Switch to BYDV-resistant wheat RGT Grouse pays off for Suffolk grower

Much of the arable land Michael and son Darren rent at Red House Farm near Eye borders large blocks of woodland and grass, and every field has a grass margin around it, all of which creates sheltered habitat for aphid vectors of BYDV.

“After the demise of Redigo Deter we really struggled with the disease, so we’ve been under pressure to get everything sprayed,” says Michael. “We saw RGT Grouse advertised as a resistant variety and, after doing our own research, decided to try some last autumn. It has paid off big time.”

Other varieties on the farm received one insecticide spray last autumn, but a second application had to be shelved after more than 100mm of rain fell in late October. “By late spring, BYDV was evident in the other varieties, particularly in our second wheat which suffered badly” says Michael.

Gleam made up the bulk of second wheat, along with 14ha of RGT Grouse, both drilled in early October. The Gleam produced 8.4t/ha. “It was a very disappointing start to our wheat harvest,” says Michael.

“However, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the Grouse, which yielded 10.3t/ha at 15% moisture.”

While the difference was not entirely down to BYDV – the Gleam had poorer headlands after the very heavy rain – there was very visible BYDV in that variety. “I could see it clearly when spraying at T2 – the flag leaves were discoloured and going purple in places.”

RGT Grouse was also grown as a first wheat after beans and averaged 10.8t/ha at 76kg/hl specific weight across 51ha. The yield just edged Dawsum after sugar beet, which missed the main aphid migration.

The first-wheat Grouse was drilled in the last week of September at 160kg/ha after a pass with a disc/tine cultivator. It emerged quickly and, while not particularly thick, it grew away well in the spring and retained its tillers, which filled well.

Belcocel (chlormequat) at 1litre/ha and Canopy growth regulator (0.5 litres/ha) was applied at T1 but no more PGR was deemed necessary as the crop only received 200kg/ha of nitrogen after beans.

T1 fungicides consisted of Vimoy (isoflucypram) at 1.33 litres/ha and Kestrel (prothioconazole and tebuconazole) at 0.6 litres/ha. At T2 Miravis Plus (pydiflumetofen) at 1.5 litres/ha plus Era (prothioconazole) at 0.5 litres/ha were used. This was followed at T3 by Tebbit (tebuconazole) at 0.5 litres/ha, Flyer (pyraclostrobin) at 0.4 litres/ha and Ecana (prothioconazole) at 0.5 litres/ha.

The Grouse stood very well and stayed clean and Michael will increase the area down to the variety this autumn.

“We no longer have to worry about BYDV wherever we grow Grouse. I’m very glad we did our own research – we went to various open day trials but we felt Grouse and Goldfinch, RAGT’s other BYDV resistant variety, were overlooked.

“We even had a job to convince our agronomist that this was possibly the way to go, but he seems pretty impressed with the result too.

“The variety has done very well as a first and second wheat and we’ve put it into the IPM 4 insecticide-free crop option under SFI, which earns an additional £45/ha. It certainly looks to be a good fit for our farm.”

RGT Grouse key points

• BYDV resistant
• OWBM resistant
• High yielding hard feed wheat
• Suits early sowing when BYDV risk highest
• Good tillering and tiller retention
• Very good lodging resistance
• Good spec weight
• Suits all soil types