Skyfall continues its reign as a reliable late drilling winter wheat

Several varieties, including Skyfall and several other winter wheats, some with an end-of-February latest safe sowing date like Skyfall, were included in the demo.

To ensure late sowing was pushed to its limit, the plots were drilled on the 31^st March.

The aim was to confirm Skyfall’s superiority when late drilled, which was highlighted in earlier glasshouse tests carried out by RAGT in 2021.

The results of that work showed a clear demonstration of Skyfall’s low vernalisation requirements.  a vernalisation period of just 28 days all Skyfall plants carried ears. Other varieties tested demonstrated between 0% to 50% ear development. After just two weeks of vernalisation, 79% of Skyfall plants produced ears, while all others failed.

In the 2024 demonstration plots Skyfall continued to prove itself as the most flexible winter wheat on the RL in terms of sowing window.

Andrew describes what was seen in this trial, “In this trial in 2024 all varieties were sown at the end of March as stated above. Establishment was as expected with good plant numbers from all varieties in trial.  The difference came when tillering was completed and normally you would expect to see stem elongation commence.”

“Skyfall progressed to this stage and produced fertile tillers as expected. Other winter wheat varieties never moved into stem elongation and remained vegetative, whilst some varieties produced some tillers but not enough to be economically viable.”

Alongside it’s low vernalisation requirements, Skyfall also offers vigorous growth which is optimal for less-than-ideal conditions on farm. RAGT backs the variety when sown as late as the first week of March.

This is why farmers continue to grow the variety and can trust that even when they are forced to change plans due to inclement weather, they don’t have to buy another variety, as they can drill Skyfall into early spring and still have a crop come harvest

time. We asked Andrew what’s the latest recommended sowing date, “We’d recommend sowing no later than 10^th March to still achieve a good crop result.”

RAGT’s Skyfall late-drilling advice:

• Maintain seed rates – use 400 seeds per m² towards the end of February to maintain optimum ear number potential
• Late-sown crops develop rapidly – plan inputs accordingly