago cross from the same breeder and exclusive to Agrovista, continued to impress through the season.
Sartorial has a solid disease resistance profile, scoring 6.2 for Septoria tritici resistance and 9 for yellow rust. This helped underpin an impressive untreated yield of 9.79t/ha in the trial.
Stuart said: “Sartorial’s resilience was clear to see, which is good news for growers when spray programmes become stretched. The variety also exhibits strong standing ability, providing additional reassurance and underlining its capability to deliver top yields of good quality grain that can match the best on the Recommended List.”
Sartorial has a wide sowing window, from mid September to the end of January, and it can be grown as a first or second wheat.
The variety suits all regions. It put in an impressive performance on heavy Weald Clay in Kent, persuading one of agronomist Andrew Pendry’s customers to plant his entire winter wheat area with the variety this autumn.
Andrew said: “We trialled 18ha last season and it outyielded a neighbouring field of the farm’s usual Group 4 hard wheat by 16%.
“Both crops were sown in to good seedbeds after oilseed rape on 24-25 September. Sartorial emerged a couple of days ahead and it maintained its early vigour, pushing it on through the autumn.
“By the time it tillered in the spring there was an extra 20mm in height of good green leaf tissue, which helped the variety stay ahead right through to flag leaf.”
Weeks of dry weather then evened crops up, but Sartorial still went on to produce the best yield on the farm. Andrew said: “My customer has decided to sow Sartorial on all his 240ha of wheat ground this autumn.
“As well as producing plenty of good quality grain, the variety is also very clean. We cut back on fungicide spend last season, using just epoxiconazole and pyraclostrobin + CTL at T1 and T2.
“Sartorial does offer the opportunity to trim inputs, but its good resistance to yellow rust and Septoria also provides good insurance if spray applications are delayed by bad weather.
“Growing more resistant varieties makes sense, provided you don’t have to compromise on yield or quality and you can find a ready home for them, and Sartorial is ticking all those boxes for us.”
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