The View from Teagasc: The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine published its recommended wheat list recently. The main changes are: Grafton and Kingdom have been dropped while Dunmore and SY Lumos have been added.
Dunmore is a variety which is quite similar to JB Diego but a little taller. KWS Lumos is a shorter variety with reasonable disease resistance, although it has the lowest score for fusarium of all varieties. All varieties are suitable for sowing from now on. Lion and SY Epsom are well suited to the first wheat slots whereas Einstein, Cordiale, JB Diego, Lumos and Avatar are varieties suitable for first and second/continuous wheat slots.
To minimise take-all and maximise yields from second/ continuous wheat, delay sowing until mid-October, use Latitude seed dressing (particularly on second, third, and fourth wheats), roll if conditions allow and do not over-lime.
To establish 260 plants/m2 next spring,target a seeding rate of 306 seeds/m2. This is assuming a plant establishment rate of 85 per cent. In poorer conditions and after midOctober, seeding rates should be increased as establishment rates will reduce. Work from the UK has shown average establishment rates of wheat sown in October of 60-70 per cent.
The winter wheat recommended list is available here.
Pictured: Harvesting winter wheat. Photo O’Gorman Photography.
