12 January 2024

Winter wheat varieties can be successfully sown up to mid-February: Trials

Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) variety trials have shown that winter wheat varieties can be successfully sown up to mid-February. Ciarán Collins tells us more about the trials and what the mean for tillage farmers.

As land starts to dry out tillage farmer’s attention will once again turn towards field work. Tillage farmer’s wouldn’t normally consider sowing crops in January but following a very wet autumn where winter cereal area is well behind target and the scarcity of spring barley seed, the planting of winter wheat varieties in January and February is a viable option if weather conditions allow.

Teagasc and DAFM variety trials have shown that winter wheat varieties can be successfully sown up to mid-February. However there are a few important points to consider;

• Yield will be closer to spring wheat rather than winter wheat.
• Seed rate should be similar to spring wheat.
• Vernalisation is not an issue for winter wheat varieties sown up to mid-February but harvest date will be later than spring wheat.
• Graham is more suitable than KWS Dawsum as it is earlier maturing.
• Inputs need to be tailored based on expected yield, especially nitrogen.
• Do not sow in March.

In one DAFM variety trial sown on February 1 in Cork in 2023 the control yield was 9.08t/ha where the control varieties were JB Diego (96), KWS Dawsum (101) and Graham (103). The highest yielding variety in the trail was the spring variety Fixum (108).

In a similar trial sown 10 years earlier, also in Cork on February 23 2013, the control yield was 9.26t/ha. The control varieties at the time were Einstein (101) and Cordiale (99). The highest yielding spring wheat variety at the time was Sparrow (97) and Granary (97).

Teagasc trails from 2003 and 2004 gave similar results.

Beware that these are plot yields and may not be replicated in the field, however these trials indicate that winter wheat varieties can be successfully grown when planted before mid-February.