Finding a variety that met Agrovista’s objectives of identifying a high-quality, nabim Group 1 wheat with the ability to be planted late into the drilling season, while also exhibiting large amounts of vigour, led the company to import and trial various wheat breeding lines from Germany.

Many UK growers drill wheat late into the drilling window to try to control black-grass prior to germination. However, Agrovista discovered that German growers were experiencing similar issues, and the company decided to trial various German breeding lines in a UK climate to see if it could find a suitable late-driller wheat.

Ted Williams, arable seed manager and agronomist at Agrovista, says: “We were starting to see some of the issues that came with delayed drilling, winter wheat varieties were struggling to make it through the winter, were not yielding well and still had black-grass.

“When drilling was delayed, there was also a good chance that [the crop] did not get in, which is deeply frustrating as that seed is not cheap, and it is sat there tying up cashflow.

“The wheat seed is also a living organism, so there is a good chance that the germination will drop off.

“We started looking for alternatives and came upon interesting breeding when looking for late and for spring drilling,” says Mr Williams.

The company scanned breeding lines in Germany as it conducted trials focusing on the same issues, and came across an interesting ‘novel’ concept: winter wheat crossed with spring wheat.

Mr Williams adds: “We started looking at those varieties and bringing them through to the UK over the years, putting them through trials to see how they reacted to the UK - we started to have a few issues, particularly with the different yellow rust isolates [in Germany].

Refined

The company then began searching for even earlier varieties and, over the last few years, has refined and trialled different varieties.

“We started to see some exciting varieties that were coming through, and they were hitting all the objectives that we wanted.

“We have called this new concept ‘Sprinter’ wheat, which means you have got a spring/winter drilling connection in the name, but it also has a secondary meaning as the wheat is a ‘sprinter’ as it is quick out of the blocks.”

The concept of Sprinter wheat has been introduced to the AHDB Recommended List this year in the form of STR Pace, the highest yielding Group 1 variety.

As it is a spring/winter cross, it allows growers to drill wheat throughout the entire season.

“This variety could be drilled from the middle of October, for those late drilling spots, all the way through up until May, or until you stop drilling your spring wheat,” he adds.

Beyond that, Mr Williams says the company also looked for opportunities to try to offer growers more margin.

“Some of the issues of late drilling wheat are that you can end up with low bushel weights, and often, the later you drill something, the lower the yield is.

“So, we saw this as an opportunity to try and get a quality product to come through, so I am excited that after all these years, we have now managed to get one of those varieties,” he says.