Contestants employ a variety of wheat growing techniques

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 23

Contestants employ a variety of wheat growing techniques

The Wheat 82 Competition has emphasised the wide range of techniques used by wheat farmers to establish their crops and boost yield, according to a farm advisory officer, cereals, with the M.A.F. in Christchurch, Mr Bede McCloy. “Among the eight competitors there are as many different techniques as there are competitors,” he said this week. He said that this was to be expected, although it took a competition such as Wheat 82, where the competitors were side-by-side, to emphasise the variation of techniques used in growing wheat. He thought most competitors had used a technique they were familiar with, and had success with on their own farms, and modified it for Lincoln conditions. Those conditions had obviously been much drier than in a normal year. The rate of evapotranspiration had been greater than the rainfall and soil moisture

available at sowing had been depleted, he said. On the M.A.F.’s own trial plots at the competition site moisture stress would probably limit the yield. If there was more than average rainfall between now and harvest the upper limit for yield might be 6 tonnes. “If it stays dry a good crop would be 5 tonnes,” said Mr McCloy. He commented particularly on the nitrogen strategies of the contestants. The Ravensdown soil nitrate tests done on August 19 had revealed a range of results from 1 to 30 p.p.m. This wide variation was due to the fact that some contestants had sown with nitrogenbased fertilisers, one with

chicken manure, and there were a range of sowing times, and therefore growth stages, when the Ravensdown test was done. On the M.A.F. plots a soil nitrate test of 9 p.p.m. indicated there was no need for extra nitrogen as yield potential was as high as it could be under the dryland regime. Nevertheless several contestants with similar or higher soil nitrate test results had elected to pour on extra nitrogen in the hope of boosting yields further. Others had adopted a nofuss approach to crop raising and minimised inputs. The only prediction that Mr McCloy would venture about the relative success of various approaches towards wheat growing was that he thought the eventual winner of the competition might be found in between the extremes. “Further than that, I am

keeping my theories on a winner to myself until after harvest,” he said. John Morris A very heavy sowing rate under direct drilling has given Mr John Morris, of Ashburton, a very dense wheat crop in the Wheat 82 competition. Mr Morris has a 400 ha farm and has averaged 65 ha of irrigated wheat over the last few years. He has been on the property 16 years. In the competition he sprayed on May 7 with 1.5 litres of Roundup, 1.5 litres of Fenite 80 and 0.5 litres of Agral LN per hectare. Nineteen days later he direct drilled with skg per hectare of Tbimet and 180 kg of Flowmaster super per hectare.

He sowed 226 kg per hectare of Baytan-treated Rongotea and managed a 93 per cent germination. The establishment count at the two-leaf stage one month later was 282 plants per square metre, which represents an emergence of 64 per cent of viable seed. This is 60 or 70 plants per square metre more than anyone else. The Ravensdown soil nitrate test on August 19 was 19 p.p.m. and Mr Morris spread 180 kg per hectare of ammonium sulphate (38 units of N per hectare) on September 13. For weed, pest and disease control Mr Morris has applied 2 litres of M.C.P.A., 600 grams of Gesagard and 500 grams of Bayleton per hectare — all on October 12.

Murray Heslop Direct drilling with a high seeding rate of Oroua and substantial applications of nitrogenous fertiliser after a soil test disclosed very low soil nitrate has been the approach of Mr Murray Heslop, of Leeston, to the Wheat 82 competition. Mr Heslop sprayed with 1.5 litres of Roundup and 0.5 litres of Agral LN per hectare on May 5 before direct drilling on June 16 with 152 kg per hectare of Baytantreated Oroua and 5 kg per hectare of Thimet. Germination was 86 per cent and at the two-leaf stage Mr Heslop had 198 plants per square metre, which was in emergence of 64 per cent. Two weeks after the Ravensdown soil nitrate test on August 18 indicated that there was virtually no nitrate in the top 60 cm of soil, Mr Heslop put on 375 kg of

ammonium sulphate per hectare, which was an application of 79 units of N per hectare. Mr Heslop has also tried to boost production to the absolute limit by very heavy weed control and foliar additive applications. On October 17 he applied 1.5 litres of Hoegrass and 4 litres of Wuxal per hectare. Wuxal is a water-soluble, foliar-absorbed, nitrogenous fertiliser. Two weeks later, on the last day of October, he applied a further 4.5 litres per hectare of Bumpa-crop seaweed, which has the same purpose as Wuxal, along with 2.8 litres ,per hectare of M.C.P.A. and one litre of Cycocel-750. Mr Heslop must have con-

siderably boosted his inputs with the wide range of sprayings but must be aiming to get a very heavy yielding crop. He has spent 14 years on 91 ha at Leeston and. has grown about 4 ha of wheat on average in the last two seasons. Anthony Pannett A former South Otago farmer with two years experience on 417 ha at Ashburton, Mr Anthony Pannett, has chosen a conventional wheat, growing approach for the Wheat 82 competition. He ploughed once and grubbed four times during April and May and then drilled with 120 kg per hec-

tare of nitrogen super on May 11. Mr Pannett sowed 122 kg per hectare of Baytantreated Rongotea and got a 90 per cent germination. At the two-leaf stage five weeks later the plant count was 172 per square metre, which was 66 per cent emergence of viable seed. A Ravensdown soil nitrate test of 13 p.p.m. induced Mr Pannett to apply 250 kg per hectare of ammonium sulphate, which gave him 52 units of N per hectare. For weed control 4 litres of Cearex.4 per hectare was used and for disease control 500 grams of Bayleton. Mr Pannett normally puts in about 50 ha of Rongotea or Oroua on his Ashburton property.