An 11.5t/ha crop of DSV Champion produced from just 120kgN/ha prompted Lincolnshire-based Geo. H. Bowser Ltd to increase its acreage of this popular Group 4 hard feed variety for the 2024 harvest.
Last season the business grew 20ha of DSV Champion for G. Williams & Co Seeds at Retford, Nottinghamshire and this year they have 24ha growing on Grade 1 silt at Friskney, situated close to the North Sea.
“Vegetables are a major part of our business and a key reason why we are able to produce such good cereal seed crops, DSV Champion performed well last season and we are pleased to be growing it again,” explains farm manager Martin Reams.
“We first grew the variety last year, with two fields of C1 for C2 seed production. Both followed late-harvested vegetable crops on our Grade 1 silts at Friskney but were sown at different times," Martin points out.
“The first followed calabrese and after ploughing the 12.89ha field to 20cm we drilled the crop into dry soil on 28 November at 200kg/ha using a Kuhn power harrow, Sulky drill combination.
"The Grade 1 silt at Friskney is very forgiving, the crop looked well right from the start, remained exceptionally clean and was green throughout, so it was obvious that it would not be early to harvest.
“Based on the SOYL analysis, the crop received 120kg N/ha in granular form spread at 36m and a full PGR programme. We harvested it on 25 August and recorded 11.49t/ha at 13.1% moisture.
"The full PGR programme helped it to remain standing, although some lodging was evident on the 4m headlands because no vegetable crop had been grown there and much of the nitrogen remained unused.”
The second field, measuring 8.89ha and previously into cauliflowers, was drilled on 4 January 2023 at 200kg/ha using the same establishment system and the seed went just deep enough to be covered, he says.
The first nitrogen, N30.3 + 10.8SO3 at 170l/ha, was applied on 8 March, followed by 100kg/ha of TSP on 16 April. Three days later MOP went on at 70kg/ha, along with N30.3+10.8SO3 at 260l/ha. A full programme of fungicides and growth regulators was applied.
"Despite being late drilled, the crop looked good throughout the growing season, remained bolt upright and yielded 10.63t/ha.
“Last season was very challenging, very dry initially then wet. Both fields of DSV Champion remained clean and very green throughout the season."
BARN-BUSTING VARIETY
Previously topping the Candidate List in 2021/22 and subsequently the 2022/23 Recommended List with the highest overall yield, DSV Champion is ‘the ultimate barn buster’, says DSV's Sarah Hawthorne.
"It's one of the few varieties to have overcome the ‘yield/resistance’ trade-off, making it ideal for fulfilling the high-volume feed market requirements and is one of the highest yielding wheats on the current AHDB Recommended List when grown as either a first or second cereal.
"The fact that it is the top yielding variety when drilled on heavy soils and second on light soils demonstrates its versatility and suitability to a wide range of sites.
"With outstanding overall yield performance, it has a robust package for agronomics, disease resistance and grain quality. With medium length straw, it has demonstrated very little lodging during five years of trials in the UK.
"Much of the variety's versatility and performance is down to the westerly location of DSV's UK breeding centre in Oxfordshire, which is in a strong septoria pressure area but one which also has a lot of yellow rust too."
The variety has some of the best scores for yellow rust (8) and Septoria Tritici (7.9) on the Recommended List, together with strong mildew resistance (7) plus it also offers orange wheat blossom midge (OWBM) resistance, she points out.
"With a track record of success as a late drilled variety, and with the highest scores on the list when planted in this type of situation, DSV Champion has a powerful growth habit with the latest safe sowing date being mid-February."
Box Out - Maximising benefits of integrating arable and vegetable production
Martin Reams has been farm manager at Geo. H. Bowser Ltd for the past 13 years with his BASIS qualification put to good use running a business that integrates both arable and vegetable production.
“We’ve produced seed crops for Geoff Williams for the last nine years," he explains.
"The significant area of vegetables we produce means that clean land is available to produce excellent cereal seed crops, and because we can store up to six varieties separately the system works well for us both."
The business farms 320ha (800 acres) of Grade 1 silt, with 160ha (400 acres) of wheat for seed, 40ha (100 acres) of potatoes and 40ha (100 acres) of vining peas.
A further 80ha (200 acres) are dedicated to vegetable production, including cauliflowers which are harvested from May through until Christmas, over-wintered cauliflowers cut in April or May, plus calabrese which is cleared in October or November and followed by wheat.
In recent years, the farm has placed increasing emphasis on soil health, moving away from big tractors to reduce compaction, using cover crops to improve soil condition and replacing the plough and a power harrow in favour of strip tilling when it comes to establishing cauliflowers and calabrese.
Interesting fact
A crop of DSV Champion grown by UK producer Tim Lamyman at his Worlaby Farm, Lincolnshire, in 2022 holds the official Guinness World Record for wheat yield. The 17.96t/ha crop beat the existing 17.40t/ha world record achieved in New Zealand in 2020.