New competition aims to maximise wheat crop potential

Fed up with flat-lining wheat yields? Agrovista’s new Yield Max competition could be just the ticket to help ramp up production, says the company.

Agrovista is launching a national wheat yield competition to help growers maximise crop potential by combining the best agronomic practices and innovative ideas.

The theoretical yield potential of wheat across the UK over the past five years has been around 20t/ha. But the average farm yield over this period is only about 40% of that figure.

To help close the gap, the Yield Max competition will encourage entrants and their agronomists to push their crops harder than current farm practice by examining key areas such as establishment, nutrition, disease control and bioscience from the soil upwards, and adopting appropriate agronomy.

Judges will evaluate the economic and practical viability of the systems and pull the findings together to highlight best practices that can be readily implemented on farm to drive crop output.

Agrovista technical manager Chris Martin says: “The competition will be a friendly affair with the main aim being to capture real farm information to help produce new guidelines that growers can adopt to get the most out of today’s high-yielding varieties.”

There are several great national and regional prizes on offer. The overall grower with the biggest yield will receive a trophy and a two-night hotel break, and four regional winners and the farm achieving the biggest percentage yield uplift over the farm’s five-year average will receive a one-night break. Their agronomists will receive a similar prize.

The competition is open to all commercial wheat growers in the UK. Crops entered must consist of a single winter wheat variety that is commercially available (as C1 or C2 seed) in the UK. Farm-saved seed is permitted.

To find out more about the competition, the rules and to enter the competition, go to:

www.agrovista.co.uk/yieldmax

Closing date for entries is 30 November 2018.