New world record wheat crop grown in Lincolnshire

• Bumper wheat yield reaches new level

• Revealed: Teamwork is behind success

• Still ‘more to come’ from plant breeder

A winter wheat crop which yielded almost 18t/ha has been confirmed as a world record.

Grown by Lincolnshire farmer Tim Lamyman, the 17.96t/ha crop of DSV Champion wheat beat the existing 17.40t/ha world record achieved in New Zealand in 2020 – and was very much the result of a team effort, he says.

Mr Lamyman and son Robert first grew Champion in 2020. Drilled  too thinly, it  achieved only 83 plants/m2 at establishment. But the crop still produced up to 20 tillers/plant achieving a yield of 15t/ha at harvest 2021.

“We knew the potential was there – especially with the special agronomic programme developed by Frontier and BASF and the Bionature nutrition we used for the crop,” says Mr Lamyman.

The team decided Champion possessed the high yield traits to push UK wheat yields to new boundaries – and stuck with the variety for harvest 2022, says Mr Lamyman.

Clear potential

DSV Champion breeder Matt Kerton says the variety’s potential was clear early in its development. The breeding process started in 2012 and its yield potential was evident as soon as trials began in 2016.

“As the selection process continued, its exceptional disease resistance package and versatility were also increasingly in evidence.

The variety performed well in a range of growing situations, including early or late drilling and on heavy or light soils, says Mr Kerton. It is this combination of high outright yield, flexibility and strong agronomics that has made it so popular, he adds.

“It’s great to see DSV Champion do so well in growers’ fields as well as taking the world record for yield.

“But it’s very much a team effort with key players such as Michael Koch in our molecular laboratory, Graham Urquhart on the maintenance and agronomy side and Cindy Watts in grain quality, being fundamental to this achievement.

“As for the future, our focus is still very much on yield, practicality and disease resistance but other key traits such as improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) and drought tolerance are increasingly in our sights.”

Recipe for success

Mr Lamyman says the world beating crop of DSV Champion was drilled with Vibrance Duo seed dressing on 22 September 2021 at 125kg/ha and on 24 September at 150kg/ha.

“This was still 20% below our standard rate to take account of Champion’s fantastic ability to keep tillering. By February 2022 both crops looked on target to achieve the perfect 600-650 heads/m2.”

A full agronomy programme  was implemented over the year with particular attention to crop nutrition. It included Chlormequat, Toledo, Modus, Revystar, Mysea, Syrex, Xstress, Calflux, Proline and Azofin Plus.

“Our aim is to adjust fertiliser strategy to the weather experienced through the winter and how much moisture is in the ground at the time of the first application.

“Due to the last three springs being dryer than average, we have applied three or four even splits of nitrogen but this changes back to five even splits if we are experiencing a wetter than average spring.”

The record-breaking crop received 310.5kg N/ha of bagged nitrogen split in three equal applications. By applying Bionature Delta K to activate the root structures and TipTop, total applied nitrogen came to 314kg N/ha.

“The Bionature smart nutrition program was specifically tailored to the Champion because it is such a high tillering and high biomass variety with an almost unique ability to still produce phenomenally long ears (15cm plus) even at over 600 heads/m2.

Teamwork

Mr Lamyman says it was the higher seed rate crop that produced the highest yield and this also delivered a specific weight of 83.2kg/hectolitre.

“It has been fantastic working with a team, who have all helped achieve these fantastic yields.

“I have to give a special thank you to my hard-working farm – Andy McClung, David Marwood, Sarah, Robert and Emma Lamyman – and also Ed Smith, from A.W Smiths and Sons for putting up with us running over their weighbridge all the time.

The technical team also helped pushed the sheer yield ability of DSV Champion into the record books.

“We must thank Jeremy Nicolson, Ben Meade, David Robinson and Paul Fogg from Frontier, Andrew Smooker from BASF, Mark Carter and Tom Robinson from Bionature UK, and Barnaby Pratchett from GFP.”