UK growers planning to expand their second wheat acreage or return to the crop this autumn will be doing so with noticeably greater precision than in the past, suggests a new study of variety priorities by robust wheat breeding leaders, RAGT Seeds.

Claas Tucano

The summer study, involving more than 300 growers across the country responsible for over a quarter of a million acres of wheat, reveals a high Recommended List second wheat rating as by far their most important variety selection criterion.

More than 80% of those interviewed, indeed, rated this as one of their three most important requirements in choosing a second wheat compared to just over 30% mentioning the more widely available headline RL treated yield rating.

Underlining the increasing precision growers are putting into second wheats, proven performance and eyespot resistance are the other selection criteria considered important by more than half the growers.

“The experience of several years of questionable profitability is having a valuable effect on growers’ attitude to second wheat,” comments study co-ordinator, Chris Black. “While a high treated RL yield rating remains an important requirement for wheat growers in general, where second wheats are concerned they are far more interested in performance ratings from the HGCA’s second cereals sites.

“At the same time, they are focussing their attention on that particular scourge of second wheats, eyespot, looking for specific resistance to it in addition to general disease resistance.

“They are clearly seeing second wheat as a distinctly different crop from first wheat as they look to increase cereal growing in response to the marked improvement in prices and lifting of set-aside constraints. This is particularly encouraging in view of the overwhelming evidence we now have of the extent to which some varieties under-perform while others excel as second wheats.

“A particularly good second wheat performer like Battalion, for instance, has a penalty of only just over 0.5 t/ha on its first wheat performance, while a notably poor one like Robigus loses over 1.5 t/ha.”

Of the varieties sufficiently established on the Recommended List to offer broad acres performance proof, five stand out with second wheat yield ratings of more than 10 t/ha – Ambrosia, Einstein, Gladiator, Glasgow and Istabraq. The first three of these are further highlighted for their superior relative performance in the second wheat slot.

“Better information through the RL and progressively greater availability of eyespot resistance in the breeding pipeline looks like standing growers in increasingly good stead as they build greater precision into their second wheat production,” Chris Black points out. “Together with far better returns from the market, this combination seems certain to make the crop a very much better prospect than it has been for many years.”

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