Wheat varieties for (or not for) direct drilling

Andy004

Member
Location
Herts
Thanks again folk.
B’o’b - interesting, I think you might be right that variety choice isn’t so important.
I’m interested in comments on seedrate. We often use 350 seeds, which is on the high side. Does DD want similar to conventional or different?
Teslacoils - I’d like to send the seed, but promised my supplier I’d not pass any on. If you google “seedstor” you should find the JIC folk who can supply almost any variety. Type Squareheads into the search box and they have 5 entries. They should all be similar, if not identical, one I selected seemed to have no charge although I think you’ll be charged some postage. Not sure how many seeds they’ll send, not many I suspect, but should be as pure as you can get. Interesting about soissons.
Badshot -thanks for following up
Richard III - thanks, will be considering Gleam.
Thanks.
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
Many thanks for all the replies, very interesting.
Badshot - any particular traits of Skyfall and Crusoe that you think make them suited, or just that they do well?
Yellowbelly - interesting comments. We still have Avalon and Mercia in regular trials, can’t say I notice them much earlier than modern varieties, but as with a lot of expts, we have to harvest all on one day anyway. Have Soissons as well, and that is early. Interesting comment to drill early, I’ve taken note of that. We will have the same varieties under conventional tillage. Early ness is certainly a trait we can work on, and have done in recent years.
Ollie - thanks, this is another trait we should be able to work on, we’re currently growing 800 land races from around the globe, so if the traits exist we should be able to at least look for them.
Fish - I assume you’re direct drilling Costello and Gleam? I’ve not had either in trials here, i’ll Certainly consider them, thanks.
Farmer Roy - great to hear experience from Australia. I tend to agree With your thourghts. I suspect a good variety will be good under different systems, not just one. But, as DD seems to be increasing in the UK, it seems at the least we should be thinking about these things.
Teslacoils - I’ve a sack of Squareheads somewhere, could always give it a go!

Thanks folk, more comments and thourghts welcome, including tips on DDing and how to get the best from it.
Andy
If your able to look into n American varieties faller is an early spring variety. Bred in n Dakota as a milling wheat but in Canada it classes as a feed. Very popular in livestock areas for its yield and being early.
 

Fish

Member
Location
North yorkshire
Yes all no till.
Interesting point re seed rates. When I first started no till I cranked up the seed rates, where as in the previous system I would start at 220s/m moving up to 350+ as the season progressed, but with no till I started at 300 and maxed out at 400.
But now after a few no till seasons under my belt, I’m starting to drop the rates again, even drilled one field at 200 last autumn.

The slug problems I expected, has largely never really materialise, why, not sure, earlier drilling in better condition, firmer soils, more predators or just dum luck 🤷🏻
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
We are on 10 inch row spacing so have a high row population at standard seed rates and I work on aiming at 220 plants/m2
 
I used to grow Except early mostly because you would never lodge the stuff no matter how you treated it. Panorama had some serious get up and go and I always drilled it in dubious conditions that were expected behind a maize crop. I would definitely like to see how panorama fared in a no-till situation.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Yes all no till.
Interesting point re seed rates. When I first started no till I cranked up the seed rates, where as in the previous system I would start at 220s/m moving up to 350+ as the season progressed, but with no till I started at 300 and maxed out at 400.
But now after a few no till seasons under my belt, I’m starting to drop the rates again, even drilled one field at 200 last autumn.

The slug problems I expected, has largely never really materialise, why, not sure, earlier drilling in better condition, firmer soils, more predators or just dum luck 🤷🏻

In the “early” days of zero till here, a lot of people would recommend increasing seed rates to make up for “poor” establishment.
Then, after a few years of getting the system working properly, improved soil conditions & better planting equipment, it was found that establishment is vastly better than “conventional” tillage & that seed rates could be reduced
 

Andy004

Member
Location
Herts
Thanks again folks. Any suggestions (other than Soissons) of varieties that wouldn't do well?

@Flatlander - sorry, don't think we can get any Faller
@Fish - thanks for following up, and interesting on seedrate. Issue for us is we have to weigh the seed out for all plots in good time, then if drilling gets delayed it's a right pain reweighing it.
@ollie989898 - not sure i can get Panorama but will keep it in mind (will need 0.5kg, Seedstor won't have that)

Thanks
 
Earliness
I have grown grafton. That was on a level with Avalon for earliness
But stopped using it due to blossom midge susceptibility

for marketing reasons I now gro soft wheats which follow the later feed wheat trends

bread milling wheats tend to be earlier types

The seed rate I use is on the high side 350 to o 500 seeds
With no till pre emergence residual chemical effect is a factor when heavy rain follows closely too planting high seed rates mitigate this
High seed rates do not have a downside of forward vigorous crops that cultivated crops can have nitrogen availability is reduced in the autumn and early spring
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Thanks again folks. Any suggestions (other than Soissons) of varieties that wouldn't do well?

@Flatlander - sorry, don't think we can get any Faller
@Fish - thanks for following up, and interesting on seedrate. Issue for us is we have to weigh the seed out for all plots in good time, then if drilling gets delayed it's a right pain reweighing it.
@ollie989898 - not sure i can get Panorama but will keep it in mind (will need 0.5kg, Seedstor won't have that)

Thanks
If you want to get excitable, can you do a trial with and without placed nitrogen fertiliser at drilling please?

If you could present us and DEFRA with science that showed that placed fert improved yields, decreased total fert needed, and didn't end up in the rivers, I'd probably buy you two pints.
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
@B'o'B - what weather are you wanting 48-72 hrs post drilling, nice bit of rain but not too much?
You don't want really heavy rain too soon. On reflection its more like 24-48h. If real heavy rain is forecast I would rather wait and not drill than try and rush it in before the rain as I would have done on ploughing.
 

Simon C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex Coast
I've been no-till for 18 years and have done my own variety trials probably the last 5 or 6 years. Stand out variety is Conqueror, although not available any more, it always out yields anything else. I put it in a blend of 4, equal amounts of each and after 7 years of saving the seed, it has taken over and is now up to 70% of the mix. I am not suggesting anyone grows it because it is now very susceptible to yellow rust, but it would be worth investigating what traits make it so much higher yielding in my no-till system.
 

Andy004

Member
Location
Herts
Thanks again folk
@teslacoils - I am involved in an on farm trial with some seedbed N. It’s possibly something we could do in more detail. How much do you think we should be applying, 40kg N? Only relevant to DD? I think we have a Weaving drill that can do fert as well as seed.
@yellow belly thanks for the comments. I think we had an issue with residuals autumn 2020.
@B’o’B thanks!
@Simon C thats really interesting, I’ve heard there’s a local farmer who thinks conqueror does really well with DD, I used to have some seed, hopefully I can still find some. It really is the traits we’re interested in, can live with some yellow rust. Do you have any comments on other varieties? Any that seem to perform particularly poorly under DD?
Thanks
Andy
 
Another vote for Extase. Mauled it in end of October and the way it stuck it and thrived was jaw dropping. Have had it do unexpectedly badly in a cultivated field another year yield wise which is similar to other reports about blind grain sites / late frosts etc.
 

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