Autumn wheat popular

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 23

Autumn wheat popular

Between 50 and 70 per cent of the Canterbury wheat crop is now autumn sown. Mr Bede McCloy, a farm adviser with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Christchurch, said Canterbury was the only major wheat growing area practising autumn sowing. “M.A.F. has been actively pushing sowing dates forward for the last three or four years,” Mr McCloy said. “We have been advocating sowing early in May rather than in June as Maysown wheat is preferable to wheats sown later. “Farmers sowing their

wheat later have problems on some of the wetter soils where plants take longer to establish. This places a lot of stress on young plants. “Wheat sown in early May takes two weeks to establish, late May three weeks, June four weeks, and late June/early July can take five weeks or longer,” Mr McCloy said. Cereal aphid is a particularly important pest on early-sown wheat. However, Mr McCloy believes that farmers are aware of the problem and enough information is available to control it. Rongotea ' is the main autumn-sown variety in

Canterbury. In many areas it has replaced traditional wheat varieties such as Kopara. Released in 1978, Rongotea is a high-yielding wheat with a strong mediumlength straw and a fully awned ear with smooth white chaff. It produces large red-brown grains which do not shatter from the ear. It can be either spring or autumn sown. “Many farmers are interested in some of the newer varieties, but they are waiting for more information before they commit themselves to planting," Mr McCloy said.