Good quality grain and plenty of it – RGT Grouse overcomes the odds in Suffolk

Frank grew 120ha of the variety, two-thirds of it on light sandy soil at Park Farm, Fornham St Genevieve, on the southern edge of the Brecklands, and a third on sandy loams across the border in Norfolk.

It was the grain quality that really grabbed Frank’s attention. “This was the standout difference,” he says. “We grew a similar area of Champion and its specific weight scraped into feed wheat spec at 72, while the Grouse did 75.

“For me, anything that is borderline is very worrying. You only need one or two things to go wrong and you won’t make specification.

“This coming season I’ll be growing 120ha of Grouse again and same of another variety, which I have yet to decide. I don’t want to be worrying about specific weight.”

Some of the Grouse was drilled during the second week of October, and the rest a month later after sugar beet, which was not ideal, especially last autumn, says Frank.

“Grouse is best suited to earlier drilling as it develops slowly, which of course is ideal to make the most of its BYDV resistance. We shouldn’t have put it in that late as it takes a long time to get going.”

The crop didn’t look the best in the autumn and winter, he admits, but it picked up well in the spring after the first nitrogen dressing was applied.

The early-drilled crop received an azole-based T0 (+ mildewicide in the later-drilled crops). T1 was based on Vimoy and T2 was a robust SDHI- mix, followed by a teb/prothio combination at T3.

“We also applied our standard two-spray PGR programme as well as trace elements and biostimulants to help crops make the best of the conditions,” says Frank.

The attention to detail paid off, with the crop averaging a very pleasing 9.3t/ha across the board, pretty much the average yield for the whole wheat harvest, says Frank.

The Champion was also early and late drilled. “In some fields it yielded slightly less, which may have been down to BYDV pressure, even though it wasn’t obvious in the crop, and in others it yielded slightly better than average,” says Frank.

“However, Grouse also gives you a good opportunity to claim £45/ha under SFI for growing an insecticide-free crop, which has to be taken into account.”