What is a good second wheat option?

This is a question we get asked frequently, and undoubtedly even more so this autumn with the strong grain price. Here are the important factors of how to choose a second wheat.

Using second wheat we see that most wheat performs similarly in a trial situation. In a farm situation we know this is different, for example, Gleam has been good second wheat with the likes of Graham not so much.

Eyespot is a disease especially common in intensive cereal rotations, affecting wheat, barley, oats, and rye, but especially problematic in autumn sown wheat when rotations are tight. The main yield loss comes when the lesion penetrates the leaf sheaf restricting the flow of nutrients and water to the ear. Moderate infections can see yield losses of 10-30% not accounting for reduced grain quality, delayed harvest, and increased grain moisture.

Varietal resistance is an important part of eye-spot control and should be taken even more seriously when looking at varieties for second wheat, and for when you want to miss that T0/T1 spray. Even varieties such as KWS Extase which have a great disease package are lacking good eyespot resistance. Typically, good second wheat such as Skyfall and KWS Zyatt have good eyespot resistance.

Second wheat is typically sown later to help with other cultural controls such as grassweed management, eyespot, and take-all risk reduction and not forgetting to help ease some of that early disease pressure. It’s important to choose a variety with a fast speed of development and a prostrate growth habit. Examples of this include the likes of Champion from DSV, LG Redwald and LG Skyscraper from Limagrain.

Take-all is a serious disease which becomes most apparent in 2nd to 4th cereals. Take-all is also associated with light, alkaline soils or soils with poor drainage and fertility.

Take-all symptoms differ between young and mature plants. In young plants, they appear stunted, yellow and the roots become dark and brittle. As the crop matures, infected plants are dwarfed, with white ears and when pulled the brittle roots usually break off. Average yield losses are between 5-20% but losses of up to 50% aren’t unheard of.

While cultural control is good practice such as delayed drilling and consolidated seedbeds, the most effective control comes from a fungicidal seed treatment called Latitude. Latitude works by creating a zone of protection around the seed/roots which stops the fungus from colonising on the roots and stopping the disease from developing and protecting the yield.