Borders quest for record-breaking wheat

Article taken from The Scottish Farmer

A Borders farmer has set his sights on growing a record breaking crop of winter wheat this year. 
David Fuller-Shapcott, of Sweethope Farm, Kelso, has entered a 4ha plot of Zulu into ADAS’s Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) competition.
This connects agricultural organisations and farmers across the globe who are attempting to improve crop yields and encourages new approaches to crop improvement.
It also organises competitions in which members compete to establish new records, with awards for maximum grain yield and maximum percent of seasonal potential yield.  Mr Fuller-Shapcott said, “My view is that you can’t expect things to get better without change.  I’m using my involvement in the YEN as a learning experience and as a sounding board for ideas.  I took part in the competition last year and I’m aiming for a higher placing this time around.”

Mr Fuller-Shapcott’s plot of Zulu on his 240 ha (600 acre) mixed arable and livestock farm is in the Scottish Borders, near Kelso.  The majority of which is given over to arable production, with the remaining 32ha in permanent pasture and used to finish pedigree Aberdeen-Angus cattle for the premium beef market.  Entrants to the ADAS organised YEN competition receive, from YEN, an estimate of their potential grain yield based on average weather and soil information from their site.  Last year, the yield potential for Sweethope was calculated as 17-17.5 t/ha.  Mr Fuller-Shapcott’s plot of Invicta winter wheat came 11th, in terms of achieving largest percentage of yield potential with 59% and yielded 10.61 t/ha.
He said “In terms yield components, my crop had figures which equalled or bettered the HGCA benchmarking figures, but light was the main constricting factor.”
There were no such constrictions for YEN member, Tim Lamyman, of Worlaby, Lincolnshire, who last year captured the UK record yield for winter wheat, with a crop of KWS Kielder which yielded 14.31 t/ha, an impressive 76% of his field’s potential.

This year, Mr Fuller-Shapcott’s Zulu was sown after oilseed rape, with hen pen manure applied prior to establishment.  A min-till one pass cultivator followed by a power harrow was used to establish the crop on the October 1, 2014. He said: “I was aiming for a plant population in the region of 400-425 plants/m2, which is quite high.  However, on our heavy soils we often have problems with slugs.”
Mr Fuller-Shapcott split his fertiliser into three applications, with slow release urea used at late tillering to deliver nitrogen throughout the seas.  Leaf tissue analysis showed the wheat was slightly  low in some micronutrients and this was rectified at T1 and T2.
His fungicide and plant growth regulator (PGR) programme has been robust, making use of combination of SDHI’s strobilurins and azole chemistry as well as the addition of Bravo (chlorothaloni) at T1 and T2 to keep the plot disease free.  He used Ennobe at T0, half rate Adexar = half rate Nebula at T1, 1.81/ha of Ceriax = Bravo at T2 and his T3 is still to be decided.  The plant growth regulator chlormequat was applied at T0 and again at T1 with Canopy, to strengthen the stem and aid rooting.  His agronomy advice is provided by Agrovista, but BASF has sponsored MR Fuller-Shapcott’s entry to the YEN project and provided fungicides and PGR’s.  Dudley Kitching, agronomy manager (Scotland) for BASF, pointed out: “We are delighted to be involved with David and the YEN project.  He is very enthusiastic and with his keen attention to detail and meticulous record keeping he is perfect for a project like this.”

The products used on the wheat, particularly Canopy, SDHI’s and strobilurins have kept it upright, clean and green allowing it to maximise the uptake of nutrients and capture as much light as possible during the growing season, he added.  Emphasis on this came from Professor Roger Sylvester-Bradley, head of crop performance at ADAS, when speaking at the Cereals Event; he said “Farmers must begin to think in terms of harvesting light because solar energy is the feedstock for the agricultural industry.  Making sure the crop has a dense canopy which is kept alive and green fort as long as possible in to the season is crucial”
Mr Fuller-Shapcott concluded “I plan to use the data gathered this year in the HGCA benchmarking programme to find out if it does pay to push the crop really hard.  Everything is looking good at the moment, but what we need now is some decent bright weather.”