Is it too late to sow winter wheat?

In this blog, AHDB’s Ollie Johnson considers the risks associated with very-late-sown winter wheat.

Continued wet conditions in England prompt questions about sowing winter wheat varieties in spring.

Today’s release of the re-run Early Bird Survey shows that the UK wheat area is now expected to fall 15% year-on-year to 1.463 Mha (potentially the smallest area since 2020) because of the dismal weather.

At present, it looks like the spring wheat area is likely to increase this season compared to last (if conditions permit).

While some of this will be true spring wheat varieties, the high cost of spring cereal seed, most notably wheat seed in the back end of autumn, will mean that a significant proportion of this will be made up of winter varieties with a low vernalisation requirement.

Regardless of whether a crop is classed by the breeder as a winter or spring variety, if it was drilled from 1 February in the year of harvest, it is classed as a spring crop.

The question is: how far can you push winter wheat? Very-late-sown winter wheat will grow, produce leaves and tiller, but it may not enter the stem extension phase until its vernalisation requirements are met.

In simple terms, for winter wheat, it is a period of cold weather that the crop must experience to trigger stem extension. If it doesn’t vernalise sufficiently, the crop won’t be harvestable in the year it was sown. This won’t become apparent until several months down the line, by which time money on fertiliser, herbicides, seed and fungicides will already have been spent. Planting it is a very big risk.

It is not recommended that growers plant winter wheat varieties now and alternative plans should be explored – if available.

Based on Recommended Lists (RL) vernalisation data, the safest RL 2024/25 varieties for drilling until the end of February are: Skyfall, KWS Brium, RGT Bairstow and Swallow.

Paul Gosling, in a recent blog post, said: “without speculating on yield-potential impacts, these varieties have shown good (high to full) levels of vernalisation, even in plots sown into late March.”

I have been informed that RGT is advising 10 March as the latest safe drilling date for Skyfall, so today (15 March) really is likely to be too late for winter wheat.

If you are still considering drilling a variety after the latest safe-sowing date published RL, check with the breeder/agent first, as they may have more information about the risks.